iPhone racer Asphalt 5 to include in-game purchases
Gameloft testing the waters... in a car
Our own Tracy Erickson has been chatting with Gameloft CEO Miichel Guillemot about his company's plans for expanding its iPhone presence.
Guillemot is keen not to flood the App Store with a constant stream of new titles, but seems very taken with the possibilities presented by the 3.0 software update's inclusion of micro-transactions.
Speaking about the company's forthcoming racer Asphalt 5, he reveals that Gameloft is intending to support the title through the use of in-game purchased downloadable content. The first release will be three new cars and one new track for 99 cents, or 59p.
Asphalt 5 was revealed recently at Apple's WWDC, and promises a console quality racer with dynamic lighting and a super smooth framerate, intended to compete with the current genre leader, Firemint's Real Racing.
Guillemot was also careful to point out that micro-transactions are still untested waters for the iPhone development community, so it remains to be seen exactly how popular in-game purchases in a title like Asphalt 5 will be.
Interesting times ahead, though.
