Despite the fact that the iPod Touch is increasingly being branded as a gamer’s device, Apple’s never had much truck with gaming… at least in-house. But new calls for a video game artist for the iPhone Gaming Group imply that Apple might be preparing to make a serious push into the gaming market, perhaps to better compete with other handhelds like the Nintendo DS.
From the call for the artist:
The interactive media group is looking for a skilled artist who wants to work as part of a small highly motivated team to work on interactive multimedia experiences on the iPhone and iPod touch. The position on the team is to help design, visualize, enable and implement interface, 3-D characters/environments, animation, texturing as well as original concept artwork.
Some people are seeing in this job listing the first glimpses of some future game designed by Apple to showcase the potential of their iPhone hardware. I don’t see it: the App Store and third-party developers already showcase that potential excellently.
Instead, I wonder if what we could be looking at is the first hints of an iPhone and iPod Touch gamer’s front end, similar to what we see on the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live. I seriously doubt Apple’s going to start producing their own games, but an artfully composed front end with modifiable user avatars, achievements, multiplayer gaming, virtual chat and the rest would go a long way to show that Apple was serious about the iPhone as a gaming platform.
