• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Getting frustrated over Android games....

My priority was: amazing phone with amazing customization and amazing features. A high-end android phone beat out iOS hands down.

Gaming is a secondary priority... and while it's still pretty disappointing, I'm willing to take what I can get for now. It's like being a PC gamer and watching all the consoles get really great, PS3\XBOX exclusive titles. It sucks, but I prefer my PC for most of my gaming needs.

but you see...the xperia play is like a game console. So they have to bring all these games to Android.
 
but you see...the xperia play is like a game console. So they have to bring all these games to Android.
Not really. That's just 1 phone that happens to be on Verizon. A small portion of the Android population will own that phone. Probably not worth the time for developers to make a game for Android just because that phone exists.
 
Not really. That's just 1 phone that happens to be on Verizon. A small portion of the Android population will own that phone. Probably not worth the time for developers to make a game for Android just because that phone exists.

First of all, when was the last time Verizon had anything by SonyEricsson? This phone will be everywhere. They will sell it to China and India and the rest of the world.

And devs know that everyone who gets one gets it because of the games and not because they just want to check their gmail and play with widgets. It's very targeted.
 
Not really. That's just 1 phone that happens to be on Verizon. A small portion of the Android population will own that phone. Probably not worth the time for developers to make a game for Android just because that phone exists.

Doesnt matter how many users they have or even if its the most powerful gaming android phone anymore, nvidia and sony will put money behind them and get exclusives.

If they can attract new developers over to Android then great but I don't think that's whats happening.
 
how does the market suck for devs? I thought it was better than apples app store and google was much more lenient for devs, is there something we don't know about the market?

The Android market definitely doesn't suck, but it does have a few major drawbacks:

1) Rampant piracy. To date, almost 20% of the people playing the premium version of Dillo Hills are playing a pirated version. Other developers I've talked to report piracy rates as high as 80%.

2) Huge level of fragmentation. When a game developer makes a game for iPhone, they know that it's just going to work on every iPhone. They're all the same. They all have the exact same hardware, the same operating system, the same plugins. On Android, a game could work perfectly fine on one phone, but barely run at all on another phone.

3) Very low signal-to-noise ratio. This one is a double-edged sword. Android has a ton of spam apps, which means that you have to work your ass off to get your app noticed at all. Of course, this problem has a counterpart on the iOS market: while the signal-to-noise ratio is higher, that also means that your signal gets lost with all the other signals.

Ultimately, I think Android is a hell of a lot easier to develop for. The entry fee is lower, there is no tedious approval process, and the API is very simple. Once the game is actually programmed, though, there are some clear drawbacks to developing for Android. Hopefully, these will improve over time. :)
 
And devs know that everyone who gets one gets it because of the games and not because they just want to check their gmail and play with widgets. It's very targeted.

Even though the xpera play is bascially a desire hd with slide out controls.

If your going to release a pure gaming phone then why the hell it slower than phones released a year ago? :mad:
 
Even though the xpera play is bascially a desire hd with slide out controls.

If your going to release a pure gaming phone then why the hell it slower than phones released a year ago? :mad:

Umm you do realize that the Desire HD is one of the fastest phones from last year!? The Adreno 205 GPU is pretty damn fast.. don't confuse it with the older snapdragon using Adreno 200 found in the nexus 1, evo, incredible etc.

That said, i do agree that Sony should have used something a little stronger.. but the Adreno 205 is not bad.
 
Also, why doesn't Google weed out the crappy apps? When you to the top lists, like 20% is puzzle crap and wallpapers etc. Google is famous for their great algorithms right?

I think most of the crappy apps got ads, and thats why they don't weed them out.

To find great games, you must go scroll down many times to get to the quality games now and then.

What do you think?

Apple doesn't weed out crappy apps either, so don't lay that on google.
 
Umm you do realize that the Desire HD is one of the fastest phones from last year!? The Adreno 205 GPU is pretty damn fast.. don't confuse it with the older snapdragon using Adreno 200 found in the nexus 1, evo, incredible etc.

That said, i do agree that Sony should have used something a little stronger.. but the Adreno 205 is not bad.

I know all this, the Galaxy S and all it's variants use the SGX540 which is faster than Adreno 205 and they have been around for a good year already.

Adreno 205 is not bad by any means but they really should have used something better than this, if they used tegra 2 I might have even considered buying one, but Adreno 205? no way. :(

The new iPhone is probably going to be using the same GPU as the iPad 2, it's going to blow away Tegra 2 and the SGX540, Adreno 205 is last generation.
 
Funny that you say long in the tooth and then mention PS1 games LOL
Try more like C64, Amiga emulators that is long in the tooth :eek:

Now you're talking. I had another world, Amiga running on my N97. Now Spacehulk off the 3DO or Manic Miner off my spectrum (not rubber keys though, I'm not that ancient) would be cool!

Apologies, we digress.
 
Also, with the iPhone 5 likely to be released soon with the SGX543MP2, any games designed for that will be very difficult to port over to the current range of Android phones.

The Galaxy S2 may be able to handle them but everything else will be outdated, pretty much all of the best games on Android are iPhone ports so where does this leave Android gaming if most of the high phones on the market at using Tegra 2/SGX540 level performance or lower (Adreno 205)?

I can imagine some very upset xpera play/tegra 2 users in around 6 months time when they can't play new games, even more so if their on a 24 month contract.
 
Games are coming sooner or later.. Myself i have no problem with games cus i still havn't completed the ones i have :)
 
Apple doesn't weed out crappy apps either, so don't lay that on google.

You are kidding, right? I own both and I have to say the difference is night and day. Yes, the Apple store has junk but no where near the level of the Android market. Google has even admitted to their app store weaknesses.
 
Ultimately, I think Android is a hell of a lot easier to develop for. The entry fee is lower, there is no tedious approval process, and the API is very simple. Once the game is actually programmed, though, there are some clear drawbacks to developing for Android. Hopefully, these will improve over time. :)

Interesting. Reading other posts from developers it sounds like Android is just as difficult to develop for as iOS and then some.

Watch that approval process change soon. From reading recent posts it looks like Google is starting to clamp down on the OS now that it has a strong hold on the carriers. A good thing in my opinion but I know that would negate the whole "Android is open so that makes it better than iOS" argument. Personally, I think the garden wall isn't such a bad thing after dealing with the Captivate.
 
The current options are to:
1. Get over it.
2. Get out.

If you can't be satisfied with what is on offer, pick one of those. The Android Market has improved by leaps and bound over the last year and is only getting better. If that isn't good enough for you see option 2.

Leaps and bounds in the last year? Mmmmm, no, maybe some sprints but the improvements have been incremental at best. The market has barely changed since last summer. For every one great Android title the iPhone has seen five. While my Cappy has some decent titles my iPhone is running out space due to all of the great stuff that keeps coming out.

I am not getting out even if it isn't good enough thank you because I still love my Cappy warts and all but the iPhone gets the money now because it is obvious many developers have chosen to still ignore Android.
 
Back
Top Bottom