Carmack on iPhone: "More powerful than Nintendo DS, PSP combined"

During QuakeCon 2008, Game development icon and id co-founder John Carmack shared some insight on working with the iPhone SDK.

A complete turnaround from his stance with previous iPods, Carmack’s got nothing but good to say about game development for the iPhone. While he states that he doesn’t believe it’s the definitive answer for mobile gaming, he mentions that the handset is “more powerful than a Nintendo DS and PSP combined” and that he’s also a fan of Apple’s revenue sharing model.

Carmack also shared that id was crackin’ away at 2 iPhone titles – One ‘conventional mobile game,’ and another intended to take the iPhone to its graphical limits.

It’s probably a good sign when Carmack says something has some power behind it. Back in 2004 when id released Doom 3, it made my fairly powerful PC curl up in the corner and cry tears of chunky frame rate sadness.

(Photo Credit: Rob Fahey)