Video game industry thread: this one filled up fast. Go to the new one.

Zerokku

mspencer wrote: »

Zerokku seems to think he's right.

I think many people here think he's wrong.

We can continue the discussion without Zerokku's involvement.

Really? Im pretty sure everyone's arguing different points in regards to those two words, just as I said would happen.

And I agree with cook, Expanded and Core are much better terms to use, particularly in regards to talking about sales.

mspencer

Zerokku wrote: »

mspencer wrote: »

Zerokku seems to think he's right.

I think many people here think he's wrong.

We can continue the discussion without Zerokku's involvement.

Really? Im pretty sure everyone's arguing different points in regards to those two words, just as I said would happen.

And I agree with cook, Expanded and Core are much better terms to use, particularly in regards to talking about sales.

You don't use science to prove you're right. You use science to become right.

In this case, your thought experiment was absurd and its conclusion was obvious. It added nothing to the discussion.

"If people discuss, ask questions about, or otherwise contine posting about casual vs. hardcore, then I win." OK, go off in your corner and make games and win them. The discussion continues without you.

Edit:

Zerokku wrote: »

Except that the discussion started by me saying those terms were worthless due to the lack of a universal definition, and the discussion continued with no one giving the same definition.

Yes that is a thing that happened. No it does not mean what you seem to think it means.

Couscous

I think we can all agree this is fucking retarded:

"We can't stop here, this is nerd country," I told the taxi driver as we sped off, leaving behind a group of angry French game developers whose cab I had just snaked. My driver told me this was the busiest he'd ever seen the downtown, what with the Lakers game and the biggest gaming convention in the world. I told him not to compare the cheap theater at the Staples Center with the horrid carnival of souls residing in the LA Convention Center that I was being forced to cover.

2010 is the year of the reboot. As I type this on my MacBook Pro in my air-conditioned hotel room in Los Angeles, I've just sat through presentations by three major console companies and I don't there was an original idea among them. The old is new again. Everyone is making motion controller games. Everyone is making 3D games. Everyone is remaking the games that made them famous. Look for new Sonic, Mortal Kombat, Gears of War, Halo, Zelda, Metroid, Medal of Honor, Castlevania, and Twisted Metal in the coming year. I walked the floor of E3 until my flip-flops broke in protest at the mediocrity. When your footwear is sounding off about the originality of your industry, you know you're in a tough place.

Microsoft's presentation on Monday set the tone for the week: There's a new Halo game coming out, but this time with space battles. The entire presentation reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Malibu Stacy gets a new hat. Halo: New Hat is due out sometime in the next year, will likely set some sales records, but will move the industry forward as much as a tractor on cinder blocks.

After the presentation, I called my old college hall mate who now works for Microsoft up in Seattle. We discussed the possibility of more Halo games coming out, including Halo racers, Master Chief themed pet games, and the potential for the faceless Halo protagonist becoming like Sonic, a bloated whore who has sold every ounce of dignity to produce increasingly irrelevant games. And we both realized we'd get paid handsomely for creating and covering these games. Maybe the industry doesn't need fixing.

On Tuesday, Nintendo unveiled its own pageant of the past, where the Japanese gaming giant updated all of the titles that made it famous twenty years ago and this seemingly was something to celebrate. If you want to buy Zelda's Wind Waker crossed with Twilight Princess, Nintendo would like to sell you that game. Nintendo is so willing to sell it, in fact, that its willing to put adult men in front of thousands of people and have them swat pretend swords for your amusement. There were also retreads of Metroid and Kid Icarus and if these titles mean anything to you, that means you probably remember blowing into cartridges to make them work.

The saddest bunny that Nintendo pulled out of its hat was the trailer for a new Goldeneye 007 game. The reveal was met not by wowed enthusiasm, but instead with the sound of thousands of hands slapping a thousand foreheads. Electronic Arts tried to reboot/cash-in the Goldeneye franchise years ago with Goldeneye: Rogue Agent. Rogue Agent was a horrid mess of a game with a great premise; this new Goldeneye title looks like a horrid mess of a game with a bad premise. Nintendo is essentially trying to remaster a masterpiece while updating it with things like Daniel Craig's face.

There is no way the game can live up to the iconic Nintendo 64 first person shooter, and without the original developers from Rare, this new Goldeneye will be as well received as Blue Brothers 2000 or New Coke.

On the show floor, I later played the new Goldeneye 007, and I can confirm that you still can't play first person shooters on the Wii and oh yeah, if you want to remake Goldeneye, at least make sure it looks better than third party mod like Goldeneye: Source.

