Home » Community » Forums » News Discussion » The Daily GameDev.net
  Intel sponsors gamedev.net search:   
[Control Panel] [Register] [Bookmarks] [Who's Online] [Active Topics] [Stats] [FAQ] [Search]

The Daily GameDev.net
Posted by: Oli Wilkinson at November 4, 2009 6:41:21 PM

Bearing fruit: Apple have confirmed (after third party speculation) that there is now over 100,000 apps on the App Store - a gushing endorsement. Whilst perhaps over editorialising here, I can't help feel that this isn't great news for developers. With such an already huge (and growing) number of apps people are already saying that success comes from being close enough to Apple to get featured. I'm holding out for the "get featured by Apple" app.

Ubisoft posts huge loss: Ubisoft are reporting a €80 million loss in the first half of their fiscal year. The company are still claiming to be on track for the rest of the year as it's weighted the biggest titles, games such as Assassin's Creed 2, for the end of this year.

Charity Starts at home: At least it does for Zoë Mode anyway. The games industry chraity inititative OneBigGame who raise money for children by the power of gaming have released details about "Chime" developed by Zoë Mode. It's available on XBox Live this winter and has seen contributions from music artists such as Moby and Paul Hartnoll. Nice one, guys.

iRage: John Carmack of id Software has talked about his desire to build an iPhone game based on Rage to coincide with its release on the other platforms in 2010. However the team at id are struggling to allocate resources to the iPhone with only 2 people working full time on the platform. Time is money. Money is time.

XBox 360 Scuttles Pirates: Modded your XBox 360 console to play pirate games? Well you've probably been forced to walk the plank along with the rest of the scurvy dogs that Microsoft have banned from the service. An important point is raised, however - if you've bought a used machine that was previously banned - you ain't covered due to non-transferrable warranties.

Jumping ship: Following on the pirate and sea-based theme, OTX are reporting (via Gamasutra) that up to 15% of people that play on the XBox 360 are looking to buy their sequels on the PS3. I'd say I was included in that stat myself.

Odds and Sods


ADVERTISEMENT

 previous story  next story 
 "The Daily GameDev.net" Discussion
Post Reply 
Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message lmelior     Member since: 6/16/2008  From: Phoenix, AZ
 Posted - 11/4/2009 3:31:08 PM
Quote:
Jumping ship: Following on the pirate and sea-based theme, OTX are reporting (via Gamasutra) that up to 15% of people that play on the XBox 360 are looking to buy their sequels on the PS3. I'd say I was included in that stat myself.

At the risk of starting a console flame war, I'd say this is due to a number of factors:

1. Free online multiplayer (this is a big one)
2. Lower perceived number of failures
3. Many people only recently picked up the PS3 due to the price drop and want to buy multi-platform games for their shiny new system (or non-shiny system, since Sony did away with the glossy look) to make the purchase more worthwhile.

Also, I noticed something surprising: Dragon Age: Origins is actually getting lower review scores on 360 than PS3, by both Gamespot (the only publication that has ranked them differently) and users of several game sites (IGN, Gamespot, Metacritic). Usually that's the other way around, and this is especially surprising considering BioWare was going to delay the PS3 release.

Has the state of PS3 development finally overcome the difficulty level and caught up to 360 development?

  User Rating: 1100   |  Rate This User   Send Private MessageView ProfileReport this Post to a Moderator | Link

Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message GnomeTank     Member since: 2/20/2007  From: Houston
 Posted - 11/4/2009 4:52:20 PM
15% is still a pretty small number, considering you're talking about 15% of people that actually own both systems and have a choice in the matter.

Personally, I am not in that 15%. The 360 is the center of my console gaming universe, and when I can keep it as such, I do. Saved games, Live profile, friends lists, all accrued over three years. I don't feel like making a total platform shift to the PS3. The PS3 is a purely exclusive system for me at this point.

  User Rating: 1023   |  Rate This User   Send Private MessageView ProfileReport this Post to a Moderator | Link

Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message BLiTZWiNG     Member since: 4/10/2006  From: Brisbane, Queensland
 Posted - 11/4/2009 7:38:50 PM
What are these "consoles" you speak of...

Games are not games unless there is a keyboard and mouse present!

