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Those who haven’t been keeping up with the iOS gaming scene might not know that Infinity Blades – a high quality slasher by Epic Games – was released this week. Naturally, gaming folks want to know if Epic will be bringing it to Android. Although they still have plans to bring the Unreal Engine to Android, them developing their own games isn’t something they’ve had the desire to do.
I’ll let you guess his reasoning. Come up with anything yet? No? Fragmentation, of course. Echoing John Carmack of id Software’s sentiments, dealing with Android isn’t something they want to focus on right now because as there’s a lot of good hardware, it’s all over the place.
That’s fair, but why lock yourself into iOS? The smartphone market is funny because it seems to get completely opposite forms of reaction from developers compared to the PC market. Developers have no problems with developing a game against a minimum set of specifications and letting users know what they need to run the games. With PCs (mainly those running windows) there are desktops and laptops, some with dedicated graphics and some without, some with a beefy processor and some with Pentium 3 processors. And some run Windows 2000 while some run the latest and greatest.
Android is the same way, so why not treat it the same way? There are some very powerful phones out right now and there will be a lot more powerful phones in the coming year. The reality is that not everyone’s going to get the same experience. Only those who pony up the cash to own cutting edge technology will be able to run cutting edge software at the end of the day. Something tells me Mark Rein is more concerned about making a profit on Android – which I would’ve taken as a good reason as to why they would only want to focus on iOS – but this whole fragmentation circus is just starting to scream “laziness” to me. [via Pocket Gamer]
Isn’t developing for Android kind of like developing for PC?
PCs are “fragmented” too, but good developers don’t seem to have any problems with that.
Google should just buy a good game development studio and start pushing good games for Android.
as you said, is simpler focus on a iOS because they’ve to make it work only on 3 phones (iPhone 4, 3GS and 3G), on Android they’ve different graphic chips, different processors, different version of the OS, etc. even thou most of the high end phones right now run on qualcomm snapdragon chipsets or hummingbird.
So yes, they’re simply lazy but i still hope to see this and their future titles on Android.
I’ll tell ya what since they are a bunch of ios fanboys, lets not buy any of their games. And when Android becomes the dominant platform, they’ll languish in obscurity, and when they ask why they’re games aren’t popular we’ll cite the same reason we’ll cite when ever addressing a developer who wouldn’t develop because of fragmentation “lack of effort”. Yes that’s right all you developers who wont develop for Android now because of fragmentation (the great bugaboo that steveo likes to trot out to try to scare developers and consumers away from Android) get used to that term because your going to hearcit a lot as all the money goes to someone else
what a great loss…. to epic that is.
Screw them. Games or no games, droid army will continue its rampage in 2011. They need us more than we need them.
Who cares? I’ve got a PS3, but if I wanted the XBOX exclusives I’d buy that system too. I don’t want Android to try to copy iOs… I’m actually OVER hearing the 2 compared to each other like it’s REALLY a competition… there is more than enough room for 2 good mobile OSs’ in this world… Android should be self centered and user centered and work on it’s own magnificence rather than try to have everything the iphone has. Can’t get Infinity Blade? Come up with one BETTER is what I always say! I’ll be HAPPY the day iphone is trying to get something Android has!
The reason is because then you get users that are cheap bastards with crappy phones who bitch about the app not looking as good, or running well, etc, and give it one star ratings. Basically a bunch of pansies…
That’s what xbox 360, wii, and ps3 is for! Android don’t need high tec games! Uses your money to improve your device. Example make a better screen resolution and longer battery life then ip4!
I hate iOS but I can agree to a point. There’s just one version of the OS to deal with. Preferably they should just set minimum specs for Android games like 1GHz processor, 512MB ram, so much storage and leave it at that because personally i would develop for the latest version, preferably Gingerbread and everyone on versions under that is just left out. It’s not that hard.
Ahem (clears throat) (drinks water) HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Android is for nerds, programming geeks, high tech gadget nerds – NOPE! And PS for the same price as the evo 4g you can get twice as much memory, and better quality flash solid-state memory too, plus 100 more pixels per inch, and 200,000 more game apps business apps etc etc. BAHAHAHA! Enjoy your angry birds halloween version that finally came out during the christmas holidays!
Hardware and software fragmentation is the issue here, not lazy devs.
Cry about it all you want but when you can buy a range of devices with different screen res, cpu speed, ram config and os differences it is a nightmare for games devs to produce on.
