New iPhone 3G puts Apple in the game

By John Gaudiosi

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Apple Inc.'s (AAPL.O) new iPhone 3G and accompanying App Store is set to put the company known for technology innovation into another lucrative space -- gaming.

Like iTunes, the App Store will allow users to easily buy and download games from publishers and developers while providing trailers, user-generated reviews and even some free game demos. There are already over 175 games available.

Neil Young, president of new iPhone-focused game development studio ngmoco, said iPhone users are spending over 60 percent of their time on the device on features other than phone calls.

"That's a really big deal because it's no longer just a phone. It's a media player, an Internet player, a camera and a games machine that also happens to make telephone calls," he said.

"Apple absolutely gets gaming with iPhone ... Just look at the air time that Apple is dedicating to games and that shows you that they consider games to be a key application for the device." Young left his job as head of Electronic Arts' (ERTS.O) Los Angeles studio, where he collaborated with Steven Spielberg on game projects like "Boom Blox" for Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS) Wii, to focus on creating original iPhone games, which are also playable on any iPod touch device.

"The things that are really exciting to us are games that take advantage of not just the iPhone's accelerometer (a tilting mechanism) or the touch screen, but media that exists on the device and the fact there's a camera and GPS there," he added.

"We can bring awesome gameplay mechanics together with these new technologies and build gaming experience that frankly no one has experienced before."

CALLING THE GAME