Apple has decided to block the feature on the iPod Touch 2G and anything older. I myself am a little disappointed because I am confident enough that app that really only connects to servers to relay data, such as high scores, and provides unified achievements could at the least be run on the iPod Touch 2g. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=258639
It is says that any newer iPod Touch models will work with game center so I would assume that this mean the iPod Touch 3G since it uses the same processor as the 3GS. I'm hoping that when a jailbreak for 4.1 is released that it will enable the feature like the 4.0 jailbreaks enabled the the other barred features. Eventually I will upgrade to anewer device but this new model every year idea is pretty dumb to me anyways.
I don't understand the reason behind this decision. Older devices handle current online leaderboards perfectly.
There is a big thread about this on MacRumors.com http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=985082 I too can't see how they can justify leaving out the second gen Touch - especially as Apple still sell it. And the 3G iPhone they stopped selling less than three months ago. Pure greed by the mighty Apple wanting your hard earned to buy their newest products.
Steve jobs... You need to get a life >.>. This will probably boost jailbreaks even more because it unbars most things.
The voice of reason Apple is doing this not out of malice, but out of hope for the future of better iDevice gaming. Let me explain: As you know iOS 4 wont even install on a 1st Gen Touch (333Mhz and 128Mb RAM) or a 1st Gen EDGE iPhone (400Mhz and 128Mb RAM). That is a *good thing*... it eliminates the need for game developers to support a lot of the older pool of devices. Ideally Apple should have excluded everything below the 3GS and 3rd Gen Touch right off the bat. Why? Apple wants to position itself strongly in the handheld game wars. To do this it needs to cut the ties with older, slower, less capable iDevices. If developers can rely on a certain minimum speed of CPU, GPU, and know that there will be plenty of RAM available for their game they can create the best possible experience. The type of game that people are always complaining that they want to see on their iPod or iPhone- tons of animation, particle effects, audio, video, etc. Every developer will want to be a part of Gamecenter. Players will demand it. Apple's limiting Gamecenter to the 3rd Gen Touch, 3GS, and iPhone 4 (and iPad) is telling devs the baseline system they need to worry about: 256MB to 512MB of RAM 600Mhz or better CPU GPU that supports OpenGL ES 2.0 for advanced graphics, shaders, antialiasing, and so on. The iPhone 3G and iPod 2G *do not* have any of these features, and so must be excluded. It's not because Apple cannot serve up score and achievement data to older devices, it's because they want to set a minimum standard of excellent hardware for gaming, which in turn lets the developers know they can create more amazing looking games. Personally my games will still support older hardware and devices, but I can see the appeal of this move. I have a suspicion that Gamecenter enabled games might even be reviewed for "quality" like game console manufacturers do, to ensure only good stuff appears on it. I certainly hope so, the old rumors of a separate higher price "app store" with better quality over quantity would be well worth developing for.
The thing is there are a load of old devices out there... So you make a really good 2D game that runs on the older hardware really good. You want to support online leaderboards and such. What do you do? The Game Centre does not give you the option to support those devices. Do you forget about Game Centre and use something like Openfeint? Or do you support the Game Centre as well as Openfeint? Or will Openfeint wrap the Game Centre like they say they would do and also give support for the older devices? We developers really just want a unified online system that can cater for every device. Apple are not really offering that...
And many people have 2G's 3G's only came out like 8 months ago. I got my 2G around then and thought it was a 3G. Which is pretty retarded because it doesn't say anywhere on the packaging I would have waited to get a 3G.
You have a point, but that's like eating only half a cookie, to say it in a funny way. Doing that they're really doing what you say they are, but how many of the models they're about to eff up are there? I think tons. And yes, *real* gaming companies such as Nintendo do that too, but lets appreciate the speed in which they do so. How many years has the DS been in the market compared to the iPod 2g? the DS still works and only now they're adding something that they might be incompatible against (and not totally). Yes, they developed tons of new DS since then to make people buy the new shinier verison, but I can still paly games on my HUEG original DS, and it's been tons of years since its launch. If you do allow Apple to do that, is like allowing them to tell you when to trash what is yours, and I don't like the feeling of that one bit. I get the sense of progress, but isn't going too fast what messed up with Google's 1st smartphones? Updating too fast and the old was alluva sudden useless? (that is really a question as I remember reading something of the kind some time ago). Really does anybody have a pie chart around here to show us how many customers Apple doesn't care about? And really, do you think that letting them advance there won't be in 2 years a GAME CENTER 2 where only 5g and up can use? analyze where this is going, to me it doesnt look so good.
@TrueAxis: I definitely agree. I hope developers that same the same thoughts as you let Apple know about this. @CommanderData: I do not see your logic at all. Apple made GC newer device only so they can encourage devs to start making games only for the newer devices? So they look better? Set the excellence standard in the industry? Are you freaking serious? The GC was made newer device only to encourage people to buy newer devices so that APPLE can benefit with profits. They aren't doing this in mind so that developers can make better stuff. That's a ridiculous statement. Here, developers aren't benefiting from ANYTHING. If at all, they are hurt by this decision because they lose a large chunk of customers who own older devices. Besides, developers don't have to start making games exclusively for the newer devices and ignore the older ones. When you download a game that have been updated for the better graphics, if you own an iPhone 4, you will see the graphical enhancements! If you own an older device, your graphics stay the same, and you don't get any graphical enhancements. In the end, all customers can still buy the game, and the developer maximizes the amount of people they can sell their game to. So I really don't get your reasoning
An addendum to my previous post for people who don't understand: Nintendo does not do these things because it is in the *software* business. Nintendo sells its consoles (DS, Wii, and past models) virtually at cost. They make their profit selling games on these systems. The more systems out there that are compatible with a particular Nintendo 1st party game, the more money they make. Apple is in the *hardware* business. They sell their hardware at a profit, and have no big gaming franchises (Mario, Zelda, etc) to make more profit with. The money Apple makes on the 30% cut for the app store is pocket change, hardly enough to cover all the operating costs. What they need to do is convince everyone that the best games will be had on the new generation of hardware, and convince developers to support that new hardware exclusively, and the miracle of the yearly iPod/iPhone cycle will continue
Then explain why do we have 6 DS types every year if its costing them more, would staying at 1 type of DS be absolutely cheaper if it is costing them for each of them they make + the cost of marketing research + R&D + marketing? There is smt wrong with that. And what you say about Apple is correct, they only care about the iPod cycle, which fits perfectly into the point of, we're letting them decide when our stuff is no longer useful to us, as every hadware developer does, just that in a year to year basis. Also, do you have actual proof of 30% being pocket change? I'd love to read that from an official source (no offense intended, I really want to).
@Commander: But I don't see the point of convincing developers of making their games for new hardware exclusively. They lose a massive chunk of customers. There are simply too many people with older devices right now, as TrueAxis said. Besides, like I said earlier, all games that have been made/updated for the iOS4 can still work on older devices, just without the stunning graphics (except for Xenome...but they're already in the process of making it available to everything but 1st gen).
