This is me giving my 2 cents here, but in this day of age... We see games like dawn of plow *im not bad mouthing it* and ridiculous fishing *same goes for that one. Why haven't we seen more games for example; Chair releasing a new gears of war ios EA creating a *real* full fledged dungeon keeper, not some shoddy free to play monstrosity World of Warcraft even the older titles on the ios.. Populous the new beginning (graphically amazing) Come on developers? can't you see the fan base would be enormous?
What I would like to see is more full-fledged games instead of the usual ios appstore tropes, like endless runners, bird-flinging games, clash of titans clones, and candy games.
CoC Yeah I mean if gameloft can make nearly every game graphically outstanding, and they mostly rip other companies games. Why can't the big boys?? Yeah endless runners/free to play/timers Make a game like infinity blade, that will make us apple lovers reach for an ipad!! Kick starter if needs be..take advantage of this A7 chip!!
I too would like more console like games for my ipad. But it seems like a trend to freemium, and seems like lately on TA, flappy bird and ironpants type games get so much attention. Maybe cause most ios gamers are iphoners, not ipaders.
That list is garbage. Specially sad considering the iphone and the ipad now have console-grade cpu's that could be used for much more than that.
Right but the point is you can hardly fault developers for following where the majority of the dollars spent on the App Store are going. If you want AAA games, convince friends and family to shift their spending habits to buying actual games instead of playing Candy Crush. Developers will follow.
But there is a few, more than a few AAA games on the App Store, like Kotor, GTA, Baldurs Gate, Republique etc. If there were more of these releases, or re-releases, I think people would buy them more. And I dont think it's a chicken and egg scenario, where there isnt any AAA games because there isnt demand, and there isnt a demand for them because there isnt any. If they come people will buy them. I specially believe that the Appstore is the best medium to give old AAA titles a new life. In my case specifically, im aiming to bring old-looking games with actual gameplay, to ios.
Those you mentioned are ports of well-known IPs. Republique on the other hand is what's fresh, and we dont know how successful it is yet, but from what i've seen, not much either.
No, I don't want more big AAA ports on IOS. Because many AAA can be uninspired and rote and trying to cram a console or PC experience onto a touchscreen device usually doesn't work out well, save for turn based games like XCOM and Frozen Synapse or platformers like Stealth Bastard I'd rather see the developer use the power and uniqueness of the platform to create IOS exclusives that make it worthwhile to be an IOS gamer. A game like Device 6 is a wonderful step in that direction. Even now, the platform is besieged by generic freemium-heavy rip-offs and not enough developers like Frogmind and Simogo who try to deliver innovative premium experiences that take advantage of the platform's strengths.
I actually think that the gateway for the market to transition or at the very least for full fledge gaming experiences to have equal marketplace footing on the platform hangs largely on the initial movement of ports happening on iOS by way of major developers. I know I would personally love to revisit older PC and console experiences on my tablet without having to entertain the idea of jail breaking it! Start bringing recognized games over to the platform in fair quantity and in time the perception of the platform won't just be associated with JUST freemium fairs, angry bird and runner-alikes and match three or clash of clone-alikes. A port of even a mildly popular game would still be much cheaper than building a new IP from scratch for iOS and then risking the bank on the possibility of it selling well. I think that is largely why we don't see much innovation or new games from major developers on iOS (barring the few exceptions to the rule such as Square/Enix, 2K, etc). Minecraft, Xcom, KotOR all seemed to fair well and I'd say that if more ports came over they'd fair well too! Besides, looking at Steam and GoG it's evident that there is a market for old games... I believe that once we actually start seeing an influx of proper ports on regular basis, that we could actually start seeing developers start making more quality AAA games for the platform. But that's all a big if. I do believe one thing though; the market can't currently sustain itself indefinitely in the direction it is now with a largely freemium driven AppStore. There are only so many whales to suck dry and only so many games to divide that wanting demographic before it starts to thin the herd with so many games of its ilk that eventually only the popular few can remain profitable while the rest dwindle away. So I think the freemium market will eventually balance itself out at some point when it gets to the bursting point (or would it be the anemic point?). There does need to be a mindset change though and I don't know how it will happen. Developers have shot themselves in the foot with the .99¢ problem that plaques the mentality of the typical iOS gamer (or the freemium mindset). It's an uphill battle with the damage the market has done to site self with the .99¢ mentality and a longer battle still to get iOS gamers to not mentally look at $1.99, $2.99, $4.99, or more as realistically not being "too expensive". Perhaps I am idealistic or overly optimistic but I honestly believe that the market can be turned around in its thinking given time and a proper approach, to the point where developers can actually ask a price more deserving of their efforts and work rather than the equivalent of change given to a panhandler; and I believe that in that same time the typical consumers mentality can be changed to realize that asking anything more than .99¢, $1.99, $2.99, $4.99, etc is not considered scoff-worthy or "too expensive"... I'm sure many here will disagree but that is just my two cents... Call me a dreamer, but the AppStore got this way over time and I believe that it can be changed in time.
