iphone has awesome games - why doesn't android?

[strategy]

Good point. But what does this mean for gamers like me who would rather pay for a game up-front rather than be bombarded with ads for "free?"

I wish I could tell you - if I knew, I would be selling that knowledge to the highest bidder.

I may be reading too deeply into your comments, but you seem to be implying that it may be more profitable for developers to make second-rate, ad-supported ports of their iOS titles rather than create a paid title for Android. This is quite depressing...

It will depend from developer to developer. Though I have to say that I do find the example of Angry Birds somewhat depressing too. This is, after all, without a doubt the most anticipated title on Android yet, and would pretty much have been guaranteed to make tens of thousands of sales in its first hours... one would certainly have expected them to make a lot of money through sales. Ads can certainly be lucrative with a large enough user base, but that lucrative? To me, the decision to drop that approach suggests an unfortunate lack of confidence in the profitability of the sales model in the Android market.

Google are committed to improving the market, though, so we shouldn't get too carried away with the doom and gloom. There are also an increasing number of competitors coming to the scene (I'm particularly interested in what Amazon will bring to the table), and these will help put more pressure on the Android market to improve.

Long term, I am actually pretty optimistic for the platform; it still has a lot of unreleased potential.

 

[j0hnh0lmes]

Long term, ads will profit more than a one time sale. They made the right choice. They were talking about releasing an ad-free version but I have yet to hear anything since release.

 

[Erischilde]

I downloaded HeavyGunner ony gf's I4 and on my Samsung Galaxy:

Generally i feel i have the better hardware, but the dual touch doesn't seem nearly as sensitive. I can't find high gear games, or big grapchics, and defiantely AR games are now where near the caliber if Mac games available...

I feel like some things get lost in transaltion from iPod to Android and it hurts.. recent games: Rage HD, Falcon Gunner, ... nothing like that for my poor, suffering Droid *sinff*

Scew Mr. Jobs and his platform, i was on a waiting list to get one untill Galaxy vame out and i jumped all over it. I pay willingly for better apps, and with the freedom that developpers have on the Droid platform over iPoop, it's hard to believe that we can't the same quality toys...

 

[strategy]

Long term, ads will profit more than a one time sale.

That is definitely variable - it depends very much on how much your app is used after it is downloaded.

Intuition would definitely suggest that ads would trump sales in the long run, but the only study done of this so far actually suggests the opposite - usage patterns for apps are very short term (people spend a couple of weeks and then move on to the next shiny toy). As a result, revenue from ads per user is pretty small and meaning that you need hundreds of downloads to generate the same amount of revenue as one sale for most apps. This is also supported by the anecdotes I've heard from other developers; revenue from sales is generally several times higher than revenue from ads.

Whether this would be the case for Angry Birds is another matter. As mentioned, they are on a special beta program with Admob, so are most likely making better revenue with their ads than "regular" developers.

 

[qqzzxx]

let me do a example
look at how may ppl bought fruit ninja, and how many copy about fruit ninja on android market, then u konw why
a game called fruit slice hit 50000-250000 in 5days
ye its free and its a copy from fruit ninja, and its suck

 

[Legion]

*ahem* "Someone" just released a port of minigore for android. I cannot post it here, as it would constitute warez. Oh but its out there.....*looks wistfully towards the horizon*

 

[Elisheba]

iPhone has more games because of 3 simple reasons:

1. OVERRATED!
2. OVERHYPED!
3. (Seriously) App Store had a head-start compared to Android Market, Apple persuade (possibly blackmail) companies to develop games ONLY for their platform.

I agree.
But there are also many games, free or paid on the Android Market that are so cool.
There are also a few companies that develop games for iphone ,ipad and Android and that is nice!

 

[Vanquished]

*ahem* "Someone" just released a port of minigore for android. I cannot post it here, as it would constitute warez. Oh but its out there.....*looks wistfully towards the horizon*

This game is a pretty sweat iOS game. Is it a leaked version the developers are working on or did some third party port it? I'd love to see this game in the Android Market.

 

[Essex]

So far, the conversation in this thread has focused on content (or lack thereof) distributed via the Android Market. But what about Flash games? I always knew about Flash games but I never really played them. I knew Android 2.2 was Flash-compatible, but I mostly use Flash to watch videos.

Today, I stumbled across an app called Flasher,* and it makes Flash games easily accessible. To my surprise, some of the games are actually quite creative and fun. So Android does have its advantages over iOS...


____________________

*This link cannot be opened from a desktop or laptop computer. It can only be opened by devices running Android 2.2. Additionally, "Flasher" only works for Flash-enabled Android devices. As an aside, I think the developer of "Flasher" just might be on to something big...

