Marty Chinn
Member
Expect to be disappointed then.
It's not the same though. Vita and PS3 are drastically different products compared to what you see on Steam and iOS.
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Apple sells 3 million new iPads in 3 days
- Thread starter Wario64
- Start date
Expect to be disappointed then.
It's not the same though. Vita and PS3 are drastically different products compared to what you see on Steam and iOS.
Little Green Yoda
Member
Wouldn't software sales be a far better metric? Not only is that where Sony makes more $$$, the PSP was kinda notorious for being a poor software mover in the West relative to its hardware install base. In other words, if Vita is profitable due to healthy software sales, I'd think Sony would be satisfied even if it doesn't reach 70% mark of the PSP's hardware numbers in the West. Obviously, the expectations for it in Japan are higher though.
Between the piracy issues and the emphasis on its multimedia capabilities (someone said the marketing for Vita hasn't focused on this but I don't know how true that is), the PSP sales in the West would probably be tough to match even if you don't consider iOS eating away at Sony's target demos.
Is the "we'll never have anything but .99 games" the new trend? I can't follow all these sour Apple haters.
I've been playing games for 22 years. Right now I have Skyrim, Battlefield, CoD and Mass Effect in my arsenal of games. What do I find myself playing? Tiny Tower, Fancy Pants, Draw Something, even Modern Combat (hey it was .99). Why am I no longer a "real" gamer?
I've been playing games for 22 years. Right now I have Skyrim, Battlefield, CoD and Mass Effect in my arsenal of games. What do I find myself playing? Tiny Tower, Fancy Pants, Draw Something, even Modern Combat (hey it was .99). Why am I no longer a "real" gamer?
mescalineeyes
Banned
the games you are playing do not use buttons, that is why.
Uno Venova
Banned
Who is this in response too.
You know I play the game chess on a board with wood pieces... that doesn't have buttons. Am I not a real gamer? The definition of "gamer" is about as exact as "human".
No one specific, really. Just notice the same trends in every iOS thread on Gaf.
ClovingWestbrook
Banned
Different products, yes, but the fact is that people are now expecting to be able to put down/pick up their devices and continue where they left off from. They're expecting that when they buy a game on a service they will have access to said game on all devices that use the service.
Marty Chinn
Member
And you can't see how someone who likes those games could not like the trend that is being set? That those very games you aren't playing are at risk because many people are moving on to games like you are playing now? It's not about hating Apple, or buttons, or being a real gamer. It's about how the landscape is shifting as new trends are set and what fallout that follows.
I don't disagree with that. I'm just saying it's by far easier when it's pretty much the same platform and you can continue where you left off compared to two completely different platforms and continuing where you left off. It's not as trivial.
IAWTP.
The relevant numbers would be revenue for gaming apps. I've only ever seen numbers for the App Store as a whole, and even they're pretty unimpressive compared to the dedicated device retail market.
Normal console life length != fad.
Oppo
Member
Starting to think that I am some kind of bizarre edge-case. I have an iPad 1 and a Vita. I like 'em both. I might get an iPad 3 at some point but probably not until the old one breaks or something.
I've enjoyed some iPad gaming for sure (tower defence and RTS / management style games are fantastic) but honestly you could take just the launch lineup of Vita games and practically any single one of them, were it to appear on iOS, would be one of THE best games for that platform. And I like sticks and buttons too.
In the end I think there's room for both, I don't see why I can't have that either, it's not a particularly expensive hobby, all told.
Besides it's been apparent for decades now that Apple just doesn't care about that end of things. There's no Apple 1st Party. That says a lot.
I've enjoyed some iPad gaming for sure (tower defence and RTS / management style games are fantastic) but honestly you could take just the launch lineup of Vita games and practically any single one of them, were it to appear on iOS, would be one of THE best games for that platform. And I like sticks and buttons too.
In the end I think there's room for both, I don't see why I can't have that either, it's not a particularly expensive hobby, all told.
Besides it's been apparent for decades now that Apple just doesn't care about that end of things. There's no Apple 1st Party. That says a lot.
Little Green Yoda
Member
I think this is an interesting point and I don't understand why the big 3 aren't making bigger inroads into that potential market. Even selling more dated hardware (like Sony does with the PS2 in 3rd world countries IIRC) for cheaper would seem like a good idea to build up your brand there. I get that piracy is a concern but if you're selling games that have already turned a profit (a la GTA for $1 on iOS), it doesn't seem like a big risk to generate mindshare/marketshare. When the time where the standard of living across the board rises in China, having a leg up on one's competitors would be huge.
Marty Chinn
Member
Why not? You're not playing them anymore as you've moved your focus to other types of games. You don't think other people are doing the same? You don't think that loss in audience combined with rising development costs makes those types of games a riskier project? We used to have space flight combat sims until there wasn't any money in that genre anymore and now they're pretty much extinct. We used to have guitar games till the industry milked that genre dry and killed the market and now they are extinct.
