Gaming dead before it gets a chance to live?

[PowerPlayGraphix]

This is NOT a good thing:

Gameloft Reduces Android Investment, Predicts Other Developers Will Follow MTV Multiplayer

Just as I get on board and buy the Droid, it looks like at least ONE developer and maybe more, are planning on abandoning the platform. I think we all need to buy what we like from them and contact them and encourage them to stay on board since there are new handsets (Droid) that bring the game to the next level and they don't need to jump ship now.

It's just getting good, I'd hate to see it die before it has a chance to explode.

[LordKastle]

This has already been posted but it is simply propaganda. It depends on what the masses want. If the masses support Android then developers will want to bring in money.

What is the bottom line when it comes to developers? If the majority of people on Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T (without iPhone) want Android apps and games and there is a market for it...do you think developers would ignore it?


It's like the video game console genre. If the masses support a system, the developers will follow. Look at many of the Japanese gaming companies that always supported Sony. What happened with Square-Enix and many others that were exclusive to Sony? They jumped ship to XBox...why? Support. The masses will decide.

[cereal killer]

Keep in mind this decision was not made on a whim. Probably already were looking to make that decision early this year. As things heat up with Android, and they are, you will see company's staying on board. Gameloft will probably jump back into the game when they see Android gain steam. It already is (see below)

They won't ignore things like this..this is huge and just a small taste of things to come.

iPhone and Android now total 75% of U.S. smartphone web traffic

[lemodular]

I the key is processing power. The faster the processors (and perhaps more ram) will unlock the developer's potential. The higher resolution games will prevail in the future just like it is now with PC computing. If Android wants to fight this, they will need a large user base and fast hardware.

[keiichi25]

Don't forget also that right now, the cellphone 'gaming' potential is still a little weak at the moment. While iPhone has the largest market share right now, it, and the Android phones are suffering from the failed attempt of the Nokia N-Gage fiasco. The gaming phone that didn't seem to hold up so well and having enough problems that it is about to be abandoned.

Also, with Open Source, the venue of actually getting money from developing isn't going to be as strong, as Open Source allows for everyone to see the code and work from it. Only the old style games and the cheap ones will be done because of the simple ease and legacy issues behind old style games that doesn't make developing those games seem expensive and worth the time to make.

What makes most software developers make more money is the fact that their code is proprietary, no one can use it. Open Source is meant more that it is code people can look at and emulate and use to develop other code. The drawback of Open Source code is that it is not a definitive source of income to base a company on.

Further more, from the article, note this:

Rochefort stated that Gameloft is selling "400 times more games on iPhone than on Android," prompting a revised set of business priorities.


"It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone," Rochefort said. "Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue,."


The iPhone's early entry to the market undoubtedly gave it a head start on getting into consumers' hands and creating potential App Store customers, but Gameloft's confidence in Android's ability to grow its user base and turn its own app store into a money machine sounds nearly non-existent.

From the above mentioned, 400 times more games on the iPhone than the Android. When you also look at the graph from cereal killer's link... the 75% web traffic from mobile phones, 20% is Android and 55% is iPhone and this is after the release of the Motorola Droid, where 24% of that 20% (basically, 5% of the web traffic) is the Motorola Droid after 2 weeeks of being out... The numbers favor the iPhone still at this time for 'popularity of use'.


Now if you look at the fact that currently, what is the preferred Computer to make games on? The PC. The Mac has very few and far between games available on it because the mainstay focus is on the PC having the largest marketshare at this time for computers. This is now getting offset by the simple fact that Microsoft put out the X-Box which is competing against Sony's Playstation and Nintendo's current Console, the Wii and most people gravitating towards console games as they don't require a computer, they are cheaper than a computer and now stepping into the one realm Computers have had a monopoly until the last 4 years, Internet Multiplayer Gaming. Consoles didn't blossom as strongly until Playstation 2 and X-Box started getting internet gaming play going, and that was a strong thing back in Japan that has hit the rest of the world by storm.


Network Head to Head play has been a big thing since the 90s with the older generation gamers... And again, the focus was more towards the platforms that tended to have the largest marketshare.


Gameloft is currently siding more with iPhone because it is 'the popular smartphone' and also had the longest standing. The Droid phones, imho, were relatively 'eh' due to not Google's lack of pushing, but more of being a 'dark horse' in general. Remember, there are other groups pushing their version of smart phones, Microsoft included, but given the number of times changes or abandoning of it has made people side with iPhone for the standard consumer Smartphone, and Blackberry for the Company/Corporate design phone. Palm was way too wishy-washy on their PDA attempts and Microsoft has played too many different variations on their PDA/Smartphone technology that the First Gen Droid phones were treated with just as much skepticism as Palm and Windows Mobile by many phone companies.


Also, when you look at one other thing... The Blackberry is trying to hit the normal consumer level market, but in all honest opinion, it isn't going to do well simply on the fact that it's own app market is even WORSE than the Droid. Finding apps or games for it, along with the OS just not designed for how standard consumers have come to expect things, namely a zippy internet browser and easy to use functionality, you will be hard press to find developers making decent stuff for it as well.

[wuyanks]

good insight by all. but to be honest, taking Android as is, i don't think we will see the same games from the iPhone onto Android in the near future, except for a few outliers. it is a valid point that game companies don't want to open source their games...

i hope i'm wrong, because the iphone has very good games, with great graphics, and decent controls

[Bully]

This is NOT a good thing:

Gameloft Reduces Android Investment, Predicts Other Developers Will Follow MTV Multiplayer

Just as I get on board and buy the Droid, it looks like at least ONE developer and maybe more, are planning on abandoning the platform. I think we all need to buy what we like from them and contact them and encourage them to stay on board since there are new handsets (Droid) that bring the game to the next level and they don't need to jump ship now.

It's just getting good, I'd hate to see it die before it has a chance to explode.

I might be wrong but even tho the operating system...android is open source...the developers game/code would still be proprietary.

[moneymatt]

WHATEVER -- GameLoft is just a bunch of whiny *****es with 3 star games.

With Verizon firmly behind the android developers are going to flock to where the users are at.. and that's exploding right now.

$Matt

[LordKastle]

There was actually a post today saying how Gameloft is back on board.

WTF?? Gameloft Now Making Android Games?

[JonKyu]

There was actually a post today saying how Gameloft is back on board.

WTF?? Gameloft Now Making Android Games?

Oh the Irony... Really makes me think twice about Gameloft now.