Rofl, I wouldn't want GameCenter for something like Dead Space or Fight Night. The only games GC works well with are casual games based on high scores, and I'd rather EA not make any more of those. They've been on a run this year with top notch titles, and I hope the keep it up. Plus, now Firemint has tons more resources to utilize in developing the quality titles they're known for. I'm pretty sure EA doesn't lose any sales no matter what they do to their games. When they drop their prices to 0.99 monthly, no one can complain.
I agree it does pose a problem. With the app store being fairly new and still developing I wonder if trends from other markets such as the pc and console will carry over. By that I mean whenever there is an acquisition usually a few key people leave the studio and form a new one.
I don't understand all the people who are crazy about games having a specific leaderboard system. Even just having a leaderboard system only sounds useful to me when score numbers play a noteworthy part of a game (so espechially in endless runners/shooters/...), but in a game like Dead Space there is really no reason for them. But even worse, why does everyone who wants leaderboards want them to be gamecenter and only gamecenter? Gamecenter can in some cases not be intergrated into games as well as other leaderboards, so why are there so many complaints when a dev makes their own leaderboard system that fits well into the game and where the devs can change things the way they want them to be, instead of Apple being in controll there. One should play because of a game being fun, not to get a few points more than a friend IMO. Back to the main topic: As long as Firemint continues the Real Racing series and/or helps out with the NFS games, it's all fine with me.
Leader Boards are only relevant for 1-2 years. Score-whores, get over it. Sounds like EA is buying intellectual property.
Its about time gameloft buys somebody. How much longer before its gameloft vs EA and all of EA's purchased divisions . Hardly how I feel though. A lot of my favorite games have come from indie devs, and nothing EA or Gameloft do can match the creativity the indies offer. Each purchase means one more NFS game in the series, and one less tiny wings to storm the charts.
I see this as a positive thing, mainly because Chillingo seems to be completely unaffected (at least in any negative way) from it's acquisition by EA. I know it hasn't been long, but if I didn't know better, I'd say they were still independent. They still put out the same types of games, from the same indie devs, all of similar quality and at similar price points (which I don't think were affected by EAs Easter sale?). That gives me hope that EA will just be there to support Firemint with future games, not to mess with them. In many ways that makes sense too, you don't buy out a successful company simply to ruin them. That's the point really. They wouldn't put out a game on 360 without xbox live support or a game on ps3 with PSN support. So why do they do just that on iOS with game Center?
^ Well chillingo already released games at mostly 99c. Its kind of hard to join a 99c sale from that starting price point.
There is a reason for pessimism. EA has a poor track record that started with bug ridden PC games that were either not supported or you waited for ages for a patch. It's a big business and you don't get big by being nice. Art and business don't mix well. In iOS world best titles were brought to us by indie companies that took their time to perfect the game before release. They then supported those games to further improve them (spider and space miner for example). I am disappointed by this news. Time will tell if any good will come of it...
I wish all those achievements could serve a purpose in dead space. Without Gamecenter I have no incentive to complete them.
Disappointing news, but on the bright side EA has published some quality racing games lately (Shift 2 and NFS: Hot Pursuit). Yay for optimism!
God, I hope this finally puts that god awful game known as NFS:Shift to rest. EA should not be making any racing simulators after that. Their arcade racers are pretty decent, though.
Sign of the economic times. Indie devs are less likely to want to compete in the rat race that has become the Appstore marketplace. Firemint likely sold because, yeah, they made a heck of a lot of money. But also, the economics of the appstore are bad and it's very difficult to compete. There is an unfair pricing structure in place, one that does not adaquately compensate developers for the amount of effort they put into iOS projects. The appstore pricing model is completely out of whack and isn't even close to competitive with the overall pricing models throughout the gaming industry. I've seen a lot of smaller indie developers disappear entirely. It's not surprising to see the somewhat larger indie developers getting swallowed up by mass marketing gaming conglamorates like EA. In terms of hardcore profiting, EA and Gameloft pretty much own iOS development. They have the resources necessary to maximize their profits, despite the challanges that the appstore presents. Just look at the developer of Mission Europa. He deserves a better fate. I don't understand what for the life of him made him think that things were going to turn out any differently, but he still deserved a better fate. If you can sell, sell. If I was Crescent Moon, I would sell that company fast, just like Firemint did.