 

[sremick]

If developers are unhappy with the size of the Android market, they have to take some responsibility. Providing apps for Android will help grow the market. Someone has to break the chicken/egg deadlock... and consumers are more short-sighted than developers should be.

If they boycott the Android platform because there aren't enough users, then they are being hypocrites since they are part of the problem. You don't wait until there are people in the amusement park to only then build the rides.

 

[OM2]

some great replies

how can android attract more developers and get decent applications?

how about this:

- raise the cost of the handsets - no magic formula needed, just double the prices
- spend a lot of money on advertising to show how 'cool' android is
- hire a few guys from apple and improve the interface

the result:

- only rich, well off intelligent people have the phones
- these people have cash to burn and are happy to pay
- you'll get rid of the people who never buy applications or games - people who buy the cheaper range android phones

google are free to do this - in affect, they have a duopoly (same thing as monopoly - except with 2 players in the market)
people won't have a choice - they'll just have to pay more or go back to the 'dumb' phones of old - or worst still, go to nokia

yes sure they will lose lots of users - but the more rich and sophisticated users that stay who are willing to pay for applications (+ the fact that they are charging double for the handsets) will make up for it - and the bottom line will be that they make more money

disclaimer: just playing devils advocate - i don't necessarily agree with some of the things said above!

 

[OM2]

awesome games for the android??
ok, i think i might be the last person in the world to discover this: but has anyone used the emulators!???
(i think one or 2 people did mention this early on in the responses)

i've only tried the free snes emulator so far
damn WOW!! damn awesome games!!

if anything, i think it gets rid of any myths about the hardware issues with the android phones
it is possible to have great games!

so, i think there are maybe 3 parts to the equation:

1. developers - they need to be convinced to develop games
2. we need to buy and pay for games more! i think the growth of android phones will just make it economically viable eventually
3. google: they need to start dating and flirting with developers and entice them in

i think we should be charging for such advice to google - there's been some great replies on this thread

 

[sremick]

awesome games for the android??
ok, i think i might be the last person in the world to discover this: but has anyone used the emulators!???
(i think one or 2 people did mention this early on in the responses)

i've only tried the free snes emulator so far
damn WOW!! damn awesome games!!

Except most people prefer to stay on the legal side of the fence. Unless you own all the games you're playing the ROMs of in your emulators, you're breaking the law (copyright infringement, akin to illegally downloading/sharing music and movies)... and the vast majority (I'd guess over 99.99%) of users using emulators are not doing so legally.

So I'd be cautious of advocating what is in-essence an illegal activity.

 

[OM2]

Except most people prefer to stay on the legal side of the fence. Unless you own all the games you're playing the ROMs of in your emulators, you're breaking the law (copyright infringement, akin to illegally downloading/sharing music and movies)... and the vast majority (I'd guess over 99.99%) of users using emulators are not doing so legally.

So I'd be cautious of advocating what is in-essence an illegal activity.

oh yes: 100% right
i don't mean to advocate at all
i'm not a big game player in any case - so won't be doing illegal acitivities

for me it was just interesting to see that it is possible to have awesome games on android and that the reasons we have NONE that come even close to what u can get on iphones is to do with other 'artificial' reasons

 

[sremick]

Download the free version of Pocket Legends to see what's possible on Android. Very impressive. I wouldn't go so far as to say that "we have NONE". Maybe not as many, but that's more the developers' fault than Android's.

 

[Rob_A]

there are great new games being released on Android ALL the time. This thread is moot.

 

[OM2]

there are great new games being released on Android ALL the time. This thread is moot.

please enlighten us with some amazing titles we should try
i'm really sad: every 2 days i have a rummage through market to see if any new applications or games have been released + regularly search for 'top android games/applications' on google - never come up with any decent results
would be great to get your list

i looked up the word moot - didn't know what it meant. it means pointless/meaningless or something to that effect
i think if u have a look at how many people replied acknowledging that the android market simply does not compare to the iphone one (at this moment in time) - for several reasons - u'll see that maybe calling it moot is not fair

Download the free version of Pocket Legends to see what's possible on Android. Very impressive. I wouldn't go so far as to say that "we have NONE". Maybe not as many, but that's more the developers' fault than Android's.

i tried that. gave it 5 minutes. didn't think much. i'll give it another go on ur recommendation. thanks

 

[Rob_A]

please enlighten us with some amazing titles we should try
i'm really sad: every 2 days i have a rummage through market to see if any new applications or games have been released + regularly search for 'top android games/applications' on google - never come up with any decent results
would be great to get your list

i looked up the word moot - didn't know what it meant. it means pointless/meaningless or something to that effect
i think if u have a look at how many people replied acknowledging that the android market simply does not compare to the iphone one (at this moment in time) - for several reasons - u'll see that maybe calling it moot is not fair


i tried that. gave it 5 minutes. didn't think much. i'll give it another go on ur recommendation. thanks

Just read these forums and you'll see lots of lists in various threads. I've also posted my appbrain list in my profile.

