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GDC '09: ngmoco's Neil Young tells iPhone haters to back down

CEO trumpets iPhone as 'a true gaming platform'

GDC '09: ngmoco's Neil Young tells iPhone haters to back down
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"There was nothing," ngmoco CEO Neil Young describes of mobile games. "Then a new everything was born and at the centre of it is the iPhone." For a company dedicated to the platform, Young's excitement is unsurprising, but there's tempered truth in his statement.

iPhone has broken new ground following a near crisis in mobile gaming. From a lack of direction to the breakthrough that Apple and its legion of developers have made - including Young's ngmoco - the device has become an emerging force in gaming. "This is no longer a mobile gaming platform," Young trumpets, "this is a true gaming platform."

Young, who has helmed the release of games like the acclaimed Rolando and WordFu, looks toward the company's future with a slate of impressive titles. First-person shooter LiveFire, social simulation TouchPets Dogs, and two Rolando sequels represent a big push for a company focused solely on iPhone.

"It's better than DS and PSP because it's connected," he says. Connectivity will be a hallmark of many ngmoco titles moving forward, most notably LiveFire with its promised real-time multiplayer and TouchPet Dogs's social networking feature set. "Don't let the haters tell you it sucks relative to the DS and PSP because it doesn't."

Young singled out TouchPet Dogs as an example of the convergence of social gaming with more traditional forms. "Social will move from being a game type to a permanent feature in games arriving on the App Store."

His statements echo a growing chorus of game developers that see social networking as the new horizon for mobile gaming.

Naturally, Young wants ngmoco on the forefront of that movement and TouchPet Dogs is just the start. LiveFire will incorporate network features such as friends lists that are likely to set it apart from competing shooters.

His ambitious goals are exciting, even more so when considering that these titles are to be sitting on your iPhone or iPod Touch before the year is out.

Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.