Well, here’s something we didn’t expect. Apple has unveiled a new iPhone game – the first it’s produced in over a decade – and it’s a strange beast.
Warren Buffet’s Paper Wizard is part joke, part remake, and part bare-faced investor-pleasing stunt. The game, announced jokingly by Tim Cook in a bizarre skit at Berkshire Hathaway‘s annual meeting, is a modern-day take on Atari classic Paperboy – though apparently takes more inspiration from Buffet’s real-life days as a paper delivery boy in his home town of Omaha.
It’s the first game Apple has been directly involved with since the Texas Hold ‘Em game it released in 2008 to help usher in the current era of mobile gaming.
Players swipe the screen to toss papers at houses along a route that takes them through a 3D recreation of Omaha, and later onto Cupertino and through Apple’s new campus. It’s completely free, and though it’s hardly going to take the gaming world by storm, it’s pretty fun for a few rounds.
Despite that, the whole thing stinks of a PR stunt to keep one of Apple’s biggest investors – and the third-richest man in the world – happy at a time when iPhone sales have plateaued. That notion has got a lot of people riled up, and we understand that! But realistically this is a throwaway game that snowballed from a joke, and shows that Apple might be willing to start producing more games on a small scale in the future.
If you’re curious, you can try out the game free on the App Store.