Jobs: iPod is "the best portable device for playing games"

Could Nintendo's dominance of the hand-held gaming market be at an end? According to Apple boss Steve Jobs' statements in a Tuesday press conference, apparently so.

Jobs backed up his provocative pronouncement by showing off three of the iPod Touch's newest games: Spore Origins, a portable version of the current PC best-seller, racer Need for Speed, and FIFA-like soccer sim Real Soccer 2009. And he might be on to something, as each one looked as good as a game you might play on Nintendo's DS or Sony's PSP -- hardly what you'd expect from a jumped-up MP3 player, is it?

BEST IPHONE GAMES

Apple's App Store, launched on July 11, boasts a library of about 700 games for both the iPod and iPhone (which run much of the same software) together with other applications, and eager users have already racked up an impressive 100 million downloads. Many iPod games are free, but some can cost up to about $10. Jobs also announced a hardware refresh for the iPod Touch, which now has a slimmer design and a lower price: just $229 for the 8 GB version.

Could Jobs be right? If the initial wave of games from the App Store are anything to go by, the iPod/iPhone is more than able to match Nintendo's top-selling DS in graphical capabilities, but so did Sony's PSP, and the top-selling DS continues to have no apparent difficulty eclipsing that. Whether or not the App Store can deliver a consistent stream of quality games remains to be seen, and it'll be that which cements the iPod's place in the portable gaming hall of fame -- or consigns it to history.

More Stories

Previous: Wii shortages expected through holidays...again
Next: It's official: Runescape is the biggest free MMO

MORE ON YAHOO! GAMES:

PLAY WARCRAFT AT WORK 5 GREAT GAME JOBS