When the iPhone was first announced in 2007, Apple didn't sell the pocket computer as a gaming device. Many observers were skeptical the smartphone would ever become an important part of the game industry, scoffing at its lack of physical buttons and limited hardware power compared to handhelds like Sony's PlayStation Portable. The App Store that would make games widely available on the device wasn't even available until the follow-up iPhone 3G, released one year later.
Of course, the iPhone (and its smartphone ilk) is one of the most important platforms in the gaming business today, with hundreds of thousands of titles ranging from casual megahits to hardcore console ports to indie darlings to forgettable shovelware and everything in between. The phone's role in the market has become so important that even Nintendo plans to start making smartphone games this year, competing directly with its own Nintendo 3DS titles.
This week, Apple officially launches the Apple Watch. Once again, gaming is not a marketing focus for this Apple device. Playing games doesn't even seem to be a particularly important use case for the hardware maker. The initial WatchKit SDK appears ill-suited to making games that take full advantage of the smartwatch, and the market for games played on a minuscule screen, while holding your wrist upright, is unproven to say the least.
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