Believes the PSP and Nintendo DS are 'more in the past'.

ipod touch games - Apple: iPod is the 'future of gameplay'

Speaking to T3, Greg Joswiak, vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing for Apple, stated that he believes the iPod touch is the future of gaming and that current handheld gaming devices, the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, are "in the past".

"... the biggest category of all in the apps store has been games. There are over 1,500 games and there's a great affinity between the iPod Touch customer and those games," explained Joswiak.

He added: "And the gameplay I think has surprised a lot of people, because it's not just the casual games. There are real 3D games, and it's hard to imagine we're only a little over 100 days into it. There are already so many games and as we look at it, to us it really seems this is the future of gameplay. Whereas a lot of these devices [Nintendo DS and Sony PSP] are more in the past. And a big part of that is not just the device itself, which is easier to carry, and has the touch display and accelerometer which is great for gameplay, but it's the electronic distribution of the apps as well."

Where as your average PSP or DS game will cost around £25-£30, a game for your iPod Touch will only cost £5. This is something Joswiak believes is very important to both consumers and game developers.

"Whereas apps on other devices have to be delivered primarily physically, they cost a lot more, £25 versus almost all the games cost £5, because they don't have to worry about licensing and manufacturing hardware, they don't have to worry about forecasting, returns, missing the forecast," said Joswiak.

Consumers aren't just saving money over the cost of regular retail games, but they're also buying more.

"... at these prices, at under £5 a game, not only are people saving money, they're also discovering more because they end up buying more games, because they're five games for the price of one on another console. So we've seen this is getting some pretty significant traction," said Joswiak.

You can expect some pretty impressive 3D games appearing for the iPod Touch and iPhone over the coming months too, with Joswiak noting that the 3D capability of the iPod is much greater than a Nintendo DS.

"... it's amazing the things you'll see as far as gameplay, and we know from working with these developers and the things they tell us they're working on, especially original content ideas, I think they're going to blow everyone away," said Joswiak. "Because again the computer power and the 3D graphic power here [iPod Touch] is significantly greater than what you have here [picks up Nintendo DS]. So this allows people to do significantly higher quality games."

Do you see the iPod challenging the Nintendo DS and PSP as the go to handheld device for portable gaming? Let us know in the comments section below.