It's hard to believe that consumers who have gotten accustomed to paying only a dollar or two--or in some cases $5 or $7--for an iPhone game would suddenly start paying $20. Unless the experience is dramatically different than it is now.

Obviously, that's a big exception. But even some of the developers who dismissed the rumor out of hand were careful to say that it was possible.

What would it take to make a $20 game for the iPhone? Perhaps a better question would be: what would it take to make iPhone users pay $20 for a game? I expect it would need to clearly be a big-budget game--something that offers iPhone users a dramatically different experience than what they're accustomed to today. The game would also have to have some sense of exclusivity or uniqueness--"me too" also-rans and ports from other platforms aren't going to cut it, especially if they're released after they already debut on other platforms.

In the end, though, I really don't think the iPhone is suited for a $20 game experience. Having played literally hundreds of games since the iPhone was released, I haven't found many that sustain my interest long enough or offer a compelling enough experience for me to try to get $20's worth of entertainment from. And the device itself--the touch screen, accelerometer, and size of the iPhone--has as much to do with that as the games I've been playing.