But really, the biggest reveal for Nintendo is the company still doesn't know how to spend its money. Instead of investing lots of money to actually make quality new games, the higher-ups at Disney hired literally a hundred models to showcase their new 3DS. Awkwardly and uniformly dressed and tethered to each device like sexy tigers, these poor women were tasked with demonstrating the new piece of hardware all while keeping a smile on their face and the heavy breathing of the fan boys off the screens.

The Nintendo 3DS will sell like gangbusters but it still doesn't signal that Nintendo has any understanding of how the mobile market is changing. Sure, the 3DS has 3D graphics without glasses--but also without a sense of perspective. That is to say, Apple is eating their market and Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime is sitting in the white Buick with the devil as they go over the cliff, laughing, a la Thelma and Louise.

Sony at least knows that the casual gaming market is gone to them. Apple's SDK can't be beaten by conventional platforms or conventional weapons, so at Sony's presentation, Sony reps took time to mew that their PSP platform is for "serious gamers." Which would explain the declining sales.

The three big console developers, previously unchallenged in their supremacy, have become complacent swine, out of touch with the modern gamer. They keep making games that they already made because they know they will sell, not because they will be challenging, creative, or fun. How many times has Zelda been remade? Do we really need yet another Mortal Kombat, Twisted Metal, or Halo game? The snake is eating its own tail.

I don't have a problem with reboots per say, so long as we also have new franchises, new titles, and new genres to explore. And that what was lacking at E3 this year. While the big boys were wrestling over who had the better motion controls and who could find the most obscure old game they could remake, quietly you began to wonder how long the industry could keep this up. Hiring models to promote your game and giving away free Xbox 360s to journalists is only going to keep the barbarians at bay for so long.

DOOOOOOOOOOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMED!

Zerokku

Except that the discussion started by me saying those terms were worthless due to the lack of a universal definition, and the discussion continued with no one giving the same definition.

Santa Claustrophobia

lowlylowlycook wrote: »

Must resist saying the MS is the Lucasfilm of games.

Must resist.

Look, so long as LucasArts still exists, they're the LucasFilm of games.

cloudeagle

Couscous wrote: »

I think we can all agree this is fucking retarded:

Derp de durrrr

DOOOOOOOOOOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMED!

Who wrote that?

Cade

Couscous wrote: »

I think we can all agree this is fucking retarded:

Rabble rabble rabble rabble.

DOOOOOOOOOOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMED!

Makes me laugh almost as much as this article here.

Why does it make me laugh, read what he says about Microsoft.

Now look at his previous job.

Namely, this.

Santa Claustrophobia

Zerokku wrote: »

Except that the discussion started by me saying those terms were worthless due to the lack of a universal definition, and the discussion continued with no one giving the same definition.

It's easy to claim a lack of universal definition when you refuse to acknowledge any definition. It's an argument started in bad faith. Asking others to prove it and then saying 'nuh uh' to each one accomplishes nothing.

UncleSporky

This is the only Gimmick that matters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYcf2yUgblc

And yes, you all owe it to yourselves to watch/read this annotated longplay. Historically, probably the best physics, graphics, music and animation package on the NES.

Xaquin

What did that article mean by "higher ups at Disney"?

Is Nintendo owned by Disney now or something?

plufim

Holy crap sporky, that's amazing for a NES game!

As for the article, it's so poorly researched (Nintendo and Disney somehow the same company, not mentioning ACTIVISION is making the goldeneye game)! The author ignores everything that doesn't support his/her agenda. And saying that Nintendo doesn't understand the portable industry is laughable.

Oh, and "Sony at least knows the casual market is gone to them"... what? That's the entire point of half their move games!

edit (from GAF): hahaha! Oh man. You know how he bitches that Goldeneye "proves" FPS doesn't work with Wii controls? Goldeneye was only playable on classic controller on the show floor.

Santa Claustrophobia

Xaquin wrote: »

What did that article mean by "higher ups at Disney"?

Is Nintendo owned by Disney now or something?

No idea. It was definitely a silly goose thing to write.

And Boo! on Couscous for not linking to the fucking article.

EDIT:
And here's the PCWorld link.

By the way:

Sony at least knows that the casual gaming market is gone to them. Apple’s SDK can’t be beaten by conventional platforms or conventional weapons, so at Sony’s presentation, Sony reps took time to mew that their PSP platform is for “serious gamers.” Which would explain the declining sales.

Hrmmm....