Uno Venova
Banned
Well, I would think if you want an answer from a person who says someone in your situation is not a real gamer you'd target them.
Usually when someone uses the word gamer, they mean video games.
TheFightingFish
Member
Let's say that the year is 2001 and you are a PC gamer who loves fast twitch first person like Quake III: Arena, Tribes 2 and Unreal Tournament from the biggest studios out there. How exactly do you think you would feel about the release and popularity of Halo this year for the Xbox? If your fear was that twitch FPS games would increasingly be regulated to remakes (Quake Live) and lower tier efforts (Ascend) and that while the PC would still see plenty of shooters that they would increasingly be developed both in terms of level design, game speed and multiplayer features with both console online infrastructures and a duel-stick controller. Well then you would have been 100% correctly wouldn't you have?
I'm not stressing it too much, since I like many of the new genres that the iPad is bringing to the forefront or restoring, but I can see people being worried for their favorite genres. Not that I'm saying anything about you being a "gamer" whatever the heck that means, if you play games you are a gamer in my book, and the iPad is clearly a device that one can be a gamer with as their only game device.
Maybe we are. :-(
I'm in almost the exact same boat as you. I have an iPad (2) and a Windows Phone and I enjoy playing games on both platforms. I have used my WP for many hours of gaming while commuting to/from work and while I'm watching TV in the bedroom before I go to sleep. Now that I have a Vita, it has taken over thoses times as I find it a better gaming device in those situations. I will still play games on my "touch" devices, but less so now.
I owned all the major sysem of every generation going back the past 25+ years with tons of games for each of them. Plenty of games for PS3, 360, and Wii. Vita was the first major system I have skipped at launch in well, as long as I can remember.
And the reason for that is iPad. It meets every portable game need I need.
And the reason for that is iPad. It meets every portable game need I need.
Doesn't really make sense, considering they offer way different experiences. Shit like angry birds can hardly compare to vita and 3ds lineup
Marty Chinn
Member
iOS games isn't just Angry Birds....
SGRU
Member
iPad is not a gaming machine because you can't play WOW on it.
http://www.cultofmac.com/154768/bli...-warcraft-to-iphone-but-we-must-get-it-right/
Yeah, right...
http://www.cultofmac.com/154768/bli...-warcraft-to-iphone-but-we-must-get-it-right/
Yeah, right...
I don't own a single angry birds game. I mostly play RPG's, Point & Click Adventures, & Platformers on my iPad.
SGRU
Member
Shit that gave me (and still does) tons and tons of fun. I've haven't touched Vita in two weeks while I play the birds almost every day.
China is the #2 market for iPads, I think most people are actually buying them instead of buying computers. I think it actually makes some sense--you can write out Chinese without having to deal with a alphabetical keyboard, and you poke at things directly instead of learning to navigate with a mouse. It's hugely important when most people did not grow up with computer use.
But they are not going to spend $60 for games anytime soon. They are willing to plop down $1 on a game though.
That's fine, but I bought a Vita to replace some of my iPad gaming.
The iPad is a terrific device, but it can't replace every type of game experience. Just as consoles (or portables like Vita and 3DS) can't replace every type of touch screen experience (well I guess the Vita could).
Marty Chinn
Member
China is the #2 market for iPads, I think most people are actually buying them instead of buying computers. I think it actually makes some sense--you can write out Chinese without having to deal with a alphabetical keyboard, and you poke at things directly instead of learning to navigate with a mouse. It's hugely important when most people did not grow up with computer use.
But they are not going to spend $60 for games anytime soon. They are willing to plop down $1 on a game though.
They grouped free with paid though. Is there a chart of revenue share and its growth?
Castor Krieg
Banned
Makes perfect sense, I don't understand how you cannot see it:
In the past people wanted a portable play. Companies addressed that need my realizing powerful gaming-dedicated handhelds. People bought them because there was nothing else.
iPad changed that. It is portable, it has games + other uses. Suddenly a lot of people discovered they are OK with quirky, small games on the go. Multimedia applications are a nice bonus.
It makes zero sense, inputting Chinese characters using the keyboard is 100x faster than using a tablet.
Little Green Yoda
Member
I was not paying attention to industry trends around the time that space sims died out so I don't know the exact causes of their demise. But I'd bet that a large portion of the plastic instrument music games belonged to the more fickle/casual/mainstream audience moreso than that of COD/Skyrim/etc. And if the industry decides to stagnate or milk those core genres you love so much, blame the publishers and developers for not innovating, not the iOS games that aren't even targeting the same demos. In general, the people who game primarily on iOS are not the people who drop $60 on COD yearly or buy tons of core games on consoles.
Until we see something similar to the core console games on iOS with tweaked mechanics do incredibly well (i.e. iOS's Halo), I would not, as a consumer, worry about a huge shift away from consoles to iOS. Right now the differences between iOS games and console games as a whole are different enough (mainly due to budget) that there's no way a mass exodus of players is going to occur anytime soon unless one side royally screws up.
