OMMA Gaming

Conference Blog: Is the Game Console Dead and Will The iPhone Take Over?

Authored by Jay Baage on July 23, 2008 - 11:45am.

San Francisco and Seattle. At the OMMA Gaming Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Alex St. John, CEO of Wild Tangent, opened up the day's discussion by making the bold statement that the game console is dead. At Casual Connect in Seattle this morning, Trip Hawkins, CEO, Digital Chocolate and founder of Electronic Arts, said that the iPhone and new touch-screen displays have made the mobile medium into one of the most interesting areas for the gaming industry today. Paul Thelen, Founder & CEO, Big Fish Games, gave a more balanced overview of the state of the industry. He said that the gaming industry is actually growing in a number of different categories and on multiple platforms at once. In fact, Thelen has identified 2,380 distinct areas in which a gaming company could possibly focus.