Apparently Steve Jobs and Apple have had the most influence on the games industry

Forget PlayStation, the Internet or Mario, it seems Apple has had the biggest impact on the world of video games according to a survey of 1,000 people working within the industry itself.

Apple founder and all round IT visionary Steve Jobs was voted most influential person with 26 per cent of the overall vote (and 46 per cent of the top five winners’ vote). And Apple’s hero gaming device - the iPhone – received one in six (17 per cent) of the votes to take the most influential product moniker.

[Pikajew]

Nintendo is the most influential company, they did the most for gaming. followed by Valve and Sony

[xer0]

I'm not sure if I agree with you entirely, but I'm not going to disagree with you.

Nintendo has done a lot for gaming but I would say that Sony really brought gaming to the casual crowd with the launch of PS2, which came with a DVD drive and made gaming more acceptable in popular culture.

Valve have made a big contribution also, with STEAM. And we are now seeing the likes of EA, copying Valves model.

With regards to Apple, I believe they are continuing what Sony started with the Playstation brand... only, they have created a whole new business model for gaming on the go.

Right now, I'd say that Apple is probably the most influential at this moment, because of the app store that is now being copied by everyone and their dog.

With Steve Jobs departure (RIP) - I can't see that lasting to long.

[iamnsuperman]

The thing with Nintendo they go through stages. The last generation was innovation and brought a lot to the market but what before. I personally do not get this obsession that Nintendo are the most influential company because they got motion controls out first. I personally do not see any company above others when it comes to innovation. They all do little parts of gaming which is then replicated (especially with the console companies) by other companies but no company is leading. Microsoft lead the charge in online gaming and service, Nintendo this generation brought gaming to the casual, Sony brought the multimedia console/device to the masses (just this generation).

[ZombieAssassin]

It's not the motion controls, I think it's because most believe they (NiN) helped bring gaming out of the crash it had in the 80's.

Also I don't believe MS lead the charge in online gaming, they just took what PC was doing and charged for it.

[xer0]

It's really hard to disagree with this.

Actually - you have my vote. But Nintendo did do a lot with the Gameboy and Snes.

With regards to the PC - I think Valve have done a lot to vitalise one of the oldest gaming platforms.

[papashango]

Apple? Above nintendo?

typical apple fanatic talk

[gamer234]

apple = hype, don't be supprised if you hear apple invented game

[iamnsuperman]

They have changed gaming for the masses by accident. Making a smartphone that could play cheap, addictive games has changed the gaming industry. There platform even encourages indie developers because that is what the app store is built from. Apple may take a chunk but how many new developers are there because of the app store? There's quite a lot

[Letros]

They are great for riding the metro, but not many actually come home from a hard days work and fire up Angry Birds to take a load off.

[kneon]

There were plenty of cheap addictive games available long before the iPhone. There were many 10's of thousands of games available for Symbian, Brew and Java ME. The vast majority of iPhone games are no better than what came before, in fact many are just ports. And some new iPhone games have been ported back to Java ME.

The media never noticed the sales of mobile games before Apple because it was spread across dozens of app stores run by carriers and OEMs, yet they were doing many millions of downloads in aggregate.

What made the iPhone an attractive target for developers had little to do with technology, it was that you had a single place through which to market your app. Previously they would have had to go to each carrier and work out a separate deal, that is hard to do unless you are a big developer.

The first iPhone wasn't even the technological marvel that some would have you believe. It wasn't the first all touch screen phone, though it was the first to use multi-touch as far as I know. But Apple didn't invent multi-touch, it's ancient having been first conceived at the University of Toronto in 1982. It was also lacking in many basic features found even on cheap feature phones.

What they did right with the iPhone was to use a decent touch screen and ship a decent browser. Before that most had used resistive touch screens which generally don't work as well as capacitive. And while there were good mobile browsers available before the iPhone they were usually not the browser that shipped with the phone and so most people never upgraded.

That's about it, no real magic. Just a slightly better phone with a fruit logo on it.