Some functionality, like the multiplatform play feature mentioned earlier, may be adopted in console games but is that such a bad thing?
Marty Chinn
Member
A lot of people don't get this or have trouble trying to grasp it.
Wiktor
Member
China is the #2 market for iPads, I think most people are actually buying them instead of buying computers. I think it actually makes some sense--you can write out Chinese without having to deal with a alphabetical keyboard, and you poke at things directly instead of learning to navigate with a mouse. It's hugely important when most people did not grow up with computer use.
But they are not going to spend $60 for games anytime soon. They are willing to plop down $1 on a game though.
iPads are nowhere near as popular in China as PCs though. China is the fastes growing pc market right now and already surpassed USA in units sold. And sure, people aren't willing to pay 60$ to play, that's why online gaming completely dominates ther
That information is available in Distimo's paid report. That chart is only available in the free version.
But regardless, free may still generate far more than paid anyway.
ClovingWestbrook
Banned
I honestly think it's a fear factor. They fear the future.
Interfectum
Gold Member
Either someone who has the opportunity to play lots of portable games or someone who wastes their money on every gizmo that gets released.
There are markets for all of them, I don't really understand why people get so fired up about this. Tablets will keep their cute little casual, play a minute or two at a time, kind of games, 3DS and Vita will have more the traditional, input-heavy, and lengthy games. Is there a huge problem with that? Why can't they coexist?
That seems like an oversimplification, does it not? Tablets and dedicated handhelds have different uses, you know.
You've become a parody of yourself, man. At some point you were serious but it's just impossible to believe you say any of this with a straight face anymore.
But iPads are not as popular as PCs in the US either. But iPads are growing much faster than the PC segments in both markets.
Like an iPad 3? ;-)
Wiktor
Member
They are growing faster because they're not all that popular yet, so they have a room to grow and it's easy to achieve big percentage rises. Doesn't mean they will surpass PC sales anytime soon, especially in china. And that's all while ignoring the differences between PCs and iPads that make comparing them by units sales completely useless when it comes to potential of gaming.
Marty Chinn
Member
That's a dangerous gamble to make as pointed out by Ubisoft recently.
They can't co-exist because there isn't a middle ground in this industry right now. It's at polar opposite extremes and the market can't survive like that. They can co-exist, but not in the current climate. 99 cent games aren't sustainable in an overcrowded market and $60 blockbusters aren't either if the audience is dwindling toward the other end and yet development costs are rising. Something has to give and things need to realign to stabilize.
Uno Venova
Banned
These threads are always heated because people keep making false claims with nothing to back it up, on both sides. Apple is taking over dedicated consoles. etc. I don't know how it keeps happening.
ClovingWestbrook
Banned
No parody here. I truly believe its fearing the future of gaming. People fear change especially for a hobby that they enjoy.
Interfectum
Gold Member
?
I don't even own an iPad. ;o
My iPhone 4 satiates my portable gaming needs until I get back to a PC / console environment. Draw Something is addictive as hell though.
Little Green Yoda
Member
That's why I proposed that older games that have already recouped their costs should be sold for less. $60 would definitely not fly at the moment but who knows if it's possible to price games in that market for more than $1? Tricky issue due to piracy concerns though. Either way, it would be smart to gain a foothold in such a large emerging market.
I think cheapo Android tablets and iPads will overtake PCs in China. An alphanumeric keyboard is a BIG barrier to Chinese users. Many of them, for writing on a computer, buy a cheapo touchscreen accessory just so they can write Chinese with it because they aren't familiar with romanization methods. Being able to write without using a QWERTY keyboard and a foreign alphabet is very big for the Chinese market. It's not a big deal for the college-educated, but it is for the majority of other Chinese people.
The 3G available on tablets also is useful since Internet plans are very cheap from cell carriers and wired service is much harder to get.
Marty Chinn
Member
It's a justified fear though. Core gaming is on the decline in favor of a casual trend right now. Look at the things the industry has focused on the last few years. Wii, motion gaming, Kinect, social web games like Zynga, and iOS games to name a few things. It's not really a surprise that these types of games and reaching a bigger audience is what people are trying to make money on now. Everyone is trying to be the next Angry Birds. That shift in focus is a valid thing to fear when you're a core gamer.
Middle-ground isn't $20-$40 games on dedicated portables? Why are tablets competing with consoles, of all things?
Well, GAF will be GAF I suppose.
The only thing I fear when it comes to gaming is silly hand-waving bullshit. (Not really, though - because I know there will always be a market, even if it's small, for traditional games.) I don't know, it seems like people are jumping to conclusions. There will always be a market for "normal" games, I don't know why people would think otherwise.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Quickly! To the Hulubratory!
Because everything has to conform to one singular thing. It's the future!! Dun dun dunnnnnn~
Castor Krieg
Banned
You are aware that majority of Chinese do not write in pīnyīn? You are aware that Chinese keyboard will have strokes on each key, and their typing system will be based on strokes? That is how Chinese type their characters. Romanization and alphanumeric keyboard is not barrier at all.