[Chris Holt is a Macworld associate editor.]

mspencer

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

Zerokku wrote: »

Except that the discussion started by me saying those terms were worthless due to the lack of a universal definition, and the discussion continued with no one giving the same definition.

It's easy to claim a lack of universal definition when you refuse to acknowledge any definition. It's an argument started in bad faith. Asking others to prove it and then saying 'nuh uh' to each one accomplishes nothing.

Further, he's standing in the way of a useful discussion, waving his arms and crying "look at me", claiming "if you open the dictionary and look up a word and there's more than one definition, the word is bad and must be struck from the dictionary!"

Stop that. PLEASE.

We need terms to describe games with. Launching into a personal vendetta against a pair of terms you don't like doesn't help.

Rules of Play, by Salen and Zimmerman, MIT Press 2004, pp 2-3 wrote:

One way to describe the project of this book is to say that we are working to establish a critical discourse for game design. We agree with veteran game designer Warren Spector that "It is absolutely vital that we start to build a vocabulary that allows us to examine, with some degree of precision, how games evoke emotional-intellectual responses in players." As a nascent field of inquiry, there are not yet well-developed ways of talking about games and how they function.

What is the point of establishing a critical discourse? Simply put, a critical vocabulary lets us talk to each other. It lets us share ideas and knowledge, and in doing so, expands the borders of our emerging field. Media theorist and game scholar Henry Jenkins identifies four ways that building a critical discourse around games can assist not just game designers, but the field as a whole:

• Training: a common language facilitates the education of game designers, letting them explore their medium in more variety and depth.
• Generational Transfer: Within the field, a disciplinary vocabulary lets game designers and developers pass on skills and knowledge, rather than solving the same problems over and over in isolation
• Audience-building: In finding a way to speak about them, games can be reviewed, critiqued, and advertised to the public in more sophisticated ways.
• Buffer Against Criticism: There are many factions that would seek to censor and regulate the content and contexts for gaming, particularly computer and video games. A critical discourse gives us the vocabulary and understanding to defend against these attacks.

When Reggie Fils-Aime uses "casual space" in a media briefing, your campaign against use of that word has already failed. He used the word because it communicates something. People differ on what precisely it communicates, on what some of the nuances of the word are, in the same way that a dictionary might contain multiple definitions for the same word. You can't claim the word is meaningless.

cloudeagle

He's a Macworld writer?

That's like having someone from, say, Cat Fancy do a writeup of the Cannes film festival.

Santa Claustrophobia

cloudeagle wrote: »

He's a Macworld writer?

That's like having someone from, say, Cat Fancy do a writeup of the Westminster Dog Show.

How on earth could you miss that one...

Xenogears of Bore

That article is glorious. If there is one thing gamers can agree on it is their loathing of Macintosh fans.

I say this as someone who has been servicing Apple products since high school and owns quite a few of their computers. To be fair though until quite recently the relationship has been mutual.

cloudeagle

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

He's a Macworld writer?

That's like having someone from, say, Cat Fancy do a writeup of the Westminster Dog Show.

How on earth could you miss that one...

Gah, that's perfect.

lowlylowlycook

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

He's a Macworld writer?

That's like having someone from, say, Cat Fancy do a writeup of the Canines film festival.

How on earth could you miss that one...

This is what I've got.

Santa Claustrophobia

lowlylowlycook wrote: »

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

He's a Macworld writer?

That's like having someone from, say, Cat Fancy do a writeup of the Canines film festival.

How on earth could you miss that one...

This is what I've got.

I'd have accepted that, too.

lowlylowlycook

When your footwear is sounding off about the originality of your industry, you know you're in a tough place.

[Chris Holt is a Macworld associate editor.]

I'm glad that years of Mac vs. PC commercials have let me deduce exactly what kind of stuff an Macworld associate editor would be likely to write.

Couscous

Now we just need an article by a member of the PC gaming master race who is stuck in a 2002 mindset to talk about how they are such special snowflakes while the consoles are a bunch of plebs.

Santa Claustrophobia

Couscous wrote: »

Now we just need an article by a member of the PC gaming master race who is stuck in a 2002 mindset to talk about how they are such special snowflakes while the consoles are a bunch of plebs.

Isn't that any thread where there is a 360 and PC version of a game?

AnteCantelope

Couscous wrote: »

I think we can all agree this is fucking retarded:

I don't have a problem with reboots per say,

DOOOOOOOOOOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMED!

