GigaOM

Last summer we wondered where the games for the iPhone were. Now we know they’re coming, in a big way.

Apple last week showed off the details of its SDK, with VP Scott Forstall promoting it as “a great platform to develop games on.” Just as crucial, publishing giant Electronic Arts said they’d be porting Will Wright’s greatly anticipated Spore and other franchises to the iPhone.

The editor of leading game industry site Next Generation is duly excited by the iPhone’s potential as a game platform, touting its large install base, online distribution network, and intuitive touch-screen interface. All true, but I wouldn’t crown the iPhone king of the phone game platform quite yet. The Google-backed Android, for example, is open source, and the search giant is sponsoring a $10 million developer challenge for Android applications, including games.

Other third-party developers are considering even more exotic applications of Apple’s SDK: A company called BOXFab is cooking up plans to release “a Virtual Reality display device which uses the iPhone as the viewing plate so that it becomes a wearable virtual headset simply by clipping on a special attachment.” Very interesting, if they can pull it off — and convince consumers to clip a phone to their face.

Image credit: BOXfab.com.