It takes thousands of man hours to make the tools and the engines to run these games.
Also Android suffers from freeware syndrome (like linux) in that many uses will not pay for apps. Take Angry Birds for example, having to be ad supported as the devs statted that no one would pay for it (even though they have backtraked on that statement).
I had thought that my Nexus 1 might just run this game, but after playing it on my iPhone 4, I’m sorry to say I can’t see it happening. Maybe on Nexus S.
lol @iorules…meanwhile iOS sales remain flat as Android passes right on by. Doesn’t look like people want extra pixels and internal storage now does it?
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As for Epic….their loss. Again…look at the sales. Soon they’ll be shipping for the minority market. If it were me I’d go ahead and focus on the high end handsets. Push Google to allow you to filter apps by the power of the handset so that folks with lesser devices don’t even see the games. And to be honest will it really even matter come next year when the low end handsets are what we call high end today and there are dual and quad core Tegras on the market? Just about any device will be able to handle it. Just sounds like lazy developers to me.
Get and Ipod Touch 4g that is what I did and my phone is a rooted Vibrant. You won’t lose.
@Slaguru….have you ever heard of a PC? You know those things we used before the smartphone boom. They have all kinds of different processors, screen sizes, GPU’s all of varying power. Yet somehow game devs write games that work on most of them and just ignore the ones that aren’t powerful enough. Truly amazing idea huh?
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As for Angry Birds they are making 1 million per month on ads. Are they making 1 million per month on iOS sales?
It seems to me that EPIC is just choosing the easy way out here. Hardware fragmentation is not a good enough reason to not support the Android platform. But anyway, as the Android platform matures and even low-end/mid-end phones start using a Cortex A8 chip, things should get easier for developers. Also I think in the end there will be only 2-3 major chip makers for Android phones and tablets (kind of like Intel and AMD in PC world). My guess is those will be Nvidia (stock ARM+Geforce GPU), Qualcomm (Snapdragon/Adreno) and ARM itself (stock ARM CPU+Mali graphics). OMAP and PowerVR chips will be less used on the Android platform.
Storm14K aka Phil; that means that the 20+ mobile phone manufacturers that had to band together against apple (including phone veterans htc motorola and samsung) are Finally catching up with the One (1) apple barely on it’s 4th phone model. And on just One (1) high traffic network too. Android’s 20+ companies all together joining forces, barely reach apple and RIM’s market share. Your statistics only mean it’s a good start at best, not some victory considering the context. And with all your companies you till get angry birds late and microsoft gets netflix before you, with all companies blaming fragmentation.
And angry birds is a great example of how android makes things difficult for developer’s. Before the new ab versions came out for you, you only had the one version with ads (that would show up on top of where you needed to aim), and there was no ad free option. Now you get halloween apps during christmas (not even thanksgiving). And this is a simple game app, you just fling a bird, and the graphics just need to handle cartoons. At the end of the day, android gives it’s users major fragmentation, net results are 200k less app options overall, and much less choice for quality apps. Overpriced (see above) and not worth it at all.
@Storm14K aka Phil
A PC is the big box under my desk yeah ??… So yes I have heard of one, but Android and iOS are for phones, not desktop computers.
As PS’s (in this case ) run a unified OS platform, the development of games is dependant on the hardware, but minumum hardware specs are given of course.
In this case the minimum you kit you might require for this game to run would be say a Nexus S, or a Desire HD, is that fair enough ???
If thats the case then how many of us have those devices ???. I have an N1, what about you ????
The iPhone (3Gs and 4) seem to have enough grunt to make this look great, as it does on the iPad, and as these are the only devices you can buy at the moment (iPod Touch not withstanding), it gives the developers a great target, to concentrate time, effort and money.
Its just good economics.
As for AB making a million on Ads, sure thats what they say, and will continue to do so as long as Google big them up as much as they do as they are the only Flagship game on the Android platform at the moment.
I would love to see better Android games, but until Google stop carriers screwing the UI and give devs a chance to produce for one version of Android before announcing the next then Android will remain second (in terms of quality) to iOS in Apps at least.
Profitability? They haven’t heard of the Angry Birds story?
@terrence
MLB,Call of Duty, Bejeweled 2 + Blitz, Zombie Farm, TETRIS®
,Plants vs. Zombies, Doodle Jump, Cut the Rope, Trainyard etc, etc…
Top grossing iPhone apps all making great money on iOS. This is the sort of firepower the Android market needs. Not to mention Rage HD, Dungeon Hunter 2 and Infinity Blade.
re: the comment relating PC development to handset development… you’re proving the exact opposite of the point you’re trying to make.
