The iPhone and iPod Touch are great pieces of hardware. Not, I think, for their ability as either communication devices or music players--they're significantly overrated in that respect, I feel--but in the wonder of the App Store. Ridiculous as the pricing structure has become, you can pick up hundreds of top-quality games for as little as 99 cents. One of the best games on the system is a title called Edge , by an independent studio called Mobigame. However, you can't buy it anymore.

Edge , the disputed iPhone/iPod Touch game.

If you really keep up with video games industry news, you'll already be familiar with the story. Tim Langdell, a member of the Indepdendent Game Developer's Association board of directors and founder of "Edge Games" threatened Mobigame with legal action over the use of the word "Edge" as the name of their game. As a result, the title was first pulled from the App Store by Mobigame voluntarily, before being restated, then pulled again (this time not by Mobigame)!

I've stayed away from covering this story for a few reasons, one of which being that Edge was a finalist in the Independent Games Festival Mobile 2009 , which I was the content director. Though they sadly walked away without any prizes, it was a worthy finalist, and I felt my connection and endorsement of the game--which at the time had no hint of legal troubles--made it iffy ground for me to cover as a supposedly impartial journalist.

But as this story goes on, I find it impossible to not want to continue to publicise it. Rather than write to much about my own personal opinion, I can simply direct you to Simon Parkin's superb overview of the situation at Eurogamer . He covers the situation ably from beginning to where it stands now, and it is an unmissable piece of journalism if you have any interest in the games industry as a whole.

Message Edited by Laura on 08-21-2009 09:46 AM