 

[OM2]

Just read these forums and you'll see lots of lists in various threads. I've also posted my appbrain list in my profile.

apart from one or two titles that we all know are good games, i didn't see anything in ur list that excites me
my original question in my post was that i was amazed and gobsmacked by some of the games i saw on someones iphone 3g (forget 3gs or even 4g) - the games were brilliant and nothing like i'd ever seen on android

i doubt that there are games that i haven't heard of - having searched and searched and searched!

 

[OM2]

thanks for the reply
a lot of titles i haven't heard of before

Reckless Racing - not found in market
Squibble - not found in market
Gish Reloaded - found!! looks like a really weird game - gave it 2 min then gave up - in terms of looks and first impressions - i would say it looks promising
Splode - not found in market
Guns'n'Glory - i'd installed this before and have removed - this looks really classy, i would say though
EVAC HD - not found in market
Cargo! HD - not found in market
Slice It! - not heard of this before. look really good! game is simple - not something i would play repeatedly - but great all the same - great graphics - looks promising
Droidkoban 3D Pro - found - a paid application - i didn't bother looking at - less than 50 downloads - is this a recent release?
Cestos - looks interesting, couldnt get my head round how to play - need to give more time to
Must.Eat.Birds - 10mb download - my x10 mini pro is starving of space - looking at the pics, it looks like a copy of angry birds
Tiki Towers - not found in market
Touch Racing Nitro - not found in market - pics look promising though
emulators (PSX, GBA etc.) - so far, i have tried snes emulator - millions of titles - but to be honest only a few good games worth playing - won't be using

i've got android 2.1 on x10 mini pro - is this why some titles couldn't be found?

 

[HaMMeReD]

I'm out there telling the world that I have personally published two games on Android. One just came out of Beta, and the Other just was Launched today. I think they are pretty damn good, especially considering I'm only a independent dev. All my applications use opengl and provide a pretty visually stunning level of performance, at least in comparison to the average game on the market targeted to 1.6. (I target 2.1, but might bring it back soon, when I have testing devices available at my next job).

If you want to check them out "Alien Defense Force" and "Grid Smasher". They are both 100% free and completely ad-supported, so you pay for them just by playing them. The more people play the more I can afford. It actually works very well in the mobile platform to just advertise in your game, because the margins are so low on sales and advertising is a recurring income.

 

[OM2]

hammered, great, i'm going to look at ur games a little later

i've been toying with the idea of developing android games myself - my main motivation: the lack of great titles out there - i don't think it would take a lot to make a great game

take angry birds, that's a great game, great graphics - but something i could create in about a week! - i've got lots of programming experience - but just haven't developed for android

or, well... i mean at least i thought i could create in a week!!
i read that it cost rovio $100,000 to make!
+ that they made $8m on iphone platform BUT apparently, they're making $1m EVERY month from ads on android - that's just mind boggling!

if nothing else, i think that shows that maybe android is a feasible platform to develop on?

 

[Rob_A]

Here u go m8

thanks for the reply
a lot of titles i haven't heard of before

Reckless Racing - not found in market
Reckless Racing - Android app on AppBrain

Squibble - not found in market
Squibble - Android app on AppBrain

Splode - not found in market
Splode - Android app on AppBrain

EVAC HD - not found in market
EVAC HD - Android app on AppBrain

Cargo! HD - not found in market
Cargo! HD - Android app on AppBrain

Tiki Towers - not found in market
Tiki Towers - Android app on AppBrain

Touch Racing Nitro - not found in market - pics look promising though
Touch Racing Nitro - Android app on AppBrain

 

[OM2]

lol
thanks for the reply rob
i'm paranoid at the moment and refuse to install applications from anywhere else apart from market

question: why aren't they available on market??

i'm just afraid that if i use a 3rd party application, then my credit card details will be stolen and i will rack up

 

[Rob_A]

OM2, appbrain is just an extension of the market,they don't host any apps. Everything you see on Appbrain is just a link to the official market. You don't need to allow other apps, the appbrain app itself is found in the official market.

Alot of people are using appbrain because of how easy it is to browse by catagory on your pc, create lists, etc.