As someone who is working incredibly hard toward a career in science, publishers like elsevier (especially elsevier) make me absolutely livid. I haven't even started academic publishing but I swear any paper I ever write will not be published in one of their journals if I can help it. (In my field it may be difficult to avoid....)
Oh man, Descent was my childhood. Seems weird to say but Descent 3 was the first game I was ever exposed to. I was ecstatic when they rereleased the Descent games on steam sometime last year.
I resent all of these "lawyer-shark" comparisons. I'm actually taking a course in college, Biology of Sharks, and have learned that sharks are far more intelligent and discerning than lawyers- sharks know what is worth biting and what isn't. It would seem lawyers don't!
I completely agree about the unhealthy digital market. People balk at Nintendo's prices on their own consoles- between $5 and $10 depending on the system the game was on. I cringe to think of people saying "too expensive" in response to THE ORIGINAL LEGEND OF FREAKING ZELDA for $5 on a smartphone. "Should be $1.50"
That's an incredibly narrow-minded definition of a gamer... who are you to say who is a gamer and who isn't? Granted, I do like to sit at an emulator and play old roms- or at least, I play the virtual console games on my 3DS and Wii U like the original Zelda and Sonic games, Link's Awakening, Kid Icarus, Earthbound; also old PC rereleases like Descent 3 (gamer credentials established)
But if other people have fun playing what you call "e-sports" why aren't they gamers too? Last I checked sports are still considered "games". And as much as I love classic games, I do like to play stuff like DOTA or TF2 or Counterstrike every once in a while. Though my favorite modern games are still the ones that have the old gaming spirit at heart- the recent Rayman games especially. How about gamers are just people that like videogames?
I don't claim they have a magical standard that prevents them from releasing terrible games. I just said they release polished, complete games- no DLC that should have been part of the game all along, and no obvious, game-breaking glitches. Compared to, say, games released by EA or Ubisoft. Assassins Creed Unity, anybody? Master Chief Collection? Or, imagine if another company released Smash Bros? Half the roster, outfits, and stages would be DLC.
Nintendo only releases on their own platform because they can be familiar enough with the hardware to make games that at least have an objective standard of quality.They're the only developer I will preorder for or buy from on day one because of that (I usually wait at least a year on PC games) And rereleasing games on smartphones would hurt them in the market that they are doing the best in- handhelds. 3DS has sold around 40 million worldwide, and the rereleased games on it are cheap and work well. Why would they hurt that by releasing games on a platform that isn't cut out for it, hurting their reputation and canibalizing their hardware sales?
Also, to your statement about "raising the bar in gaming mechanics".... Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 say hi.
Do.... do you actually have a smartphone? More importantly, do you have a smartphone that actually plays games well? Because if you do, please tell me where I can find it; I sure don't know any (not any reasonable ones, anyway). I have to side with Nintendo here. They're backwards on a lot of stuff but they're right about this. Nintendo games on a smartphone would suck. And all the games they could release are downloadable on 3DS- an actually, legitimately good handheld gaming device. Why would they release games on smartphones, where they would be miserable to play, when they can keep them as an incentive to buy a 3DS? It's not like they're holding them hostage on a bad platform- 3DS is the best-selling current gen handheld because it has a TON of really good games. And the retro games you can download have new features like save states and even a virtual gameboy screen- as in, when playing gameboy games you can shrink the screen size and tint it that monochrome green color. It's kinda neat. Some of them have even been updated to play in 3D.
I also have to say Nintendo seems to keep things on their own hardware for a good reason- Nintendo games are undeniably polished. In an era of broken, buggy games and DLC features that should have been included in the game itself, Nintendo releases polished and complete games. I don't think they could keep that high standard unless they were optimizing for a platform they have complete control over, and releasing on smartphones might hurt that reputation.
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Re: Actually, Nintendo are pretty much right this time around.
Re: Re: Re: They can't.
But if other people have fun playing what you call "e-sports" why aren't they gamers too? Last I checked sports are still considered "games". And as much as I love classic games, I do like to play stuff like DOTA or TF2 or Counterstrike every once in a while. Though my favorite modern games are still the ones that have the old gaming spirit at heart- the recent Rayman games especially. How about gamers are just people that like videogames?
Re: Re: "Smart phones are great handheld gaming devices"
Nintendo only releases on their own platform because they can be familiar enough with the hardware to make games that at least have an objective standard of quality.They're the only developer I will preorder for or buy from on day one because of that (I usually wait at least a year on PC games) And rereleasing games on smartphones would hurt them in the market that they are doing the best in- handhelds. 3DS has sold around 40 million worldwide, and the rereleased games on it are cheap and work well. Why would they hurt that by releasing games on a platform that isn't cut out for it, hurting their reputation and canibalizing their hardware sales?
Also, to your statement about "raising the bar in gaming mechanics".... Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 say hi.
"Smart phones are great handheld gaming devices"
I also have to say Nintendo seems to keep things on their own hardware for a good reason- Nintendo games are undeniably polished. In an era of broken, buggy games and DLC features that should have been included in the game itself, Nintendo releases polished and complete games. I don't think they could keep that high standard unless they were optimizing for a platform they have complete control over, and releasing on smartphones might hurt that reputation.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Ollie.
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