Again, inefficiency. Why would a company create high budgeted games that won't succeed as much as the simple games? It's a waste of money. On PC we see games like Fallout, Witcher, MGS, Battlefield and such because it's a console for people with free time. If you're mostly at home and you have time to play those big triple A games, then you will probably get a PC or another console like a PS4. Therefore, those games are the most successful ones. People get them on their big consoles because those games require time investment. On the other hand, mobile gaming is different. Most people game on their mobile device to enjoy those 10 free minute you always get in your life, either waiting for a bus, having a break in job, going to the toilet etc. On top of that, a big portion of "gamers" on mobile devices are playing only top hit games that everyone knows (candy crush, flappy bird and all those games). It looks like in mobile gaming less is more. As a result, there is no reason for developers to spend more money on a high budget game while the most simple games are also the most successful ones. I've already wrote this: Which games were the biggest hits of the last 5 years? Angry Birds, Temple Run, Jetpack Joyride, Clash of Clans, Flappy Bird... Now look at the app store. You will see tons of endless runners. You'll see tons of town / empire building games, and so on. Why? Because they proved to be the most efficient to create. They're simple, they don't require super high budget, and they fit the gaming audience. I'm not saying that we should not have more variety in the appstore. I would love to play Fallout NV or Skyrim on iPad when I'm on vacation. But you can't demand it. Saying "Why can't I have a proper single player 3rd person shooter with graphics like afterpulse" is completely ignoring the devs needs. They make the games for you to enjoy, but they ultimately care about their money. If making a certain type of game would not be profitable then they won't make. Simple as that.
I recently hit a point where, had it been a few years ago, I would have upgraded my Apple hardware. I decided not to. I don't expect a developer to endlessly support there games. I also don't expect games to be pulled from the store so I can't download them to older devices with older operating systems that can run them. I think for digital media to truly be the future the companies involved need to build consumer trust and give us a reason to want to switch from physical media. Apple and many developers have shown a reluctance to build consumer trust and their actions are eroding mine. Digital media distribution through steam or GoG are much better to their customers, in my opinion. The lack of any quality assurance and tidal wave of shovelware on the AppStore are negatives as well. For good developers / games and consumers trying to wade through it. Until Apple takes gaming seriously, I'm stepping back from taking Apple seriously. As developers like RocketCat and Ravenous make the move to other formats, I'll follow. I still keep my eyes open for the "gems" like space marshals and others. I play iOS games less and value the hardware less, I still have immense respect for the good developers and good games on the platform though.
For me it's also mostly that the mobile attitude fits my tastes as well as my schedule best. The schedule has been mentioned (wife, full time job, 2 kids in ages 2 years and 4 months old; my main game time is during a 15 min train ride to and from work). But in addition, I fell in love with gaming back when you would press the Power button on the NES, then hammer the A and start buttons for about 30 seconds, and then you would be all set to start killing bad guys. I never really liked the whole sandbox thing - I am more of a "follow the clearly marked path and if it moves try killing it" kind of guy. I don't want realism - That's the very thing I'm trying to escape by gaming! I also don't want cutscenes - I actually love watching movies but when I'm gaming I chose not to watch a movie! I have found quite a few paid games on mobile that are perfect for this. The silver bullet, horizon chase, infinity blade, air attack 2, reckless racing, bardbarian, death rally, ARC squadron, these have all been thoroughly enjoyed by me. And sometimes, I have a bit more time, and I can get some good point and click adventures, or a TBS or something special like Monument Valley. I am veering away from ftp more and more. With touch arcade reviews, I rarely mis-buy, and if I do, hey, it's only 2 or 3 euros. The games are simply more fun for me if there is no incentive to keep spending money other than for content unlocks (New chapters etc.).
The biggest interest of iOS gaming is convenience. As you get older, have less and less time to play, convenience is key. Being able to play short gaming sessions on the go or in bed becomes priceless. And the variety and cheapness of iOS games makes everyone able to find something to fit his gaming needs. But imho the real "game" changer is having kids, not living with somebody or having a job. When having a baby, you can pretty much forget about having 3 hours of free time in a row. And when you get the chance, you'll just have a nap because you're exhausted I pretty much stopped playing my console games at the time and was so glad I could still play some great games on my IPhone or iPad while watching over the kid. And you can't really play GTA V with your young kids around you know I recently bought an Xbox One, and bought some great but long games like Far Cry 4 or Dragon Age Inquisition, but I usually don't have the will to play them in the evening. So instead, I'll just watch some tv shows or play some WH 40k Deathwatch, Blockheads, Lara Croft Go, Pocket Planes, Alphabear... Also I'm hoarding Steam games via humble bundles but almost never play on my laptop, it reminds me too much of work sitting in front of it lol. Maybe some day, I'll get to it And to introduce young kids to games, the iPad is so great : I have plenty of the Toca Boca, Sago Mini, Pango, Chocolapps, Pepi Play, Slimcricket... apps and they are excellent for kids aged from 2 to 77 also incredibly cheap for their quality. Don't ever get the shitty ad riddled Facebook connecting free stuff. Buy your kids the good premium apps from great developers like those I mentioned.
