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Did you see this part at the end, and if so, does that affect your judgement? > A final thought, regarding Android’s relative weakness as a software platform.

by dreyfiz 16y ago

Did you see this part at the end, and if so, does that affect your judgement? > A final thought, regarding Android’s relative weakness as a software platform. iOS’s exclusivity for a bunch of big-name mobile games — Need for Speed Undercover, Star Wars: Battle for Hoth, Monopoly, Tetris, The Sims, Assassin’s Creed — has been broken. Not by Android, where none of these games exist, but by Windows Phone 7, a one-month-old platform.

arron61 16y ago
Windows paid for all these companies to create the games. They funded the development - that's the only reason why.
- protomyth 16y ago
  So, why doesn't Google fund those same players? There must be a value judgement there because I gotta assume Google thought of that as an option.
  - yawn 16y ago
    Why incentive do they have to do this? Android has surpassed the iPhone in numbers--it's just a matter of time before developers switch to building Android first, then iOS.
    - protomyth 16y ago
      Symbian has more units than iPhone but the iPhone has more apps. Number does not equal app sales.
    - tomkarlo 16y ago
      Has it passed in terms of sales per unit time, or total sales to date? I think it's the former, whereas the latter matters more to someone selling apps.
  - arron61 16y ago
    Microsoft had to do this since they are that far behind in the game. They probably blew billions to do this and not to mention, this is not a sustainable strategy. Google, on the other hand, should probably improve their NDK, which a number of changes are coming, to attract developers that way.
mcantelon 16y ago
Microsoft has a lot of weight in the game market. Not surprising that they convinced some people to get onboard. I doubt very much that, as Gruber seems to be implying, there is something intrinsically flawed about the Android platform that is a barrier to game development. EDIT: Unity will likely make a big difference to the Android appsphere: http://unity3d.com/unity/coming-soon/android http://unity3d.com/unity/coming-soon/android
- alxp 16y ago
  They "convinced" developers to get on board in large part because they let devs use the same tools they've been using to create the original games on Windows with. If I had an existing PC game it's a no brainer to target WP7. Android is a much tougher sell.
  - dreyfiz 16y ago
    They also paid for a lot of these ports. Many iPhone devs have mentioned Microsoft approaching them with money and help to get them to port to phone7.
Garbage 16y ago
@Tichy has asked in the below comments, > where are the killer games for OS X?

by dreyfiz 16y ago

arron61 16y ago

Windows paid for all these companies to create the games. They funded the development - that's the only reason why.

protomyth 16y ago
So, why doesn't Google fund those same players? There must be a value judgement there because I gotta assume Google thought of that as an option.
- yawn 16y ago
  Why incentive do they have to do this? Android has surpassed the iPhone in numbers--it's just a matter of time before developers switch to building Android first, then iOS.
  - protomyth 16y ago
    Symbian has more units than iPhone but the iPhone has more apps. Number does not equal app sales.
  - tomkarlo 16y ago
    Has it passed in terms of sales per unit time, or total sales to date? I think it's the former, whereas the latter matters more to someone selling apps.
- arron61 16y ago
  Microsoft had to do this since they are that far behind in the game. They probably blew billions to do this and not to mention, this is not a sustainable strategy. Google, on the other hand, should probably improve their NDK, which a number of changes are coming, to attract developers that way.

mcantelon 16y ago

Microsoft has a lot of weight in the game market. Not surprising that they convinced some people to get onboard. I doubt very much that, as Gruber seems to be implying, there is something intrinsically flawed about the Android platform that is a barrier to game development. EDIT: Unity will likely make a big difference to the Android appsphere: http://unity3d.com/unity/coming-soon/android http://unity3d.com/unity/coming-soon/android

alxp 16y ago
They "convinced" developers to get on board in large part because they let devs use the same tools they've been using to create the original games on Windows with. If I had an existing PC game it's a no brainer to target WP7. Android is a much tougher sell.
- dreyfiz 16y ago
  They also paid for a lot of these ports. Many iPhone devs have mentioned Microsoft approaching them with money and help to get them to port to phone7.

Garbage 16y ago

@Tichy has asked in the below comments, > where are the killer games for OS X?