Why We Are No Longer Developing for the iPad

Post by s73v3r » Thu, Apr 16, 2015, 10:53 PM UTC

jblow wrote: post #60

takasc2 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked up the company on pocket tactics, the site I menioned after I posted this. Infact they have had numerous mentions there as well, but no real detailed coverage, no real follow up. I don't think iPad games journalists are failing to cover companies like this - I think these kinds of companies are so anti-marketing in the presentation and design of their games that they fail to stand out or get noticed even by…

You are saying "anti-marketing" but what this really means is that they are putting less investment into production values than you prefer. The whole point is that it is doubtful that they will stay solvent if they put more money into production values on that platform. Nice graphics are very expensive. (They are more expensive than any other aspect of game development, in fact). If it seems unlikely that enough peop…

Post by volaski » Thu, Apr 16, 2015, 10:54 PM UTC

eridius wrote: post #12

> Competition on the App Store has risen to a frenzied level. This is a curious argument to make. The platform is too popular ? Would it have made any sense at all if anyone made the same claim about, say, Windows game development? I suspect what this really means is "there are more games than ever, and the iOS App Store is becoming increasingly difficult to rely on as a discovery mechanism, thus requiring advertisin…

Post by lotharbot » Thu, Apr 16, 2015, 10:55 PM UTC

eridius wrote: post #62

jblow wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are massive differences. For example, in the Windows world you are allowed to find out who likes your stuff and build relationships with them.

Relationships? What are you talking about? I can't recall the last time I ever felt I had a "relationship" with a game developer, on _any_ platform. The only way I can meaningfully interpret your claim is by replacing "build relationships with them" to "and market directly to them", i.e. being able to email your customers with marketing messages. And I'm glad Apple doesn't give my email address to everyone I buy an a…

Post by kbenson » Thu, Apr 16, 2015, 10:56 PM UTC

eridius wrote: post #70

frandroid wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Competitive is a question of demand versus supply; you can have super competitive small markets. You have 1 yellow marble, 5 blue marbles, and 10 people. 5 people want a yellow marble, and five want a blue marble. Blue and yellow marbles are just as popular, but the competition for yellow marbles is much more intense.

Given that we're discussing the supply side of things, I think your example is backwards. But even if you changed it to competition for supplying the desire of yellow marbles, I still don't think it's relevant. It's certainly true that there's an incredible supply of cheap/free games on iOS (typically of very low quality, or chock-full of F2P mechanics or ads). But there's a very low supply of high-quality serious ga…

Post by eridius » Thu, Apr 16, 2015, 10:58 PM UTC

kbenson wrote: post #118

eridius wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that we're discussing the supply side of things, I think your example is backwards. But even if you changed it to competition for supplying the desire of yellow marbles, I still don't think it's relevant. It's certainly true that there's an incredible supply of cheap/free games on iOS (typically of very low quality, or chock-full of F2P mechanics or ads). But there's a very low supply of high-quality serious ga…

You're assuming he doesn't know how to market it. It's entirely possibly he's run the numbers, and found that for the required outlay the expected return isn't worth it, keeping in mind that his time and ability is finite, and that there may be other opportunities that are better investments of his time and money. In fact, he basically says exactly that.