Leaving aside the rest of the article, anyone who tries to sound smart but can't even spell per se should never be paid to write again.

Glal

Sheep wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ITUa0DOzM&feature=channel
Unimpressive. Looks like it's geared for more bad reviews.

I like their OnLive filter.

Henroid

Couscous wrote: »

I think we can all agree this is fucking retarded:

"We can't stop here, this is nerd country," I told the taxi driver as we sped off, leaving behind a group of angry French game developers whose cab I had just snaked. My driver told me this was the busiest he'd ever seen the downtown, what with the Lakers game and the biggest gaming convention in the world. I told him not to compare the cheap theater at the Staples Center with the horrid carnival of souls residing in the LA Convention Center that I was being forced to cover.

2010 is the year of the reboot. As I type this on my MacBook Pro in my air-conditioned hotel room in Los Angeles, I've just sat through presentations by three major console companies and I don't there was an original idea among them. The old is new again. Everyone is making motion controller games. Everyone is making 3D games. Everyone is remaking the games that made them famous. Look for new Sonic, Mortal Kombat, Gears of War, Halo, Zelda, Metroid, Medal of Honor, Castlevania, and Twisted Metal in the coming year. I walked the floor of E3 until my flip-flops broke in protest at the mediocrity. When your footwear is sounding off about the originality of your industry, you know you're in a tough place.

Microsoft's presentation on Monday set the tone for the week: There's a new Halo game coming out, but this time with space battles. The entire presentation reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Malibu Stacy gets a new hat. Halo: New Hat is due out sometime in the next year, will likely set some sales records, but will move the industry forward as much as a tractor on cinder blocks.

After the presentation, I called my old college hall mate who now works for Microsoft up in Seattle. We discussed the possibility of more Halo games coming out, including Halo racers, Master Chief themed pet games, and the potential for the faceless Halo protagonist becoming like Sonic, a bloated whore who has sold every ounce of dignity to produce increasingly irrelevant games. And we both realized we'd get paid handsomely for creating and covering these games. Maybe the industry doesn't need fixing.

On Tuesday, Nintendo unveiled its own pageant of the past, where the Japanese gaming giant updated all of the titles that made it famous twenty years ago and this seemingly was something to celebrate. If you want to buy Zelda's Wind Waker crossed with Twilight Princess, Nintendo would like to sell you that game. Nintendo is so willing to sell it, in fact, that its willing to put adult men in front of thousands of people and have them swat pretend swords for your amusement. There were also retreads of Metroid and Kid Icarus and if these titles mean anything to you, that means you probably remember blowing into cartridges to make them work.

The saddest bunny that Nintendo pulled out of its hat was the trailer for a new Goldeneye 007 game. The reveal was met not by wowed enthusiasm, but instead with the sound of thousands of hands slapping a thousand foreheads. Electronic Arts tried to reboot/cash-in the Goldeneye franchise years ago with Goldeneye: Rogue Agent. Rogue Agent was a horrid mess of a game with a great premise; this new Goldeneye title looks like a horrid mess of a game with a bad premise. Nintendo is essentially trying to remaster a masterpiece while updating it with things like Daniel Craig's face.

There is no way the game can live up to the iconic Nintendo 64 first person shooter, and without the original developers from Rare, this new Goldeneye will be as well received as Blue Brothers 2000 or New Coke.

On the show floor, I later played the new Goldeneye 007, and I can confirm that you still can't play first person shooters on the Wii and oh yeah, if you want to remake Goldeneye, at least make sure it looks better than third party mod like Goldeneye: Source.

But really, the biggest reveal for Nintendo is the company still doesn't know how to spend its money. Instead of investing lots of money to actually make quality new games, the higher-ups at Disney hired literally a hundred models to showcase their new 3DS. Awkwardly and uniformly dressed and tethered to each device like sexy tigers, these poor women were tasked with demonstrating the new piece of hardware all while keeping a smile on their face and the heavy breathing of the fan boys off the screens.

The Nintendo 3DS will sell like gangbusters but it still doesn't signal that Nintendo has any understanding of how the mobile market is changing. Sure, the 3DS has 3D graphics without glasses--but also without a sense of perspective. That is to say, Apple is eating their market and Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime is sitting in the white Buick with the devil as they go over the cliff, laughing, a la Thelma and Louise.

Sony at least knows that the casual gaming market is gone to them. Apple's SDK can't be beaten by conventional platforms or conventional weapons, so at Sony's presentation, Sony reps took time to mew that their PSP platform is for "serious gamers." Which would explain the declining sales.

