4 ms·

Does anyone else see "(techcrunch.com)" at the end of the submission title and think of the boy who cried wolf? This may be true but, for me, TechCrunch has go

by cletus 16y ago

Does anyone else see "(techcrunch.com)" at the end of the submission title and think of the boy who cried wolf? This may be true but, for me, TechCrunch has gotten to the point where anytime I see one of their headlines I think it's sensationalist linkbait and I'm better off assuming what they're writing is exaggerated or simply not true. As for the claim, it may be true but I really don't think it matters and this is something that's important for anyone assessing FB as an investment. Facebook used to own social gaming. Arguably it still does. But it faces a huge threat, one which it hasn't remotely tackled: social gaming--and non-social gaming for that matter--is going mobile in a huge way. Facebook gaming is built on Flash. As we all well know, Flash is incompatible with iOS and doesn't really suit touch-based interfaces for those platforms that do support Flash (eg use of rollovers and so on). That's not to say that you can't write a mobile-friendly game with Flash but, to date, most people haven't (in my albeit limited experience). Facebook is, for most people, three things (IMHO): games, photo sharing and chat/messaging. FB's revenue seems built on ads and games. They're acting like they've got the market cornered on games but the don't. As Facebook usage goes mobile (as I believe it increasingly is), the draw of those games goes down and consequently so does the potential revenue. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo should already be scared to death of Apple as far as portable gaming goes. I think Facebook should add itself to that list.

scrame 16y ago
MS doesn't have portable gaming. Sony's PSP is pretty much dead from a lot of their stupid choices. The NDS has a huge foothold and is an overall _better_ gaming option, and the 3DS looks promising. Apple will get the market of $3 casual games, but that market does not have a huge overlap with the DS demographic, and where it does, there is less barrier for an iPhone owner to get a DS than there is for a DS owner to get an iPhone -- you can get a used DS for less than a monthly AT&T iphone bill. Not to mention that the DS is much cheaper than an iPhone, and has multiplayer/networking built in. Apple is doing fine, and will continue to do so, but they are absolutely not going to unseat the DS any time soon. [ As a comparison, there have been ~60 million iphones sold, and about 135 million NDS, while iPhone adoption is strong, it has a way to go to just bowl over nintendos foothold. ]
- cletus 16y ago
  Why are you comparing the DS to the iPhone when the elephant in the room is the iPod Touch? An 8GB iPod Touch is cheaper than the pricing of the 3DS. For completeness we're looking at $249 for a 3DS and $170 for a DSi [1]. What's more a typical new release 3DS game will sell for $30+. Compare that to the typically <$5 for an iOS game. Now you describe those iOS games as "casual" but I see games like Angry Birds that can hold the attention for a long period of time. What's more, you can afford 10-20 of those games per DS game! Honestly I've never played a DS so I really don't know but are the games really that much better to not feel the heat from Apple? We're talking an order of magnitude difference in game costs and not too dissimilar hardware costs. [1]: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Nintendo-DS/Nintendo-DS-Hardware-Console/abcat0707001.c?id=abcat0707001 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Nintendo-DS/Nintendo-DS-Hardware...
  - jokermatt999 16y ago
    It's entirely different markets. The "gamer" market segment generally isn't going to settle for iPod touch games. It's like saying Flash games will kill PC Gaming.
    - slantyyz 16y ago
      You know, I used to dismiss the iPhone/iPod touch as a gamer device, but I don't any more. I think your argument is a little inaccurate. The "gamer" market segment may not settle for casual games, but there are plenty of deep gamer quality titles on iOS, they just don't get the same attention as the casual titles.
  - scrame 16y ago
    Good point on the iPod touch being cheaper (and not needing a contract). However the 3DS isn't out and will not stay at that price long (thats the japanese launch price which is usually different from US releases). > Honestly I've never played a DS so I really don't know but are the games really that much better to not feel the heat from Apple? We're talking an order of magnitude difference in game costs and not too dissimilar hardware costs. Yes, they are. I think what gets me about these conversations is that it is typically people with smart phones who might play games casually, I have never heard the "Apple will beat Nintendo" argument from someone who uses both. Here, look at a list of the top iOS games from last year: http://wireless.ign.com/articles/106/1063222p27.html http://wireless.ign.com/articles/106/1063222p27.html With the exception of GTA: Chinatown wars (which is a DS port), those games are all nostalgic remakes (space invaders, oregon trail), puzzle ports (peggle) or generally pretty simple/shallow games. These are great diversions for 5 minutes waiting for a train, but most of them are not "great" or even "good" games. I admit that the iOS is versatile, but it has a lot of its own limitations, many of which coming from the fact that its _not_ a games machine. The DS has its own share of shovelware, certainly, as do all platforms, but it is a dedicated gaming platform, and the games on there are leagues better. Also, individual games cost $30 new at release time, but that cost goes down significantly quickly. Nintendo said a few years ago they consider the iphone to be a competitor, but they are not stupid and have the same focus on high product quality (hardware and first party software) as apple, with a better attitude towards their customers, and have innovated and outmaneuvered and outsold sony and microsoft (and helped run sega out of the console market) at practically every generation. The two markets actually _are_ different, even though superficially similar, and Nintendo isn't going to just disappear because iPhones/iPods support games any more than twitter disappeared after facebook implemented status updates.