Edit: it took only minutes for a disagree, did you even read it? probably not as there is no rebuttal. I've been in the mobile industry for 25 years, I've seen it all. Maybe to people outside the iPhone was amazing but for those who knew what came before it was just a minor improvement.

[Nate-Dog]

1st place: founder of Apple, 4th place: Inventor of world wide web, 5th place: founder of Facebook.

What video-games do these people play?

[knifefight]

And what did they make or enable?
Non-games like Farmville? Oh please.
I can spell "boobs" on a calculator but that doesn't make it some kind of sexual revolution.

[Alos88]

Poor Jobs, he'll never see the full extent of what he's done for the industry (and other industries for that matter).

[GROTSTOMPA]

Don't compliment this man anymore, he was a horrible Tyrant. His industries success/profit is purely based off of Sweatshops and taking advantage of peoples lives/poor environments in other countries. While they handed out the lent in their pocket to make it "look" okay, it's guerrilla sneaky tactics, it's insanely immoral, he didn't give two turds about all of these people dying in his factories due to unfair/unsafe work environments.

"It's cheaper" to not be forced with safety regulations, like we are here in AMURIKA! It's more profit to (not) spend money on safety gear for someone's life. PFFFT, who cares right? More money is best, business is about profit!

If people would just google this, they'd see all of these huge articles about people dying and Steve Jobs denying them any sort of reimbursement, or improvement on safety gear. He did however offer them 1 Ipod Nano's salary per month. How generous of him.

How does it feel to be raped in hell for all eternity Steve? No different from the lives you've destroyed for nothing I imagine. Thanks

[bebojet]

Some people only see the good in these filthy rich people. They don't get rich by making donations.

This is just absurd...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...

[b-real]

@Pwnmachine

I presume your talking about Foxconn as the 'sweatshop' factories that your referring to. Just an FYI here is a list of clients that Foxconn make electronics for...

Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
Amazon.com (United States)[16]
Apple Inc. (United States)[17]
ASRock (Taiwan)
Intel (United States)
Cisco (United States)
Hewlett-Packard (United States)[18]
Dell (United States)
Nintendo (Japan)
Nokia (Finland)[17]
Microsoft (United States)
MSI (Taiwan)
Motorola (United States)
Sony Ericsson (Japan/Sweden)[19]
Vizio (United States)

Are the CEOs of these companies also the devil, as you portray Jobs to be? Just because Apple is currently the leader in the tech world, all negative press will be pointed at Foxconn as being an Apple factory. Its not.

I think its unfair to vilify one person for events that occurred in these factories. I'm almost certain you would use products from at least one of the companies listed above. If not, then how are you typing this message?

[GROTSTOMPA]

@b-real, I think you're missing the point. This is totally off-topic. It's completely fair to point out Steve Jobs (one man) because that's what this entire article is about "praising him". My company would never get away with this. I would close down my company immediately if need be, no questions asked.

By the way Foxconn is ONE example of the terrible things he allowed. I would never allow anything Apple brand into my company first off, I would keep it clean as possible. While also knowing that almost every crap company supports child labor, if unavoidable, I wouldn't have a company involving any of these brands regardless. I would start my own line of electronics that I've designed.

(Don't think I don't know about all of the other companies that are just as bad, everything you listed and Walmart, Old navy brands, etc. etc. etc. It goes on).

I don't praise any of these comapnies, and I would never praise Steve Jobs. I'm a Network Administrator, I have to use certain equipment to complete my job, or my education goes to waste. I can't do anything about monopolized TYRANTS, but spread facts/truth aka: Knowledge, and hope one day for the better. I can do something about my own business though and make a difference.

So let me end this statement with this saying my parents taught me all my life:

("All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke.)

[Perjoss]

im pretty sure i read somewhere that Jobs didn't even like video games.

[Saryk]

What a crook of shit. Atari is the one who started it. Nintendo followed up got it to main stream............

[_Aarix_]

Nintendo REVIVED it. After the video game crash 30 years ago then the nes changed video games completely.

[Saryk]

I Disagree. You have Intellivision and Colecovision after the Atari and before the NES (several more if I remember, been awhile).

