Jaffe calls "bullsh*t" on Iwata App fears

Outspoken Eat Sleep Play boss David Jaffe has challenged Satoru Iwata's fears over the rise of cheap mobile gaming, accusing Nintendo's president of "good old-fashioned irony" in his perceived criticisms of Apple.

"The reality is, you can't put a price on fun," said Jaffe, speaking to Eurogamer in the US earlier this month. "I don' t care if it's 99c or $150 or $1000 over the years in sub fees to an online MMO.

"Fun is fun, so I think it's an absurd concept to say, this is the criteria, these are the ingredients you [need] to make fun otherwise you can't play. That's bullsh*t, man."

In widely-reported remarks made during his GDC keynote in March, Iwata claimed that "game development is drowning", hitting out at the volume of free and low price games on "mobile or social network devices" – which was seen as a thinly-veiled swipe at Apple.

Jaffe, the man behind Twisted Metal and God of War, suggested that Iwata's remarks were particularly surprising in light of the Japanese company's own strategy.

"I'm going to get screwed, because you're going to think 'Jaffe's bashing Nintendo" and I'm not," he insisted. "I was at [Iwata's] keynote, three, four years ago. He stood on stage, had this great, powerful presentation where he was talking about disruption.

Iwata's point, said Jaffe, was that with the release of Wii Nintendo was saying: "'Come on guys, we're not even playing your game'. [Microsoft and Sony] are fighting the HD battle. We aren't even paying attention and look at the success we've made by disrupting your market'.

"I don't know if it's karma or good old fashioned irony that now he's pushing back against the very thing he was claiming was valuable in his earlier keynote, which is disruption."

Jaffe went on to say that "absolutely" Apple could become the biggest force in gaming. "I heard somebody the other day say Apple TV, which I love, they're going to start putting the App Store on Apple TV with games," he said. "I'm like 'holy shit'. So yeah, it's possible."

Apple revealed last week that it has sold over 189 million iOS devices – all capable of playing games downloaded from the App Store.

Jaffe, a former employee of Sony, currently has a three-game exclusive deal with the company, and insisted he remains "loyal to Sony", adding: "I'm not a fanboy – I'm a fanboy of good games.

"I'm so excited about NGP, but of course Apple's a player now. And that has to be respected and countered and adjusted for. "

You can hear more from Jaffe in our latest hands-on impressions of Twisted Metal.