Only a few years ago, bigger guns, badder enemies and louder explosives mattered most in video games.
The emergence of the iPhone and its phone-less sibling, the iPod Touch, as hand-held game consoles has started to change the dynamics of the $40 billion game software industry.
In addition to making titles for the iPhones, publishers are studying the thousands of games already available, figuring out what works and applying those lessons to more traditional games.
After years of building large, graphics-intensive blockbusters that come out every few years, developers are starting to make shorter, less expensive games that are released in more frequent installments.
They're also making iPhone versions of major franchises that tie into the version for the console or computer.
"The iPhone has changed everything," Neil Young, a game developer who last year left Electronic Arts to found Ngmoco:), said.
It's not just the device that's having an effect.
It's also Apple's App Store, an online marketplace where users can browse through 25,000 software applications from thousands of publishers.
Many are games that take advantage of the multi-touch screens, accelerometers and web connections featured in the iPhone and iPod Touch.
After shoppers submit their credit card information once at Apple's online iTunes store, they can start buying apps from a computer or from their devices with a single click, without having to reach for their wallets again.
Since July, consumers have downloaded 800 million apps.
Some are free, but many others cost US99c to $US10.
Apple takes a 30% cut.
Video games that cost less than $10 are a big change.
A typical title for a console or PC typically sells for $US30 ($NZ50) to $US60.
For hand-held games on Nintendo's DS, games cost $US20 to $US35 each.
Nintendo recently announced that owners of its DSi handheld console would be able to buy downloadable games for as little as $US2.
Nintendo executives say their pricing strategy was formed independently from that of the App Store, and they are quick to point out their business is different from Apple's.
"Are we intrigued by the iPhone? Yes,"
Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo's North American business, said.
"But our approach is fundamentally different.
"We want to give our customers high-quality, innovative and captivating entertainment.
"A storefront with 10,000 pieces of content doesn't do that."
Analysts see a different story.
"Nintendo is definitely paying attention," IDC analyst Billy Pidgeon said.
"It's pretty obvious from their pricing that Nintendo studies what Apple does."
Other game companies are also paying attention.
EA's mobile studios vice-president, Travis Boatman, said the company was releasing 14 iPhone titles this year and starting to explore how iPhone apps can be an extension of its larger games.
EA's Spore Origins game for the iPhone was a stand-alone title meant to boost the visibility of its bigger sibling, Spore.
But the two games did not connect, so players could not export virtual creatures from the iPhone game to the PC version.
Mr Boatman said future projects were more likely to have those types of crossovers.
"There's potentially a lot of money to be made from those connections," he said.
Mr Pidgeon said that big publishers, such as EA, were watching the experiments of small studios that had made top-selling games for the iPhone, such as Subatomic Studio's Fieldrunners, Secret Exit's Zen Bound and Steve Demeter's Trism, which generated $US250,000 in sales in its first two months.
"They're seeing that small shops with one or two people can make a hit game," he said.
"iPhone has taught them that small bets can pay off big." - Alex Pham.