The three big console developers, previously unchallenged in their supremacy, have become complacent swine, out of touch with the modern gamer. They keep making games that they already made because they know they will sell, not because they will be challenging, creative, or fun. How many times has Zelda been remade? Do we really need yet another Mortal Kombat, Twisted Metal, or Halo game? The snake is eating its own tail.

I don't have a problem with reboots per say, so long as we also have new franchises, new titles, and new genres to explore. And that what was lacking at E3 this year. While the big boys were wrestling over who had the better motion controls and who could find the most obscure old game they could remake, quietly you began to wonder how long the industry could keep this up. Hiring models to promote your game and giving away free Xbox 360s to journalists is only going to keep the barbarians at bay for so long.

DOOOOOOOOOOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMED!

"The old is new again. I mean, 3D? Come on." He also recalled a Simpsons episode to explain something.

... that's as far as I made it into that mess of text. He's got some typos hanging around it.

Henroid

Oh my god, he bitched about the 3D screen not working if you're looking at it at an angle.

That is it. Anyone who says that from now on, I will fuck in the mouth until they die. If we're going to find flaws in things, why don't we try flaws that make some fucking sense?

Edit - Disclaimer: I will not actually fuck people in the mouth until they die. I'll probably dip a ball or two in their mouth though.

SoaL

Henroid wrote: »

Oh my god, he bitched about the 3D screen not working if you're looking at it at an angle.

That is it. Anyone who says that from now on, I will fuck in the mouth until they die. If we're going to find flaws in things, why don't we try flaws that make some fucking sense?

Edit - Disclaimer: I will not actually fuck people in the mouth until they die. I'll probably dip a ball or two in their mouth though.

can you quote where in the article it says that

NeoTechni

C2B wrote: »

NeoTechni wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

Much like Casual, Hardcore, "Kiddy" etc.

No, there are distinct differences in target groups/audiences. Ignoring that is stupid and insulting to everyone.

Yes, but the terms used to describe these audiences can be insulting or plain wrong.

No it's not. Not using them is insulting, not using them is wrong.

There is a huge difference between a gamer like me and one who only uses their pc for solitaire.

Making games while ignoring that, means you've made it for no one

Couscous wrote: »

His criticism was that it didn't have "high precision" and some other unspecified problems. It seems pretty damn precise from accounts so far. Being limited to viewing it from a specific angle doesn't seem to actually be a problem on account of the fact that pretty much everyone looks at handhelds straight on plus not doing so already often makes it look crappy. Most of the hands on people didn't report it as being a problem.

I agree with you that it's not much of an issue, but that is the exact issue he was complaining about. So he does have a point.

Roxtar wrote: »

NeoTechni wrote: »

Given the Penny Arcade news post, it looks like they agree with 3D is awesome, unless Sony does it

Meh, similar to the bitching about the size of the PsP until the DSxl came out.

BTW there better be some cock eating when the price point for the 3DS is above 200$.

Agreed. Though ironically, DS at launch was still larger than PSP at launch.

mspencer wrote: »

Zerokku seems to think he's right.

I think many people here think he's wrong.

We can continue the discussion without Zerokku's involvement.

Agreed.

Henroid

Sure, the 3DS has 3D graphics without glasses--but also without a sense of perspective.

Admittedly I read it wrong - apparently he was talking about business perspective. As his next sentence indicates:

That is to say, Apple is eating their market and Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime is sitting in the white Buick with the devil as they go over the cliff, laughing, a la Thelma and Louise.

The point still stands. Don't bitch about not being able to see the 3D from an angle. It's moot. And my penis will be in your throat.

Edit - I mean, just so we're clear? I'm talking about blood surging through my dick, making it hard enough to penetrate your make-word-hole.

UncleSporky

Henroid wrote: »

Oh my god, he bitched about the 3D screen not working if you're looking at it at an angle.

That is it. Anyone who says that from now on, I will fuck in the mouth until they die. If we're going to find flaws in things, why don't we try flaws that make some fucking sense?

Edit - Disclaimer: I will not actually fuck people in the mouth until they die. I'll probably dip a ball or two in their mouth though.

Well, it does sort of make sense. What they're saying is true. With 3D glasses you can move all over the place and it always looks right. It may be really uncomfortable trying to maintain the same position for hours and hours, and the rebuttal "well then just turn the 3D off" isn't much of a consolation. I want it in 3D, but I also want to be able to move my head.