  User Rating: 1088   |  Rate This User   Send Private MessageView ProfileReport this Post to a Moderator | Link

Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Moe     Member since: 1/24/2000  From: Calgary, Alberta
 Posted - 11/4/2009 8:40:46 PM
I'd be interested in seeing some other iPhone related stats - namely mean, median, and mode of downloads. I'm guessing that a lot of the apps get very few downloads and a few of the apps get the majority of the downloads. I suppose it really is like that in any other market though.

  User Rating: 1620   |  Rate This User   Send Private MessageView ProfileReport this Post to a Moderator | Link

Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Gaiiden  GDNet Content Lead   Member since: 8/30/2000  From: Lincroft, NJ
 Posted - 11/5/2009 12:11:14 AM
Quote:
Original post by GnomeTank
15% is still a pretty small number, considering you're talking about 15% of people that actually own both systems and have a choice in the matter.

Interesting. That makes sense, but I wonder if the statistic does indeed assume the players own both systems. Perhaps some do, perhaps some are looking to buy a PS3 in addition to the game sequel, so there's a bit of conversion going on perhaps?

The article link is missing so I can't find out.

  User Rating: 2077   |  Rate This User   Send Private MessageView ProfileReport this Post to a Moderator | Link

Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Xest     Member since: 8/14/2000  From: United Kingdom
 Posted - 11/5/2009 5:43:04 AM
I don't think that 15% statistic even makes sense. I'd be suprised if 15% of XBox 360 / PS3 owners even own both consoles or plant to, let alone all of them consider switching. Sure plenty of people do own both, but to turn that statistic around that means about a fifth (20%) of PS3 owners also own XBox 360s. That seems an extraordinarily high figure to me for dual ownership when the two consoles really have very very few exclusives to separate them nowadays.

Regarding reviews Imelior, it's pointless to try and draw anything from that because there are just too many possible reasons for it- sure the PS3 version could be better, but it could also be that the PS3 has fewer games and historically those it does have have been lower quality ports of the DirectX Windows/360 versions. If Dragon Age is actually a good port then it may be rated higher on the PS3 because it's better than what PS3 owners are used to. The fact is we don't know the reason so it's pointless to speculate.

I suppose the sales figures will tell the full story over the next couple of weeks to give a better picture. In general I take survey based figures like this with a pinch of salt anyway as they rarely ever seem to be done on balanced population samples.

  User Rating: 1027   |  Rate This User   Send Private MessageView ProfileReport this Post to a Moderator | Link

Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message lmelior     Member since: 6/16/2008  From: Phoenix, AZ
 Posted - 11/5/2009 1:17:52 PM
Quote:
Original post by Xest
Regarding reviews Imelior, it's pointless to try and draw anything from that because there are just too many possible reasons for it- sure the PS3 version could be better, but it could also be that the PS3 has fewer games and historically those it does have have been lower quality ports of the DirectX Windows/360 versions. If Dragon Age is actually a good port then it may be rated higher on the PS3 because it's better than what PS3 owners are used to. The fact is we don't know the reason so it's pointless to speculate.

I agree with you for user reviews, but GameSpot reviews each version separately and compares them:
Quote:
The PlayStation 3 version features higher-quality textures than those on the Xbox 360, better color saturation, smoother facial animations, and shorter load times. Minor visual hiccups, like corpses that disappear and reappear, are a bit more common on the PS3, however. The PC version is the superior experience, but if you're choosing between the two console releases, the PlayStation 3 has the upper hand. Some minor glitches are shared between the console versions, however, such as rare occasions when the soundtrack or voice-overs disappear. We also ran into a few quest malfunctions that could be replicated on all three platforms, though they were relatively minor and did not interfere with the progress of the main quest.


Of course it doesn't really matter for me either way. I'm getting the PS3 version because it's the only choice I have, between not having a 360 and not having PC hardware that can handle the game.

Also, I actually read the OTX article today (link didn't work yesterday) and those percentages apply to owners of Assassin's Creed who were planning on purchasing the sequel. Whether you can extrapolate those results to the general gaming populace, I have no idea.

  User Rating: 1100   |  Rate This User   Send Private MessageView ProfileReport this Post to a Moderator | Link

All times are ET (US)

Post Reply		 previous story  next story 
Forum Rules:
You may post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not edit your posts
You may use HTML in your posts
Jump To:
Administrative Options: