Handheld VS smartphone, casual VS core e altre considerazioni sul mobile

[Turrican3]

UPDATE forse non tutto è perduto... --> https://www.gamers4um.it/public/smf/index.php?topic=8084.msg142817#msg142817

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ORIGINAL POST

Facciamo ciao ciao con la manina a tri-Ace (Star Ocean e altro), la software house nipponica è stata acquisita da Nepro Japan e da oggi in poi sarà al lavoro su prodotti per il mondo mobile:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=995873

[stobbArt]

Rip

[Bluforce]

Mammamia...

E' che tutti vanno sperando in questi numeri:
http://games.hdblog.it/2015/02/16/Candy-Crush-Saga-nel-2014-acquisti-in-app-per-11-mld-di-euro/

Nei prossimi anni mi sa che assisteremo ad esodi di massa verso il lido "mobile".

[Turrican3]

http://files.nepro.jp/jp/ir/pdf/release232.pdf

(See page 8 of the slide)

Looks like new parent company wants tri-Ace to keep supporting consoles (that includes handhelds I assume). Good

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=155175958&postcount=548

Spiraglio per Tri-Ace?
Pare che i nuovi proprietari intendano mantere attivo lo sviluppo su console.

[Turrican3]

As an added bonus, Candy Crush Saga will automatically be installed for customers that upgrade to or download Windows 10 for periods of time following the game launch.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/05/games-candy-crush-saga-is-coming-to-windows-10

Candy Crush "di serie" con Windows 10.

[Turrican3]

http://neojaponisme.com/2011/11/28/the-great-shift-in-japanese-pop-culture-part-one

Segnalo questo interessantissimo speciale sulla crisi economico-culturale del Giappone, che può spiegare (anche) il boom dell'intrattenimento mobile degli ultimi anni.

Si articola in ben 5 parti ma credo che già la prima sia sufficiente a capire molte cose (io per primo sconoscevo quasi del tutto l'andazzo...)

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EDIT il "papà" di Castlevania rincara la dose:

http://www.thejimquisition.com/2015/05/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night-interview-koji-igarashi/

Jim Sterling: Further to that point, Konami recently announced it was moving further away from traditional games and pursuing mobile, something Square Enix has been doing more lately as well. What do you think of this recent migration of publishers to mobile gaming? Is it a blessing in disguise as creative developers pursue their own work, or do you feel it represents a problem in the market?

IGA: If you look at the numbers in the Japanese market, the shift to mobile is inevitable. That being said, I believe that mobile games will still evolve into something with classic game mechanics that approach their console predecessors. But the gaming environment has constantly evolved from the start. First you had arcade machines, then home consoles, then handhelds, and now mobile. I don't think this is necessarily a problem – it's just the way of things. And opinions vary.

Some people swear that arcade games are the "true" video games, while others dismiss anything that doesn't use a controller. But only one thing is for sure – if the number of gamers desiring a specific gaming experience decreases, the market cannot sustain those kinds of games. Capitalism applies to all markets, and the game market is no exception.

[Rot!]

Mi sono segnato l'articolo, ma e' troppo lungo per una lettura furtiva. 

Saluti

[Turrican3]

Neppure io l'ho ancora finito.

Però come dicevo anche "solo" la prima parte dice un bel po' di cose.

[Biggy]

http://neojaponisme.com/2011/11/28/the-great-shift-in-japanese-pop-culture-part-one

Segnalo questo interessantissimo speciale sulla crisi economico-culturale del Giappone, che può spiegare (anche) il boom dell'intrattenimento mobile degli ultimi anni.

Si articola in ben 5 parti ma credo che già la prima sia sufficiente a capire molte cose (io per primo sconoscevo quasi del tutto l'andazzo...)

http://forum.multiplayer.it/showthread.php?379260-SCHAFER-quot-i-fan-si-preoccupano-troppo-delle-vendite-per-dirti-la-verit%E0-quot/page3

Qualcuno parlava di profonda crisi culturale giapponese riflessa nelle produzioni videoludiche giá nel lontano 2009 ...

[Biggy]

Certo, la vena creativa dei giapponesi di una volta non c'è più, ma è un problema solo ed esclusivamente degli sviluppatori giapponesi e della cultura del pubblico giapponese, che hanno subito negli ultimi anni un crollo verticale, aiutati prima dal fenomeno Ps2 ed infine dal Wii.

Ma credo ci sia un problema più profondo, intrinseco della società giapponese e della cultura dei suoi giovani, che sempre più spesso si identificano nel tamarrotto truzzo coi capelli a punta del tipo ce ritroviamo nelle frociate Square.

E' il Giappone che ha tradito tutti, chi è critico contro questa gen se la deve prendere solo col Giappone (pubblico, società, cultura, sviluppatori, Sony e Nintendo) senza dimenticare i grandissimi meriti di Microsoft e degli sviluppatori occidentali, che se non fosse per loro a quest'ora saremmo nella disperazione più totale.

[Turrican3]

Guarda che dal medesimo thread si potrebbe quotare anche altro, sempre dal medesimo autore (ovvero tu, per chi non avesse già intuito)... ocio all'autogol.

[Turrican3]

GameSpot: You have a unique perspective growing up in Australia, and are experienced with the gaming industry in Japan. What do you think of the current state of the Japanese game industry?

Yura: Well, you know what's happening in the gaming industry in Japan?

It's going mobile.