by cletus 16y ago

scrame 16y ago

MS doesn't have portable gaming. Sony's PSP is pretty much dead from a lot of their stupid choices. The NDS has a huge foothold and is an overall _better_ gaming option, and the 3DS looks promising. Apple will get the market of $3 casual games, but that market does not have a huge overlap with the DS demographic, and where it does, there is less barrier for an iPhone owner to get a DS than there is for a DS owner to get an iPhone -- you can get a used DS for less than a monthly AT&T iphone bill. Not to mention that the DS is much cheaper than an iPhone, and has multiplayer/networking built in. Apple is doing fine, and will continue to do so, but they are absolutely not going to unseat the DS any time soon. [ As a comparison, there have been ~60 million iphones sold, and about 135 million NDS, while iPhone adoption is strong, it has a way to go to just bowl over nintendos foothold. ]

cletus 16y ago
Why are you comparing the DS to the iPhone when the elephant in the room is the iPod Touch? An 8GB iPod Touch is cheaper than the pricing of the 3DS. For completeness we're looking at $249 for a 3DS and $170 for a DSi [1]. What's more a typical new release 3DS game will sell for $30+. Compare that to the typically <$5 for an iOS game. Now you describe those iOS games as "casual" but I see games like Angry Birds that can hold the attention for a long period of time. What's more, you can afford 10-20 of those games per DS game! Honestly I've never played a DS so I really don't know but are the games really that much better to not feel the heat from Apple? We're talking an order of magnitude difference in game costs and not too dissimilar hardware costs. [1]: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Nintendo-DS/Nintendo-DS-Hardware-Console/abcat0707001.c?id=abcat0707001 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Nintendo-DS/Nintendo-DS-Hardware...
- jokermatt999 16y ago
  It's entirely different markets. The "gamer" market segment generally isn't going to settle for iPod touch games. It's like saying Flash games will kill PC Gaming.
  - slantyyz 16y ago
    You know, I used to dismiss the iPhone/iPod touch as a gamer device, but I don't any more. I think your argument is a little inaccurate. The "gamer" market segment may not settle for casual games, but there are plenty of deep gamer quality titles on iOS, they just don't get the same attention as the casual titles.
- scrame 16y ago
  Good point on the iPod touch being cheaper (and not needing a contract). However the 3DS isn't out and will not stay at that price long (thats the japanese launch price which is usually different from US releases). > Honestly I've never played a DS so I really don't know but are the games really that much better to not feel the heat from Apple? We're talking an order of magnitude difference in game costs and not too dissimilar hardware costs. Yes, they are. I think what gets me about these conversations is that it is typically people with smart phones who might play games casually, I have never heard the "Apple will beat Nintendo" argument from someone who uses both. Here, look at a list of the top iOS games from last year: http://wireless.ign.com/articles/106/1063222p27.html http://wireless.ign.com/articles/106/1063222p27.html With the exception of GTA: Chinatown wars (which is a DS port), those games are all nostalgic remakes (space invaders, oregon trail), puzzle ports (peggle) or generally pretty simple/shallow games. These are great diversions for 5 minutes waiting for a train, but most of them are not "great" or even "good" games. I admit that the iOS is versatile, but it has a lot of its own limitations, many of which coming from the fact that its _not_ a games machine. The DS has its own share of shovelware, certainly, as do all platforms, but it is a dedicated gaming platform, and the games on there are leagues better. Also, individual games cost $30 new at release time, but that cost goes down significantly quickly. Nintendo said a few years ago they consider the iphone to be a competitor, but they are not stupid and have the same focus on high product quality (hardware and first party software) as apple, with a better attitude towards their customers, and have innovated and outmaneuvered and outsold sony and microsoft (and helped run sega out of the console market) at practically every generation. The two markets actually _are_ different, even though superficially similar, and Nintendo isn't going to just disappear because iPhones/iPods support games any more than twitter disappeared after facebook implemented status updates.