One of the biggest weaknesses of the Android OS has been highlighted sharply this week, as games developer Gameloft has shown wavering support for the platform. The problem? Device fragmentation and revenue issues. But after announcing a major cut in Android investment, Gameloft has today announced an advanced High Definition games launch for the OS.
What’s the story?
Over the weekend, it came out that Gameloft had slashed the amount of money being invested in development for Android games. Reuters reported Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort‘s comment that it was not along in cutting investment in the platform.
The main reasons are very simple. First, the Android Market is not up to the standard of the iTunes app store and is harder to sell applications on. Second, the large variety of Android devices makes it hard to design an app that will work on all of them. Different device capabilities and screen sizes makes it a pain to create an app for the Android OS in general, and developers find themselves making a game for a single Android device. But if you create a game for iPhone, it will run on all iPhones.
So what’s new?
Today Gameloft has announced that it will be releasing mobile games in High Definition for certain Android devices. Specifically, the Droid and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10:
Hmmm, I wonder why?
Gonzague de Vallois, vice-president of Publishing at Gameloft said that “the arrival of this new generation of phones will allow the development of High Definition games that make the most of the technological capacity and the speed of execution offered by the new Android phones. Consumers will benefit from a top quality gaming experience”.
What we think?
This is going to be a constant problem for Android going forward, and it’s one that I didn’t realise until quite recently. I’d been so caught up in the ability of the Android to fill any device niche that I didn’t notice how much of a pain that would be for a developer. Unless you have pretty much limitless time and resources, you can’t cater for all the design choices you’ll need to make for the different Android devices. How advanced is the touch-screen? Where will the buttons be? What size and shape is the screen? What kind of on-board capabilities does it have? So you’re faced with the option of creating a crappy lowest-common-denominator game, or doing what Gameloft has done. Take the Android devices that are most similar to an iPhone, and develop games for them.
They said a week ago that they don’t want to develop on Android and no one really cared.
Now in less than a week they are back with a new development plan for Android and still no one really cares.
In fairness to Gameloft, it never suggested it wouldn’t develop for Android. It said it was cutting back on the amount of development it was doing for Android. Presumably we’ll only see the effects of that in the future months, and any projects Gameloft has had in the pipeline will continue to roll out for the time being.
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Everyone seems to be looking for deep meanings, here, while the truth sits right in front of you.
I mean, have you tried any of Gameloft’s offerings for Android? To be kind, they are sub-par…bad enough to make you look back with fondness on your old Nintendo 64 system. (Presumably, Gameloft cut costs by making quick & dirty ‘ports’ rather than crafting fresh, custom code.) Even so, Gameloft chose to price their Android games exactly the same as their vastly superior iPhone originals. If this combination isn’t a recipe for failure, then I don’t know what is.
So, I see this week’s dueling statements as nothing more than calculated distraction. Mssr. Rochefort can complain all he wants – about Google’s game plan, or Android Market’s design, or even the buying habits of Android users – but it doesn’t change the fact that his company put forth mean, mediocre effort. Its a poor carpenter who blames his tools and, similarly, its a poor CFO who answers the shareholders’ testy queries by blaming poor sales on everything _except_ his product.