Exactly. And mobile is not very happy with large data content on the market, because nobody is going to download it. Because it's mobile there are more light users, they're not heavy users, or freaks who just want to play all day. Therefore the game system has to be dumbed down, because that brings much more money and that has less development cost. I think companies are going towards that route, whereas what us gamers want is more in-depth, proper JRPGs. Games like Breath of Fire going to mobile, or Kingdom Hearts which is doing both. It depends on the company.

Do you think that's a good thing for the industry?

It's a good thing for the business of the industry, but not so good for the hardcore gamers who want hardcore JRPGs. But there are always going to be people who want hardcore stuff, and there will always be somebody who's going to make it, like us.

Keiji Inafune spoke to GameSpot earlier this year about the Japanese game industry's culture of fear. Do you agree with his sentiments?

I agree with what Keiji-san said. Keiji is my friend, our offices are very close, and I talk to him about a lot of stuff. I don't believe he truly understands the Western industry. I think he understands the Japanese industry. Whereas I've worked for a few months with Blizzard Entertainment, I've also worked on Halo, I've worked with a lot of developers in the West. I've also worked in Japan. I wouldn't say I know it all, but I've got a good feel for both of the industries. In Japan, to be blunt, the programming side has taken a hit.

Firstly, Japan doesn't share information. That's the first problem. For example, recently a sharp review of what Konami does was [revealed by media]. Things like hiding people's emails, and changing them every year. But we all knew this, that's been going on for ages in the company. Ever since emails were invented. Other companies may take measures so that people don't leave, but not as much as Konami.

The point is, companies don't want to share information, they don't want to share engines, they don't want to share stuff at CEDEC (Computer Entertainment Developers Conference), which is like the GDC of Japan, but really badly run. They just boast about what they've done, not the challenges they've overcome, the secrets they've learned. They don't want to be overtaken by their competitors.

That's almost strange.

No, it's not strange. Because Japan was the only country to have a gaming industry back in 80s. For example, the US industry thinks of themselves as an international industry, which I think is the right way of thinking. But Japan still thinks of itself really as the only people who make video games, which is not true. Their rules only apply to Japanese people. So if they find out something, they don't want to share it. It's also because of company property, compliance, company protocol. They're three very different things, but they all mean the same in the end. So you're not allowed to show stuff, you're not allowed to talk about stuff, and you keep whatever the company owns as company property. Therefore you don't share it.

The problem is, because of this, the programmers are bad at Unity. They're kind of okay at Unreal [Engine], but they're still not very good. And now they'll say, "Oh, Unity is the shit right now" but in actual fact, Unity's not so hot anymore in the rest of the world. Now Unreal 4 is hotter. And we're just set behind. I think... I don't know. I mean, Japan has very good planning. They're very organised. Also, designing the games, it's very fun. But the problem is the programming doesn't keep up, the animation's not so good. Funny that we have a whole anime industry. But that's based on different technology.

What would you like to see change in the Japanese gaming industry?

You have to change the society of Japan to change anything, even the culture of Japan. I don't think everybody wants that. I don't even think I want that. But to change the culture of the Japanese game industry, people need to switch off what they're thinking and they need to start embracing how it's done in a better way. Where programmers or people with engineering skills go to companies they want to go to and share information the way they want to share it, without breaking NDA. If that changes, I think the [industry] will change. But there is also the language barrier. It's not easy for a programmer to go overseas and work with English-speaking people if they can't speak the bloody language.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-japans-game-industry-is-falling-behind-gamespo/1100-6429675/

Estratto di un'intervista a Hiroaki Yura, al momento impegnato su Project Phoenix, e che nel curriculum può vantare titoli quali Diablo III, Valkyria Chronicles ed altri.

[Turrican3]

http://rovio.fi/en/news/press-releases/696/rovio-sharpens-focus-on-core-businesses

Rovio (Angry Birds) sta pianificando esuberi per un massimo di 260 dipendenti, pari a circa 1/3 della forza lavoro totale dello sviluppatore.

[Turrican3]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/amazons-new-games-and-apps-store-free-for-users-12%C2%A2-an-hour-for-devs/

Hmm... guardate che si è inventata Amazon.

Sostanzialmente - se non ho capito male - i giochi scaricati attraverso il "loro" nuovo portale non ti fanno più pagare un solo centesimo di acquisti in-app. Tuttavia gli sviluppatori ricevono ugualmente dei quattrini: una tariffa oraria calcolata in base all'utilizzo.

Manco a dirlo, il portale di Amazon che ti fa accedere a tutto questo ben di Dio è pieno zeppo di pubblicità...

[Bluforce]

Probabilmente non il posto ideale per questo link, ma in fondo ci sta.

Le confessioni di uno sviluppatore di giochi free2play che si intitola "We Own You":
http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/we-own-you-confessions-of-a-free-to-play-producer/

Un paio di estratti:
This isn't an article about the evils of free to play manipulation to get you to spend money. This is about how we can target you, because we (and our partners) know everything about you. We know where you live, we know your income level, we know your relationships, your favorite sports teams, your political preferences. We know when you go to work, and where you work. We can target an event to start for you when we know you have a long weekend coming up. We own you.

Every time you play a free to play game, you just build this giant online database of who you are, who your friends are and what you like and don't like. This data is sold, bought and traded between large companies I have worked for. You want to put a stop to this? Stop playing free games. Buy a game for 4.99 or 9.99. We don't want to be making games like this, and we don't want another meeting about retention, cohorts or churn.