[_Aarix_]

Do you remember the incident with e.t for the Atari. One o the worst games ever that sold 1.5 million and the other collection of shovelware that came out for all these systems that didnt have an organized review cause back then there really wasn't Internet. My dad remembered all this perfectly. Especially the millions of pounds of Atari equipment that had to get steam rolled an sent to a landfill near Mexico I believe. Yea the video game crash of ( I think) 1983. Video games were dead for the most part. Then the nes happened and games like final fantasy and games actually got processed through for an organized system of gaming and the rest was history.

[Bakkies]

I believe the thing that got you into gaming is the thing that influenced you and the industry in a way. (made you a paying member in the industry).

For me it was the awe when I played Maniac Mansion on the 286, getting my first console and starting up Adventure Island, good ole Nintendo. Saw quake1 run in a shop, thats the first time I saw real time lighting in a full 3d game. I remember I saw Hexen2 run on one of the first 3d cards, that was amazing. Starting up Tekken 2 on my PS1 must be on top of the list as well.

I wonder what the influences of the N4G community are, care to share?

[klecser]

So say the people who don't play games. LOL. Yep, Al Gore invented the internet and Steve Jobs has had the biggest influence on gaming. What the article should say is that Steve Jobs invented the concept of tricking people that they needed to have a trendy device and waste their money on constantly upgrading. In reality, we should say that Steve Jobs invented consumers getting stupider.

[Vega75]

1)atari
2)nintendo
3)sega
4)valve
5)microsoft/sony
6)apple

[jut420]

I think there's a typo in the article...They must've surveyed 1,000 kids who's parents work in the industry. I have a hard time even considering games on the apple store are even games...How can they be considered great games when you can't even play the majority of them (at least the games I've played) for more than 15 minutes at a time? Same with facebook games. The majority of these games do most of the gaming and work when you are not playing. Eg) Wait 8 hours for your house to build...Wait 10 hours for your crops to grow. It's terrible these games are even in the same conversation as regular games like GTA, COD or Mario

Most successful? Sure, but most influential in the industry? I have a hard time agreeing with that and a hard time believing anyone other than people who make iphone and facebook games would agree with that either

[GROTSTOMPA]

Don't compliment this man anymore, he was a horrible Tyrant. His industries success/profit is purely based off of Sweatshops and taking advantage of peoples lives/poor environments in other countries. While they handed out the lent in their pocket to make it "look" okay, it's guerrilla sneaky tactics, it's insanely immoral, he didn't give two turds about all of these people dying in his factories due to unfair/unsafe work environments.

"It's cheaper" to not be forced with safety regulations, like we are here in AMURIKA! It's more profit to (not) spend money on safety gear for someone's life. PFFFT, who cares right? More money is best, business is about profit!

If people would just google this, they'd see all of these huge articles about people dying and Steve Jobs denying them any sort of reimbursement, or improvement on safety gear. He did however offer them 1 Ipod Nano's salary per month. How generous of him.

How does it feel to be raped in hell for all eternity Steve? No different from the lives you've destroyed for nothing I imagine. Thanks...

[zerocrossing]

"Apparently Steve Jobs and Apple have had the most influence on the games industry".

A little late for a April fools joke don't ya think?.

Creating a app that allows casual shovelware to be accessible to the masses, isn't what I would call having had the most influence on the games industry.

[aliengmr]

While it makes me gag just thinking about it, Microsoft has had more influence on the games industry than Apple. I don't need to mention the many other companies and people who had more (and better) influence over the years.

My point is, if you were to ask me who had the least influence in games industry, I would have said Apple. Steve Jobs had his successes and he will be missed, but let's not rewrite history crediting him with the advancement of all things tech. Most of all the advancement of gaming, considering Apple only recently got into field.

[Khordchange]

So...apple made cheap games for their cellphone...umm hsn't every single phone past 2000 already do that? Honestly, Steve jobs wasn't that great at all. Apple products didn't change the world, it would be just fine without the smartphones and crappy over priced tablets. He is not jesus christ people. Quit giving him credit for things he didn't do