Looking on the apple site the only affordable gaming device they have is the iPod Touch(32GB) at £200.  Meanwhile, in Android land you can pick up a decent smart phone for the same price.   Until Apple addresses this issue developers will have to go where the money is, and that is with the consumers - not the platform they prefer to develop for.  And the majority of users own an Android device because it is more affordable and - where it counts - is good enough for their needs.

What complicates things further is that one requires a Mac to develop for iOS. Android can be developed on any platform, but iOS requires workarounds at best to run on Windows or Linux.

But even if there was an Apple device that delivered "bang-for-buck", both Android and Apple still do not have devices with a built-in, solid-button, game pad(there are some but certainly not enough to matter).  Sure one can connect a blu-tooth controller, but developers cannot develop a game around an input device that is not the standard.  Stalker and Morrowind seem to be action-based first-person games which require at least a gamepad to function...

That said, Arcade can only help the current iOS game market.  My experience is with Android, but over the years word around the camp fire has always been that iOS is less hassle to develop for and play on.  Anything that strengthens that can only be a good thing.

Since the passing of Steve Jobs, I've not had much faith in the future of Apple. Whether one could afford an apple product or not, there was no escaping their existance thanks to the man who made sure we knew about them! Sadly, I honestly could not tell anyone what apple is up to these days - last I heard there was something about a TV wrist-thing and that they set up a large round building for the next generation of Apple workers to feel more comfortable in.  I guess I'd have to Google(Ha-HAAAAAA!) it to find out more...

...sorry, that was bellow the belt...?

On 4/5/2019 at 4:32 AM, Anri said:

Until Apple addresses this issue developers will have to go where the money is, and that is with the consumers

Not necessarily true. "More customers = more money" only applies if all customers are the same.

iOS customers tend to spend way more than their Android counterparts. iOS apps are frequently more profitable.

11 hours ago, ChaosEngine said:

Not necessarily true. "More customers = more money" only applies if all customers are the same.

iOS customers tend to spend way more than their Android counterparts. iOS apps are frequently more profitable.

 

There is something to be said for that.  A loyal user base that values quailty over quantity is enough to sustain a business, and to a point customers are willing to pay for that quality.  The Apple platform seems to be profitable enough - regardless of what Android is up to.

But keeping in mind the subject of this thread, Arcade is not going to make much of a mark on the current Android climate - aside from Google's inevitable response, unveiling their own technology thus putting the situation back to square one again.  While Apple has boasted more comfortable development of apps, Google pushed forward with Android Studio to even the odds.  With Arcade looking good, I would not be surprised if Google has its own cake in the oven.

I really doubt this’ll much change mobile games. Mostly the change we will see will be that there’ll be less f2p model games. The quality will also certainly go up. However, they’ll still be a far cry from AAA hardcore games. 

I’d imagine we may see more single player type games, more one shot play through style games, instead of games that are intensely focused on grinding and replay value, since profit is driven by a very different model now. Though we still don’t know many details.

Does anyone know who’s eligible to develop, what the model for making money is, etc?