Are Crappy Games Ruining the iPhone?

The iPhone app store is filled with applications. The selection of gaming apps alone makes me dizzy. Not because they’re all awesome but because the quality is all over the place. You’ll run into a gem of a game like Super Monkey Ball only to see 15 knockoffs of it and an app that claims it can turn your iPhone into a vibrator.

A proponent of free markets might say that the best apps will always rise to prominence. But for most people, finding the best stuff limits you to top 25 lists on the app store or relying on recommendations from friends.

With so much crap and so few quality apps you have to wonder if these cheap, low quality games are ruining the iPhone’s chances of becoming a heavy weight gaming platform. Traditional gaming consoles like the Playstation or the Xbox rely on game developers that pour millions into game development. And even with a high bar to entry I still have to wade through titles like Babyz, 8 versions of Street Fighter and other shameless knockoffs.

Of course, Apple remains cooly confident that the iPhone (and the iPod Touch) wil topple the PSP and the Nintendo DS. But with their bar to entry on the floor I don’t know if it will become the influential gaming platform I was hoping for.