PC gaming (the android analog) has suffered recently vs console gaming (the iOS analog) for exactly the reason you state. there is no ‘fragmentation’ in the console world. if you want to develop a ps3 game, then you make it. the fact that PC developers need to deal with thousands of hardware combinations is not something that helps the PC market – it is expensive and time consuming.
i’m not saying i don’t want to see top iOS titles on android (i definitely do). but to pretend that fragmentation isn’t a real issue, especially from a developer standpoint, is naive.
@Gearmonky you’d be right, except I was really only speaking from a technical standpoint. Console gaming has overtaken PC gaming due to simplicity and price. It’s cheaper to throw 2-400 down on a console and not have to worry about if it can play the latest games out for it for the next 5-7 years of its lifespan. Technically, these consoles are PCs. They know how to develop for PCs. They just choose not to because you don’t make money there unless you make an MMO. The same can be applied to Android. I’m not saying fragmentation isn’t an issue, but don’t let it hold you back.
Epic is not afraid to be an exclusive platform whore with their own games. You’ll never see Gears of War on a PS3, for instance.
Wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they have some sort of “arrangement” with Apple.
It’s their loss. As Rovio found out with Angry Birds and it’s successful in-game ad campaign there is a lot more potential with Android. These gaming companies are shooting themselves in the foot by not supporting Android.
I think Google needs to filter apps by device. They do it with software versions, is it that hard to do it with hardware?
Then Epic can make their game ad supported and be making droves of money like Rovio.
Honestly, I think it is laziness on the developer’s part. There are more and more iOS titles being ported to Android. They seem to have little to no problem with hardware fragmentation. Obviously it can be done and a big developer like Epic could easily make it happen.
@TheDrizzle It’s this ‘ad supported’ mentality android gamers have that prevent companies like Epic from taking the platform seriously.If you want quality titles, you have to be prepared to pay for it- its that simple.
All this talk of laziness is just bull, if any of you had the slightest background in app coding perhaps you’d understand. Infinity Blade took FIVE MONTHS of development to come out on a unified platform like iOS. Imagine the unreasonable amount of time it would take to develop for a fragmented platform like Android.You cant realistically expect them to code for every single half decent android phone out there. And yes, it IS about money.You spend that amount of manpower and resources developing a game, of course you want to turn a profit. With Android, they’d have to deal with developing for only the high end models, a far limited market when you consider the tens of millions of iPod Touch+iPhones out there.
Then we come to the PC-Android argument. Dont be naive, PC’s have far more resources to work with and have much more in common than android phones do. There are only two chip makers, amd and intel. Whereas on the Android scene you have every tom,dick, and harry making their own customizations to the ARM architecture.Plus, every PC runs windows the EXACT same way,no motorblur or htcsense sort of alterations.
Bottomline is, If Google wants to compete on the mobile gaming market,they need to either start manufacturing their own hardware, or form a coalition of handset makers dedicated to building smartphones that have similar internal components and architecture. Until then, you can whine all you want, android gaming will remain stagnant
@Quentyn Kennemer: only speaking from a technical standpoint? i’m not sure what part of my comment was from any standpoint other than a technical one. yes, the consumer side of the market likes the simplicity of consoles. i agree with that, but i’m not sure why you pointed it out. and yes, a console is technically a PC. but they are all *identical* PCs, which was my point. let me try to be more clear: developers have publicly stated, repeatedly, that developing for the PC (vs console) is a headache because of the exact reason you mentioned… except when you mentioned it you did so in a context that suggested that developers didn’t mind them, and therefore shouldn’t mind dealing with similar issues on a mobile platform. your logic is sound, but your underlying assumption is not.
Nvidia Tegra 2 will bring PC games to Android. Don’t need Epic.
Guys face it, Android market sucks and always will. I regret buying my droid x. Next stop, apple express. You guys can wait another 2 years with crapy games and apps. I’ll spend that time enjoying whats already out ther right know. Open your eyes and accept the fact we made wrong choice and wasted $200.
