According to new data from Mobclix, there are now over 6000 games available in the Apple App Store, giving iPhone and iPod Touch owners a large variety of free and paid downloads.
There are now 6276 games, with 1516 offered as free downloads. Puzzle games are the most popular genre, while racing games are the least popular. Puzzle games account for 18 percent of all the games available.
The most popular free game by far is Tapulous’ Tap Tap Revenge 2, which is somewhat of a Guitar Hero clone that allows users to tap out songs. The most popular paid game is the excellent Pocket God by Bolt Creative which allows you to play “God” of six pygmies on an island.
The second largest category of apps is “Entertainment” followed closely by “Books” and “Utilities.”
Result for: free game
Microsoft has announced the official numbers for Xbox 360 sales during the recent Black Friday weekend and says the sales were so high they broke previous records.
The console also outsold its rival 3-to-1, most likely thanks to cheap 360 bundles offered by many retailers that included, in some cases, up to 4 free games.
“We entered into the Black Friday sales period with cautious optimism, knowing that dollar for dollar, Xbox 360 offers more social entertainment value than any other console on the market,” noted Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.
“Record Black Friday sales in the US, coupled with our existing global install base of 25 million and an online community of more than 14 million Xbox Live members, have laid the groundwork for continued global sales momentum in 2009.”
Result for: free game
Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai has restated that hopeful gamers will not see a PlayStation 3 price cut this year and that the console is a “very good value proposition”.
“The answer is yes, if you’re asking, ‘Are these the prices we’re going with this Christmas?’” Hirai added. “When you really compare apples to apples, then I think we have a very good value proposition.”
Sony’s decision to not cut the price of their console for the holiday season could put them under pressure from Microsoft which has recently cut the price across the board for their rival Xbox 360 console. The current global economic downturn could also put added pressure on Sony.
Hirai believes the videogame market will do just fine even with the economic downturn. “As long as we can generate excitement, then we will be less affected than other industries,” he said but also added, “we’re getting to the point where price becomes more important”.
Without dropping the price however, Sony has added more value to its PS3 line by selling an 80GB model with a free game for the same price as the currently priced 40GB model.