I think we can all agree at least in varying degrees that your point stands... However, I can say that I personally have not ever seen you hypothesize or compitulate (at least play devils advocate) to the idea that it's possible to reverse this truth. We all know it is this way. We all know it got this way for a reason. Personally I'd like to know your opinion on how it could be changed. What do you personally think needs to happen for the current climate of the AppStore to turn around or at the very least even out? Is it a problem you find that's intrinsic with Apples handling of the AppStore? Is it publishers/developers? Do you honestly believe there is no foreseeable way to change the environment? If you don't see it changeable, what is the next step for software, pay models and the freemium model in general to go? How else do you think it will evolve? Sorry to play Dan Rathers with you, but I think we all feel we typically only hear one side of the issue from you and I'd like to know if you perhaps postulate alternatives ideas about the issue...
The App Store is the way it is due to a number of big reasons, each of which have tons of momentum by themselves, that have been linked up into this nearly unstoppable freight train of freemium. When it first launched, all apps were $10, or sometimes even more. I bought a solitaire game when the App Store launched for $15. Once news hit that people were making money on the App Store, everyone else jumped in. How do you stand out in a crowded market? By lowering your price of course. This ushered in the era of the significant launch sale, and several other sale techniques which basically trained iOS gamers that there wasn't much sense in buying a game that cost any more than $0.99, because all they had to do was wait. Once everything hit $0.99 and stayed $0.99, the only way to go lower than that was to remove the barrier of entry all together and make things free. Consequently, doing this enabled all the non-gamers out there to download and try various games with zero financial obligation because they've seen friends or family talking about them on Facebook. These accidental gamers, who now represent the vast majority of App Store customers, now expect everything to be free. Niche titles like Republique do well, but, once again you're fighting the very real financial force of Republique needing hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from Kickstarter to become a reality... So who knows how "well" the game would even need to do if it was developed inside the world of business reality when you can only invest what you can afford to finish a project versus operating solely on the generosity of others. Essentially, to reverse this truth, you need the army of accidental gamers who are more than happy to download whatever new King.com game rises to the top and spend hours playing it to decide, "Hey, you know what, I've had it with these bite sized free games, I want to pay a significant amount of money for a game that's heavily in depth and unlike anything I'm used to playing or have played before." I just don't see that happening. This of course isn't to say that there isn't tons of room on the App Store for gamer games... There just isn't an economy of scale right now that can support anything that's even vaguely close to what goes in to a typical console "AAA" game. Sit through the credits of even a low-end "AAA" game and you'll see literally hundreds of people contributing to them over a development cycle that spans years. The App Store moves too fast for you to spend years doing anything, and a "large" team working on iOS is six people, with most games made with little more than a programmer, and maybe an artist. The reason you only hear one side of this from me is because it's the realistic state of things, and dreaming about what things would be like if Apple had a Nintendo-like level of control on the App Store where there was a real certification process that included pricing agreements. ...But, the whole reason we have the few amazing games we do have is because the barrier of entry is lower than it ever has been before for developers... So totally undoing all of that is even less of a solution at this point.
I'm thinking the only way we'll continue to get AAA titles is for developers to port over older titles (like GTA, BGEE, Kotor, etc.), since most of the dev work has already been done. Or if developers include IOS in their multiple-platform lineup from the start similar to XCOM. But iOS exclusive AAA titles, not so much. I love the classic ports personally.
I think there will be more console like games in the future. Right now there is a trend towards freemiums, inapps, bait and switches, and early adopter blues; so many are either waiting for frees or losing interest in ios gaming. But I think it will turn around.
I never said anything about the numbers in ios gaming. Of course numbers are going up, more iphones and ipads every year. But as a percentage, more and more people are waiting for frees, there are getting to be far fewer early adopters as a percentage. It is very apparent in TA threads, very few early adopters nowadays.
I've always seen my iPhone as a secondary gaming device anyway, never primary. I mean sure, I've downloaded loads and loads of games, AAA or otherwise onto my phone in the past 2 years. I've put many hours into iOS gaming, but it will NEVER amount to how much time I put into console gaming. The most I've put into iOS gaming is 24 hours into Jetpack Joyride. And I deleted that a long time ago. I've put 30 hours into GTA Vice City (PS2) I've put 40 hours and counting into Saints Row 2 I've put 80 hours into GTA V I've put 100+ hours into Borderlands 1 and 2 altogether So even hardcore gamers have that mindset of a "quick 5-minute game" when it comes to iOS gaming. Sorry, this post is all over the place.
Still really hoping for something that makes the IPad a worthy tablet, Candy crush is good, but not that good...oh crap did I just say candy?! When they start making games with the 64 bit chip then things will start to get interesting. Unity is the way to go, if infinity blade can do it... Star Wars * bioware Dragon age * bioware Tomb raider * crystal dynamics Gears of war * epic games Assassins creed *ubisoft Can ..if the developers need ideas or encouragement..just look at gameloft It's not rocket science, I just think it's laziness and they're not looking at the whole picture and just focusing on 'casual' players, I'm a hardcore gamer, doom 4 was the way to go in the 'early' years, hopefully and I'm saying hopefully... Tim schafers new broken age game, followed by telltale can drag us out of the cesspit of lazy money orientated developers *not like some developers who actually listen/care and help to make the ios a great gaming platform The End lol