ACR, please, if the tegra 2 gives developers the tools they need to run their great graphics games, all the people on android with low quality graphics processors will not be able to buy the games. Only a very small percentage of android users even have 2.2, 30%. And still fragmentation will force the developers to test then customize for each and every OS version and phone model combination. This “open” OS should be open to all devs sure, but not open to all protocols and programming standards, that’s just an organized mess to any developer. The wide variety of hardware specs with OS version is why windows doesn’t get the great games that consoles have, and microsoft windows is microsoft windows.. And I don’t think the devs are lazy here, the company paying them is supposed to be frugal, so paying people to customize for every android phone but then end up with it being only usable by 30-45% of android users seems like a waste of money business wise. Either you get the high end phones (which still suffer from fragmentation) or the low end phones (which will never be Infinity Blade), so either way you lose half your possible audience unlike ios. I’m not sure what can fix it either, every phone has pretty unique hardware and unique time they get an OS upgrade so I’m not sure how google can organize all that information. Plus more android phone models come out all the time, so this fragmentation issue is getting worse each year.
And if these developers are supposedly being lazy and or greedy, why did microsoft mobile get the Netflix app before android? Microsoft mobile has ‘zero’ customers compared to android, but yet their cool profitable app got done first.. Fragmentation seems like a long drawn out process for developers from netflix who are clearly not lazy or smart (netflix even had public complaints about fragmentation). And notice how android got the rovio angry birds halloween finally during the xmas season? It just takes a lot longer to get through the fragmentation issues, even for very lucrative simple cartoon graphics angry birds. Angry bird’s simplistic style should be the easiest to program for the high profit it can generate, but you still get AB late. Even the normal android version was only the ad version, the ads used to come out on top of where you needed to aim in the games. Net results, more work (money for wages) for developers, less incentive for a small customer base with similar hardware/OS, less organization regarding phone models and os releases, and therefore less app options for android users. I wonder if google used the ‘openness of android’ as an excuse for their lazy engineers who designed android.
It’s Epic Games. Does anybody remeber when Mark Rein @ Epic said that the Wii will not sell well and they won’t produce for such a weak console? Yet they develop for the 360, even thought it’s weaker than the PS3. They try to capitzlize on markets they think will bring in the most money and shun others. But I’m pretty sure they wish they would have just ported Unreal tourney to the Wii as shovelware and made millions!:)
I must agree though, they need some consistancy here. I mean, Android is cool, but if feels like when you purchased phones based on features (LG Chocolate, RAZR, etc). I love my Vibrant, but very few games or movies take advantage of it’s SUPERAMOLED screen or it’s super powerful GPU (I hope you guys know, that, the same GPU in the iphone 4 is the same as the one in the Galaxy s series). Samsung makes chips for apple….
Actually, I think the companies should just do what Samsung did, create a line of phones. The GALAXY S phones all have the same core and that is what I think is awesome, compared, to say what HTC is doing. HTC makes great phones, but they are much too fragmented.
From a business standpoint, I can’t blame them though. You guys know how windos vista kind of started to use those rating systems and if you had a 3 star computer you can only get 3 star games? Google should do that.
None the less, this makes you feel cheated with the Nintendo Wii, considering the iPhone is smaller.
EVERYBODY!!!! ONE SEC….What the fuck are all these apple FANBOY RETARDS doing on a android website! Fucking lame! I never go to iPhone forums and troll to try and make a point. I guess they really have no life. Just ignore them.
Oh yeah, any iTard can start a comment and say “I regret buying my Droid X, next stop Apple Express” to try and convince us droids. iPhone is nothing compared to Droid X, Evo, Galaxy, Desire HD etc.etc. My guess is that they never tried one.
My Evo everything I ever wanted in my pocket. More than just apps.
@King. Look, when you start with the ‘android fanboy this’ and ‘itard that’, you come across quite frankly as a mindless drone. iPhones work for some people, android for others.Some are sold on the iphone because of the multitude of apps, others prefer android because of customization and variety.Everyone doesn’t HAVE to conform to your own likes, so deal with it.
That being said, I do believe Apple has the leg up on android,at least for now, for one simple reason- APPS. You could have a quad-core i7 stuffed into an android, but until you have apps that can take advantage of that speed and push it to its limit, all you have is shiny expensive mobile phone.Yes iPhones are slightly inferior to some android phones in specs, but an underpowered iPhone whose ‘inferior’ specs are being pushed to the max by apps is far, far better than a super fast android that’s just humming along to basic apps.Gameloft are trying to make inroads into the android market, but without any incentives they’ll end up abandoning the market.
The fragmentation on PCs is why serious gamers buy XBOX or PS3. All games have been tested properly with their hardware. Instead of the varying experience you get on a PC.
