With retina displays becoming more the norm lately, I've been noticing a very significant increase in the file size of games to the point where I think it's about to become a real issue. It's not just the Gamelofts and EAs any more; I've been seeing files at around 200 - 300 mb from indie devs as well. Clearly the way things are going it's only going to get worse as everyone plays catch up to the latest graphical trends. The problem is, our devices are simply not currently made to support 1/2 gig+ games. Unless we're happy to have 20-30 games on our devices, that is. If you're like me though, you need room for more like 200-300. Last couple of weeks, I know I passed on around a half dozen games which would have been almost instant impulse buys otherwise, due to simply not willing to give up that large a chunk of device real estate for something I don't absolutely want. I wonder if developers are aware they're losing sales in such a manner? Does anyone else see this becoming a concern for them shortly down the road, if not already?
Its already a problem for me. I got NOVA 2 last week but had to delete right after I beat it because my 8 gig 2g simply does not have enough room to keep a 1gig+ game on it, especially when I want other big games on it like LEGO HP, Aralon, and MC2. Hopefully next year, my hands will be holding a 64gig iTouch 5g.
You are right the files are to getting to large even in normal apps for an example last update they made xsysinfo a universal app probably one of my most used applications. Result of this is it now cleans far less ram and is quadruple the file size it was. I actually like rage hd but the file size is completely ridiculous for the content and other games are following suit. Gt racing exploded in size after being made universal as well I don't think it was worth it. You would think apple could make installs that didn't need a few gb of free space to work and then only installed the files necessary for that particurlar device. I have to say in this regard apple devices are in the dark ages don't get me wrong I like mine but the whole itunes thing is badly designed and restrictive. Just my opinion.
Actually, yes, that's another excellent point. For universal apps, I wonder if someone knows exactly how much data is simply sitting there on my iPod Touch doing absolutely nothing at all since I don't have an iPad. And come to think of it, the same thing for people who own an iPad alone? Is it too outlandish to guess that the file is probably at least twice as large as it need be? Why can't we simply download an iPhone/iTouch file separately from the iPad one and vice-versa? Our purchase price can still buy us both (hence "universal" monicker can remain, and the advantage that comes with it,) but I'd much rather the iPad files sat on Apple's servers instead of idling on my iTouch, until I actually need them?
This is the same argument as thinking having an outdated device is becoming a problem. Keeping games small is limiting the industry and encouraging games to stay casual. Optimize the size as much as possible, but don't sacrifice anything just because a minority of people have to have everything they own with them at all times, or can't afford a device with more memory.
A very simple solution to this would be to have some kind of online sync/backup service that allows users to backup their app data online so that they can freely delete/reinstall games without worrying about losing all their save data. This is the biggest thing holding the platform back as far as gaming goes because people don't have any control over their game saves. Apple really needs to do something about this especially if they really want iOS to be considered a serious gaming platform that can compete with Sony and Nintendo.
Whoa there, you missed my point completely. There IS no device at the moment with adequate memory to support frequent downloads of half-a-gig-plus games. Apple doesn't make one. The number of people the increase in file size affects is far from a minority; it's literally everyone who owns an iDevice, with only a matter of extent being the difference.
I don't see the problem with games the size of 1/2 GB. That would mean 120 would fit on my iPad, and 60 on my iPhone, assuming I have nothing else stored on them. That's more than enough IMO. Yes there are some idevices with too little storage, but that doesn't mean all games should be made simple and with poor graphics just to support older/cheaper idevices.
Well, in Universal games, a lot of assets are shared between it and the retina version, so it's not that much of a bump in file size (though the retina files do make it have a bump in size). I have a 64 GB iPod touch and 64 GB iPad so I have space. The largest games are 500 MB or so (except for Myst, etc. which I don't have) so I could have at least 128 games. (I don't keep much music or any videos on either)
Well I've a 64gb ipod version myself, 64gb isn't enough and if game sizes keep going up 128gb won't be enough. Apple need to stop being such control freaks and add sd cards or at least double the space on devices. If I struggle with 64gb I hate to think how hard people with iphones have it.
And those who own both iphone and ipad and installed the game on both, they got a double penalty! There's clearly a problem in the current whole process because all those devices have still rather small drives. I'm constantly struggling with my iPad 64Gb and that's tedious, remind me old time. Now with my computer and since quite many years I have constantly a drive capacity allowing more than enough garbage than I could generate. Well almost, after close to 5 years my main drive computer is reaching limits (about 40Gb free).
Personally, I think there should be an option to change the graphics from retina to lower quality graphics for the devices that don't support retina. I'm sure it would save me a lot of memory on my 8 gig iPod. I'm very disappointed in the memory usage on Gameloft and EA games, as good as they may be. I think when 5th gen iPods/iPhones come out, they should not release the 8 gig model, and maybe release a higher than 64gb model? Just my opinion.
If you need room for 200-300 games on the device at one time, then lost sales due to you not being able to accommodate further impulse buys are the least of the developers' concerns; the slice of the demographic pie occupied by you is exceedingly thin. Most gamers in the dollar lane don't have the kind of gaming habits to support a need for that many game apps at one time. So in way, by virtue of your overall app store patronage, you're more part of the solution than the issue you imagine your consumption dilemma presents.
Any sort of iTunes save sync would do wonders under any circumstances. A lot of times if a new game comes out I'll download it on my pc because of a lack of space. That doesn't fix not being able to make room on my iPhone. I don't want to delete a game and lose all my progress. About the size issue, I think it might help if they release both a regular and hd version of a game with access to both after buying just one. The only problem is that you'll be sacrificing quality to save disk space. They could also possibly have versions with subtitles instead of voiceovers and stills instead of cutscenes. I'm not sure how much space that actually takes though and that's all extra work they have to do. Just some ideas...
I don't know where you get your figures, (though I am guessing, thin air,) but my own thin air estimations hardly place me in a minority with regard to number of apps on my iPhone. I'm willing to thicken the air a little though, by pointing out this: before being allowed to have folders on our devices, the forums (and not just these ones) were constantly barraged by folks asking how to overcome the 11 page limit. That's 176 apps. Everything from purposely glitching devices to allow more pages, to jailbreaking, were popular solutions. With literally hundreds of thousands of apps on the store already and more added every day, I don't think the desire to have less than 1% of what is available on your device is unusual, nor atypical on the whole. I'd actually be curious in a poll on how many apps users have on their device on average.
Delete what you don't play anymore and redownload it later if needed. Problem solved. Developers should not tone down the quality or content of their games just to satisfy a smaller download.
For me the issue isn't file size of games on the device, but the fact that iTunes feels the need to warehouse every .ipa and doesn't offer a very good way to manage the apps you've got on your computer. I wish there was some way I could tell it to not keep local copies of my games/apps. When you've only got 160GB on your SSD, it's annoying to have like a quarter of that wasted on .ipa files. edit: And it's not like simply deleting them is a very good option either, as the next time you try to sync any device iTunes either wants to also delete everything on the device, or transfer it all back over before it will do anything else.
I'm kind of on this boat. While I can't say I complain about the file sizes a whole lot (I have a 64g 4th gen touch) all it is doing is showing how far the industry has come and how much more room is needed for maximum content. The more the merrier as long as it's not just crap bloatware and the size is needed for absolutely nothing. In the case of RAGE HD, that file size is gigantic, but doesn't seem like it needs to be due to the short amount of content is in it. I'm no dev at all, but that just seems outlandish compared to huge content filled games like Aralon (which is like 1/3rd of the size of RAGE). I loved RAGE but yeah my point has been made. All I know is the file size doesn't bother me at all. I welcome it as long as it's necessary to make great games filled witha good amount of content to keep me busy.
