Last night I had a good browse of the iOS app store on my iPad, which I haven't done for a few weeks. I picked up a couple of games - Nyx's quest and Rogue Sky - for 69p each, and also played a game I've had for a while but not got round to getting into yet: Nova 2.
All three have excellent 3D graphics, music and console-quality gameplay yet are all very different genres, and all three cost me less than ?5 IN TOTAL. And most of that was Nova 2.
Microsoft has a lot of money. A LOT of money. They should be looking at what Apple have done in mobile gaming from being nowhere a few years ago, and not let devs charge more in the WP7 marketplace but actively sub them to develop titles to attract buyers and widen the market. The games experience is the single thing I feel is genuinely lacking in the WP7 ecosystem. The OS is splendid and will only improve with mango, there are apps for more or less everything else you could want, there's the Zune store for music, and there's a great range of hardware. But the games are a weakpoint. And for the only phone with Xbox Live, that's absolutely glaring. Where's the WP7 exclusive Halo spinoff? The WP7 exclusive Gears of War spinoff? The Forza spinoff? And I mean proper 3D shooters/racers here, not some weird (and not that great anyway) subgame like Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst.
There's a huge opportunity here - the WP7 platform can offer base-level specs across the board so won't suffer from the crazy fragmentation of Android (the biggest market of all isn't that big if only 10% of users can run your premium title and it needs constant tweaks and adjustment for everyone else). There's a whole host of new users to be attracted from the WebOS community too. Seriously, MS - show the devs the money. Heck, pay for the games yourself. Just don't let the opportunity sail past.
All three have excellent 3D graphics, music and console-quality gameplay yet are all very different genres, and all three cost me less than ?5 IN TOTAL. And most of that was Nova 2.
Microsoft has a lot of money. A LOT of money. They should be looking at what Apple have done in mobile gaming from being nowhere a few years ago, and not let devs charge more in the WP7 marketplace but actively sub them to develop titles to attract buyers and widen the market. The games experience is the single thing I feel is genuinely lacking in the WP7 ecosystem. The OS is splendid and will only improve with mango, there are apps for more or less everything else you could want, there's the Zune store for music, and there's a great range of hardware. But the games are a weakpoint. And for the only phone with Xbox Live, that's absolutely glaring. Where's the WP7 exclusive Halo spinoff? The WP7 exclusive Gears of War spinoff? The Forza spinoff? And I mean proper 3D shooters/racers here, not some weird (and not that great anyway) subgame like Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst.
There's a huge opportunity here - the WP7 platform can offer base-level specs across the board so won't suffer from the crazy fragmentation of Android (the biggest market of all isn't that big if only 10% of users can run your premium title and it needs constant tweaks and adjustment for everyone else). There's a whole host of new users to be attracted from the WebOS community too. Seriously, MS - show the devs the money. Heck, pay for the games yourself. Just don't let the opportunity sail past.