Android handset sales are through the roof, making it arguably the most popular smartphone platform around. So why hasn’t Android gaming come on at the same rate? Why do the majority of developers prefer making games for the less popular iPhone? Read on to find out.
Fragmentation
Yes, it’s that ‘F’ word again. The main reason developers don’t like making games for the Android platform is because it really isn’t a single platform. Rather, it’s a somewhat nebulous collection of disparate chipsets, memory load-outs and screen sizes, linked by a common operating system. Even then, the operating system is split across multiple versions, with numerous companies adding their own resource-hogging elements.
It’s a nightmare when you want to get complex games running and optimised for the lot of them, which is why the iPhone’s relatively simple requirements (just a few different specs to consider) is preferable.
Android Market
Another reason game developers like the iPhone is because of the App Store. While it’s not perfect (especially when it comes to discovery), it remains a relatively easy and extremely widespread means to buy and sell apps. It also allows for flexible and innovative pricing methods, such as the enormously popular in-app purchasing.
By contrast, Android Market is a bit of a mess. Navigation is awkward, the payment system isn’t in nearly enough countries and features like in-app purchasing have only just been introduced. Android Market is getting there, but it’s happening a little too slowly, leading to the introduction of third party app stores from the likes of Amazon and Opera.
Distrustful gamers
“You’re just not making money in the Android space as you are in the iOS space.” So concluded games industry legend John Carmack, who had anecdotal evidence of Android’s wider popularity but perplexing lack of a credible games market. He believes that Android owning games fans simply aren’t willing to splash out for premium games on the platform like their iPhone-owning buddies. Could it be that gamers simply don’t have confidence in the Android gaming experience? Have the aforementioned fragmentation and Android Market issues tarnished the very idea of playing games on your Android handset?
The games-focused Xperia Play was seen by many as the device to change these perceptions, but as smartphone games developer Polarbit told us, “the Play differs too much from Android handsets in general for it to be seen as the champion of Android gaming.” Are normal Android devices seen as great smartphones but lousy gaming devices, in spite of the massive improvements that have occurred?
Lack of unique games
Distrustful gamers means distrustful developers, and Android Market has until recently been marked by a chronic lack of killer games. That’s ‘really good’ games, you understand, not games about psychos (although there weren’t many of those either). Now the situation is much healthier, but the fact remains that the vast majority of quality new titles make their way to iPhone first and often exclusively.
Some of the oldest and biggest iOS hits like Fieldrunners and Zen Bound show no signs of appearing on Android, and the Google platform has very few titles that are both outstanding in quality and unique to the platform. Inevitably, the platform with the most exclusive hits attracts the most gamers, and that’s the iPhone right now.
Slow conversions
Even worse, the games that do make the switch from iPhone to Android often take an absolute age to do so. Take Flight Control, which was winning praise and setting multiple platforms ablaze a good nine months before Angry Birds turned up. Yet somehow it took two years to arrive on Android. Heck, it even turned up on Windows Phone 7 and – can you believe it – Java dumb-phones before it hit the Android Market. Something is deeply wrong with this picture.
Credit goes to the likes of Gameloft and Rovio who try to get their Android versions out soon after or even simultaneously, but Android really needs more developers of this stature to get their conversions in order quicker.
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