Tucked away in Apple CEO Steve Jobs' lengthy interview at the D8 conference, was an interesting admission regarding the company's gaming efforts. Jobs admitted that games from the App Store belonged to "a subset of casual gaming". Here is the full quote:
Q: What’s your vision of social gaming?
A: Clearly, iPhone and iPod touch have created a new class of gaming and it’s a subset of casual gaming, but it’s surprising how good the games are. Typical console games cost $40, but on the iPhone, they cost somewhere between free and $10, and gaming on the platform is taking off. We’re trying to do the right things to enable more gaming and social gaming.
You may remember my lengthy article arguing that iPhone or iPad shouldn't be thought of as gaming platforms. It seems that Steve Jobs has no illusions about Apple's status as a player in the games industry. While a otherwise reputable German games magazine heralded both iPhone and iPad as "new gaming consoles" and wondered whether they challenged "the right to exist" of both DS and PSP, the above quote appears rather humble and justifiedly so.
Source: D8 conference