How many of you FANDROIDS have even BOUGHT any games for your precious fragmented platform? I see some of you crying your eyes and eating your hearts out blaming EPIC for ‘laziness’. How about ‘smarts’? Why waste money and effort developing for a platform where almost everything is “FREE”? If they ain’t free, then the users are probably geekinough to hack it for free anyways. They’d be at a loss. Better to have at the iOS users with purchasing power than freeloaders that expect every good thing in life to be free.
@King: I used a Samsung ‘droid for a couple seconds. The interface was fiddly, as were all the buttons it had, and the interface creaked along. To say the least, it was a FRUSTRATING experience, coming from last year’s iPhone, the 3Gs, which is still more fluid compared to this supposedly latest Android phone from Samsung.
Unless your droid can make you waffles and tea in the morning, it has NOTHING over my jailbroken 3Gs. I get all the customisability of a droid while retaining the fluidity and the app and game variety of the iOS. Pretty sweet deal.
@King
Well done on calling people names. I think you are right and that everyone who has a different point of view from you is wrong and a RETARD… Yeah a really mentally disabled person. That’s what everyone who likes something different from you is.
Just wondered if that’s the same for everything in your world.
If you like Chocolate Ice Cream I suppose if I like Vanilla that makes me a vTard, or maybe you like Coffee and I like Tea, that makes me a tTard…
I suppose telling you to grow up is retarded as well, but I hope you will one day learn to tolerate other peoples opinions.
Its people like you that gives Android owners a bad name.
I don’t think the Android can make waffles and tea, but let me check the iPhone… Yep, there’s an app for that! :-)
your all reatarded. the iOS is far superior to that of the android. The shitty little piggy-backing piece of hardware does not deserve to be called incredible. There is no way the full game could ever be even attempted to be put on such a crappy machine. iOS has a much faster processing speed and can process circles around the android. In Summation, the android is a piece of shit and what everybody knows, is that, the I series makes the best games.
All this app bullshit is so stupid. Do you really need to play call of duty or gears of war on your phone? Isn’t that what consoles as pc’s are for? Yes, it is good to have a game when you are bored but you don’t need to have the latest crysis game on your mobile. Doesn’t matter how many apps an app store has. I mean, phones are phones. Main use should be calling and texting. If you want portable gaming, get a PSP or a Nintendo DS if you are so worried about having the latest and best games in portable versions. I think people have gone a bit off on what phones are.
I think it is funny how when an actual developer states their own reasons for not supporting the android platform, the android fanboys suddenly turn cold and say,
“PHhhhh, who needs epic? They sucked, and I always hated them! You don’t need games on your phone! Blah!”
Well, on the iPhone, you don’t have to worry about that issue half as much. I love how some of you defend your platform to the death, but absolutely refuse to recognize it’s flaws.
Lets get down to the facts, shall we?
Like the developer said, Android is fragmented. Contest it all you want, but it is the reason why many phone developers are steering away from the platform. You can compare phones to PCs and attempt to say that PCs are fragmented as well, yet are highly successful. Even so, PC programmers at least make enough cash to be successful. It is hard enough to sell apps on the app store; it is 10x harder selling it on android’s market and being compatible with your phone or not. I am going to use Jobian terminology here, but for android, you have to program for the lowest common denominator. As far as apple is concerned, the lowest common denominator for games is the 3Gs, or iPhone 4; Essentially, two choices, compared to the hundreds of android phones out there. Therefore, it is a no brainer who you should program for, especially given how apps on iOS are literally several times more profitable than those on the android market.
Apple’s platform will always be on the cutting edge of advanced software and games not because their developers are “lazy”, “fanbois”, or whatever immature name you morons with absolutely no programming experience will throw out, but because apple’s platform is unified, lacks the incredible amount of fragmentation, thus allowing hardware developers to push their hardware to the limits. I am sorry that you fandroids have to live with this reality, but the reality is, no matter how much you worship your platform, it will have it’s flaws; You can’t simply defend it with illogical excuses and stupidity.
Please, Fandroids, STOP comparing the iPhone (hardware) to Android (OS) in terms of numbers. Of course Android is going to pass the iPhone in sheer numbers as it’s a FREE OS that is on 100+ phones/tablets around the world. Even comparing iOS to Android is a bit far fetched as that’s still comparing 100+ devices to 10 generations of iDevices in all. (not counting new Nano.)