Free to Play / Freemium / Pay to win has pushed me back to PC, console, and handheld gaming. I still keep up on iOS stuff, but have spent way less on it over the last few years. I've not only been slower to buy software, I've also been a lot slower to upgrade my iOS devices. Besides, very few iOS games take advantage of top of the line hardware. IMO Apple missed a trick here, but somehow I don't think they even care. LOL!
This.... ... in response to this.... ... is what really bothers me about iOS. There's a "planned obsolescence" with iDevices that you get to a point where you simply need to upgrade your device. I spent $3 for the VIP Gamer upgrade for the iOS version of Castlestorm: Free To Seige. And then another $15 on for Steam/PC (called just Castlestorm). I'm glad I spent $$ on both. For the former, it helped me get gems much quicker via weekly free 10 of them, and x2 the XP earned. For the latter, I didn't have to deal with any "freemium currencies"... everything uses just gold. No Gems nor Pearls. For the former, the small tiny screen can feel straining, but it's quite portable. For the latter, having a 26" screen, with keyboard + mouse just felt luxurious, even if I'm tethered to my desktop While I had fun playing daily levels in the iOS version for Pearls, it got exhausting to have to log in 3x a day, at least 3.5 hours apart just to play them. Too much of THAT was online. The campaign was available locally/offline, but you needed a good # of gems to level up sufficiently to feel fun.
Due to the verbiage of the thread title, I don't think we can include Steam/PC games. I've got a library there that I've gotten for as cheap as iOS/Android games due to Steam sales and Humble Bundle.com, but these too are made by smaller indies, and these too are innovative. PS, it also annoys me when people undermine consoles as something that requires hours and hours of time to play. I've fired up consoles to play half hour sessions before.
It's still very long versus mobile sessions, that can be 30seconds sessions, and you also can make 10 to 20 sessions per day
good for you! But yeah, given this thread and what i've seen in general, you appear to be in the minority. "Minority" is not good when they have to invest millions of $$ to get the game out, as they won't see a return on their investment. Not by a long shot. It can be, but it's costly to make 2 separate versions. iOS Universal means you need to have separate assets for both iPhone OS and Ipad. Cool and sustainable have been 2 separate things. It may take too much rework with the controls, or study/focus groups can indicate that there's too much compromise involved for the devs, and/or the users. I doubt it's economically viable. The iOS gold rush ended years ago. Large companies make most of the $$. Many of them don't like taking chances. They'll veer towards what they know will make the $$. And unfortunately, there still IS a culture of not paying for stuff in the iOS AppStore. As it's come up before, Note that I didn't say Android is better (people still pay more on iOS than And), and I'm sure many here on TA will happily pay full price for AAA titles... even if something like Skyrim costs $15 to $30. However, you're only a fraction of the millions of iOS users willing to do so. Hell, they'll probably turn it into freemium as the only financial way to go, and at this point, I'd rather just go to consoles/Steam if it's freemium.
I've never implied that it is economic viable, only that it could be doable. Also, I know I am in the minority here, since I love playing mobile games and would love to see more deep and engrossing experiences on the devices. Another point is that controls are not inferior per se if games are optimized for touchscreen. Sure, some genres work better on gamepad(or keyboard and mouse), but others can work as good or even better if played on touchscreen (point and click adventures, rpgs, boardgames, turn games). If, and here is a big if, mobile were the main device for gaming, we could have experiences better than skyrim here. But that's my opinion.
+1 ^ Also regarding controls, MHUF for iOS, that's what they should adapt. It works near flawless considering that the game is VERY complicated and highly skill based
You've acknowledged that it's not economically viable, then that's good. On the flip side, nobody was really implying that it's not doable. It's pretty much case closed as far as that's concerned. you're definitely free to continue voicing your opinions, but throughout history, many game companies had the potential to do thousands of things. In the end, they get scrapped due to having to keep the money coming in to pay their expenses.
Some do and even said that mobile games are inferior and not as fun as console because of controls and tiny screens, which I disagree. Read all the posts.
The thing is both claims are true: iOS devices do lag behind consoles in terms of computing power It's not very economically viable to make AAA (by console standards) games for iOS due to iOS users's unwillingness to pay much for iOS games. The first point is becoming less true, and maybe some people in this thread exaggerate how big the lag is. But the bottom line is that the second point, economic viability, completely trumps the first anyway. For example, even if you could run a game like Skyrim on an iPad, the fact that very few iOS users are willing to pay more than $5 for a game would make it economically un-viable to produce a game like that for iOS. The best we can hope for is it gets ported to iOS a few years later after the publisher has already made all their money back from sales on other platforms. And even that is pretty risky. Look at Bioshock for example. I don't know what its iOS sales numbers were, but I think it's a reasonable guess that the reason 2K has abandoned the iOS version is largely because it didn't sell well enough to make a profit, so they're just cutting their losses.