But at the same time it's basically all anyone can find wrong with the system so far, so it's being latched onto as the rallying cry of people who want to decry it in the face of massive popularity. So yeah, it's a super annoying complaint to hear all the time, legitimate or not.

Personally I don't think I'm going to find it a problem, but we'll all have to see. But I foresee this being the thing thrown around message boards for the next 4 to 8 years.

"pshh why buy the 3BS that's right it's a bullshit system with its shitty 3D that doesn't even work if you move your head and its N64 level graphics that are way worse than PSP2"

Henroid

Why would you be looking at a handheld screen from an angle, Sporky? What possible conceivable reason is there, where you aren't able to hit pause if you're pre-occupied for a moment?

UncleSporky

Henroid wrote: »

Why would you be looking at a handheld screen from an angle, Sporky? What possible conceivable reason is there, where you aren't able to hit pause if you're pre-occupied for a moment?

It depends on the angle you're talking about. We just don't know yet. Ballpark, I probably play the DS at up to a 4 degree variance in all directions and axes, all depending on if I'm sitting or lounging or lying down. Right now I'm playing Professor Layton tilted slightly downward so the ceiling light doesn't reflect into my eyes. Is that going to break it? No idea. I have to reserve judgment until I can play it.

Some people say it's great and easy to maintain the effect, some people say it might be hard to play in a vehicle, some say it breaks just with the natural shaking of your arms. Who knows?

Henroid

You can hold the device. You can set it down. You can bend the device in half. It's fairly flexible / versatile.

Cade

Looks like Mr. types on a Mac in his air conditioned room did a preview last week.

Will Nintendo or Sony respond to Apple?

Mac gamers may roll their eyes when they here of fanboys geeking out for Nintendo or Sony announcements, but Mac gamers have a reason to pay attention this year as well. Apple has quietly started eating into Nintendo and Sony's mobile gaming market but so far the gaming giants haven't responded. Nintendo's various DS launches have had mixed success, so it'll be interesting to see if they double down on the DSi XL or go with something different. Sony's PSP Go is a sad Band-aid trying to heal a mortal wound.

Will Nintendo or Sony open up their platform to third parties the same way Apple has? Or is it too late? Gaming on the iPod and iPhone has become so popular because virtually anyone can use Apple's tools to design and build a game. Nintendo and Sony have used a more conventional development model for their mobile platforms, and while they have higher-end games, neither platform offers the quick-turnaround or low-development costs of Apple's iPhone OS.

Couscous

Gaming on the iPod and iPhone has become so popular because virtually anyone can use Apple's tools to design and build a game.

And all the popular games still end up being made by the large companies like EA.

Henroid

I really have to wonder what the big deal is with people wanting mobile devices to become competitors with handheld gaming devices.

UncleSporky

Cade wrote: »

Looks like Mr. types on a Mac in his air conditioned room did a preview last week.

Will Nintendo or Sony respond to Apple?

Mac gamers may roll their eyes when they here of fanboys geeking out for Nintendo or Sony announcements, but Mac gamers have a reason to pay attention this year as well. Apple has quietly started eating into Nintendo and Sony's mobile gaming market but so far the gaming giants haven't responded. Nintendo's various DS launches have had mixed success, so it'll be interesting to see if they double down on the DSi XL or go with something different. Sony's PSP Go is a sad Band-aid trying to heal a mortal wound.

Will Nintendo or Sony open up their platform to third parties the same way Apple has? Or is it too late? Gaming on the iPod and iPhone has become so popular because virtually anyone can use Apple's tools to design and build a game. Nintendo and Sony have used a more conventional development model for their mobile platforms, and while they have higher-end games, neither platform offers the quick-turnaround or low-development costs of Apple's iPhone OS.

Yeah, those fanboys will weep when they here about what Apple has planned. They haven't herd nothing yet.

Henroid

That guy really doesn't help the whole "All Mac users are like x" bullshit I try to fight, on account of knowing Mac users who are nowhere near that.

slash000

The Ipod/Iphone is certain eating into that extremely casual gaming market. But there's still a market for bigger, better games than the majority of the games on the iPhone/Touch.

And IMO both Nintendo and Sony have "responded" already -- Nintendo has DSiWare and Sony has PSP Minis. You know, the "quick-turnaround or low-development costs" that the article mentions.

Yes these are more restricted than the Apple system, but honestly, this not meant to be nearly that open. The App store is kind of a mess.

cloudeagle

Goddamn that guy sounds like a total tool. There's better ways to bring up the "the iPhone is affecting mobile gaming" issue without being a complete jackass about it.