4 ms·

Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are very clear about their restrictions up front and enforce them consistently among licensees. It is very difficult when developi

by ehnus 16y ago

Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are very clear about their restrictions up front and enforce them consistently among licensees. It is very difficult when developing for console platforms to get yourself into a position where you have spent hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on development only to be told that your game has been rejected. The problem with Apple in this case and in many others is that they do not enforce every app's compliance consistently and see no problem with the fact that they don't.

pmjordan 16y ago
"Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are very clear about their restrictions up front" This is the crucial point. You can talk to a human at those companies if you have any doubts whatsoever about what is allowed and what isn't, or if you're trying something that sails a bit close to the wind. They do occasionally change their rules, but there is usually some wiggle room, and they give you notice. The changes are generally also not as drastic as this. With Apple you don't find out until after you're done and have submitted your app. Besides, the rules tend to be fairly obvious and predictable stuff, with the occasional technical subtlety, not the kafkaesque nightmare that is the iPhone SDK Contract. The Nintendo developer newsgroups are pretty friendly and staff (real humans!) are very keen to help you out - I guess the barrier to entry is also somewhat higher than to iPhone development, but it's much more pleasant and predictable than Apple, which only ever seems to act as one faceless corporation.
- ericd 16y ago
  That's like the difference between enterprise and small business sales. Apple could in no way afford to offer that level of handholding to all its tens of thousands of app store developers under the current arrangement. I'm under the impression that the bigger name developers do have more contact, and if you have the budget to develop something big, you probably have access to them as well. If this is not the case, this is clearly something they should do, because otherwise it will stunt the development of big software projects on their hardware.
  - pmjordan 16y ago
    I get the impression you have to be a lot larger to be in Apple's special club than you need to be to be a Nintendo developer - I know studios with <5 permanent staff who are doing DS & Wii dev. With Apple it doesn't seem to be a matter of "pay us $X and we'll help you get your title published", it's more of a "you have to be big enough that we can even see you from our ivory tower, and only if you bend over". Don't forget Google Voice on iPhone isn't happening, and neither is Opera. Does Nintendo let you publish a game that competes directly with Mario? Yes.

by ehnus 16y ago

pmjordan 16y ago

"Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are very clear about their restrictions up front" This is the crucial point. You can talk to a human at those companies if you have any doubts whatsoever about what is allowed and what isn't, or if you're trying something that sails a bit close to the wind. They do occasionally change their rules, but there is usually some wiggle room, and they give you notice. The changes are generally also not as drastic as this. With Apple you don't find out until after you're done and have submitted your app. Besides, the rules tend to be fairly obvious and predictable stuff, with the occasional technical subtlety, not the kafkaesque nightmare that is the iPhone SDK Contract. The Nintendo developer newsgroups are pretty friendly and staff (real humans!) are very keen to help you out - I guess the barrier to entry is also somewhat higher than to iPhone development, but it's much more pleasant and predictable than Apple, which only ever seems to act as one faceless corporation.

ericd 16y ago
That's like the difference between enterprise and small business sales. Apple could in no way afford to offer that level of handholding to all its tens of thousands of app store developers under the current arrangement. I'm under the impression that the bigger name developers do have more contact, and if you have the budget to develop something big, you probably have access to them as well. If this is not the case, this is clearly something they should do, because otherwise it will stunt the development of big software projects on their hardware.
- pmjordan 16y ago
  I get the impression you have to be a lot larger to be in Apple's special club than you need to be to be a Nintendo developer - I know studios with <5 permanent staff who are doing DS & Wii dev. With Apple it doesn't seem to be a matter of "pay us $X and we'll help you get your title published", it's more of a "you have to be big enough that we can even see you from our ivory tower, and only if you bend over". Don't forget Google Voice on iPhone isn't happening, and neither is Opera. Does Nintendo let you publish a game that competes directly with Mario? Yes.