Hey guys, I think you're not getting the problem. Socom39 is not talking about high end graphics games like Infinity Blade (which by the way run on iPod 3rd gen). The problem is that games and apps which are not graphics intensive stop maintenance for older devices. Most of the games should run on 3rd gen iPods, it's ridiculous if they cannot. However, I do think that the problem here is not the device but the OS. I am a developer and I must say that iOS 4.x gives us more way of how we do things and we can actually do better things for it. But I personally think that we should continue support for iOS 3.x as long as the majority of users still use it. And let's face it more people use iPhone 3GS and iPod 3rd gen than iPhone 4 and iPod 4th gen. So I cannot answer why the other developers are not doing apps for iOS 3.x, but I guess they need iOS 4.x features that much or they just don't care. However, for iPod 3rd and 2nd gen the update of the OS is free and available and it will solve most of the problems. The iPod 1st gen though is a >3-years old device some upgrades could be considered
Hmm,???? I wonder why Sony developers don't really invest in the PS2 anymore. I'm not going to go out and invest $300 on a PS3 just to play all these stupid, new games....!!!! I don't mean to sound rude, but the answer to your question can only be found through common sense. I mean, really,,,,,,,,,,really?
Isn't it harder to make games for older iPods, and costs more $, so I see why most devs don't make games for older iPods. I just wish that they would put in a little bit more time and effort (Like Aralon) and make it compatable with the older devices.
Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and PC developers have had this problem solved for years. The first three have only released new hardware after several years. This guarantees that, if you buy one, you will be gaming on it for a long time and developers won't move away from it because they have nothing to move to. On every single PC game that I've ever played (except for really old ones, of course), there have been OPTIONS to adjust the game's resolution, texture quality, etc. so that they will work well on ANY device. That's why I can play Civilization V and Portal on my $400 laptop without it even breaking a sweat! Apple, on the other hand, doesn't seem to realize that people don't WANT to have to upgrade EVERY SINGLE YEAR, again and again and AGAIN! At times, the frustration is overwhelming. I can't see why Apple sees the need to make a slightly better device every single year, rather than just having ONE new device (and by "new", I mean having exclusive games) that's infinitely better than the last. Take Nintendo and the DS. The DS has been around since 2004, and has never had any games that are only playable on a more powerful version. Six years later, here comes a device (the 3DS) that's actually worth paying $200 to upgrade! THAT'S HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO WORK! WHY CAN'T APPLE... *someone splashes water on my face* Thanks. I needed that. Rant over.
Yeah, I wish apple renewed the generations every other september instead of anually..i skipped on the 3rd gen cause there really wasn't anything new about it, especially since the 8GB is actually a 2nd gen still in nearly every way, so I kept my 2nd gen for 2 years. Upgrading to a fourth gen was the best purchase I've ever made. So yeah, every 2 years at least please apple!
I don't think developers should forget about older devices. I am taking a huge guess here but I think about 25% of the community has an iPod Touch 2G, and if developers forget about it then they lost a lot of profit.
People who bought a "3rd Gen" 8GB touch did get screwed. They thought they were buying a 3rd Gen touch and really they were just buying a 2nd Gen touch at a lower price. My daughter has a "3rd Gen" 8GB touch and my son has a 3rd Gen 32GB touch. The difference between his and hers is night and day. At least the new 8GB touches are true 4th Gen devices. I agree with whomever it was that said we should see things "flatten out". With the speed of the current processors and the amount of RAM they have now I wouldn't think that the performance leap from generation to generation will be as pronounced as it has been. The performance and speed increases will simply be incremental while the differentiating focus will be on hardware features, iOS features and battery life. Just an uneducated guess on my part though.
They can, Socom doesn't have a 'true' 3rd Gen. My 2 cents: The reason a lot of new games don't work on old devices is because they are just that: old. Sure, maybe only 2 years old but still outdated. Developers don't want to try make their games run smoothly on old devices because the amount of effort doesn't justify the rewards. Your stuff is outdated, upgrade. If you can't upgrade for one reason or another, that's unfortunate, but get over it.
I've been playing a lot of the recent games on my 3rd gen including games like Rage HD and Infinity Blade which I picked up yesterday no issues at all with either both run very smooth and both have great graphics. So the 3rd Gen is fine it has a slightly slower cpu than the fourth but the GPU is the same type both CPU's are underclocked as far as I know. If you take the extra power needed to run retina resolution into the equation I think the 3rd gens should be able to run anything the fourths can as long as it's the 32gb or 64gb versions anyway. I personally don't see any need to upgrade until apple introduces new GPU's again.
A few things: If you really think that it is a problem that you buy a device that gets left behind, make sure that when you buy it you get it shortly after it comes out. It would be silly for someone to buy the current gen iPhone in May when everyone knows that the next gen version always comes out in the summer. So if someone bought a 3rd gen iPod Touch in July or August of this year then it's their fault for not paying attention to the fact that the 4th gen was coming soon. By buying shortly after release you can be sure that you'll get a good two years out of it with being fully supported by both developers and Apple. This can be seen in the way Apple supports iOS4, as the iPhone 4 and 3GS get all of the features, the 3G only gets the bare minimum, and the 1st gen gets nothing. You won't find any games that are coming out now that don't run on the 3GS. As for the OP's problem, yes, you got screwed. You thought you were buying a 3rd gen device but really it's a 2nd gen. But for most cases, I don't find it unreasonable to upgrade every two years. If you have an iPhone, that's what happens anyways through the carriers. If you have a Touch, then you could certainly sell your old one on eBay or Craigslist and make back a significant amount of money that you can then use to upgrade, just like people do with their old iPhones. 8gb "3rd gen" Touches are going for somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 on eBay, which puts you that much closer to getting a new 8gb 4th gen. A significant number of people could care less about what kind of processing power or speed it has because all they want to do is play music and watch videos, so there will always be buyers. I know people who upgrade almost every year because they typically can sell their year-old device for almost the same price that they bought it for and then put that towards their new device.
I am 100% sure that the developers did not left the whole 3rd generation of iOS devices behind. It is still very fresh (1 year is long but not so long). So my point is that those who have 3rd gen iPod Touch should just upgrade the OS to 4.x and all games should be running just fine. For example Teknikal has 3rd gen iPod with iOS 4.x and he doesn't have any issues.
Just like on PC games, it is mandatory for handheld gaming to integrate quality settings for older devices. On Android, with hardware fragmentation, it is not an option.
Btw, your iPod is actually a 2G not 3. That's why games don't work. Most new games are 3 and above because the tech is better and people want better looking/running games and probably takes too much time or effort to dumb down things for old devices.
At the end of the day it's just a case of if you want to carry on playing games on a idevice you have to upgrade your hardware it's the same in PC gaming with graphics cards etc . I had too upgraded my 2nd gen iPod too a 64gb 3rd gen and bought an iPad aswell. To do that I worked out how much I was spending on apps per month and just stopped for awhile saved the money then upgraded . And as ppl have mentioned in this thread already that should now slow down a bit as I don't think personally idevice gaming can go much further until they change the processing unit etc totally meaning we will all probably have too upgrade again .
Hahha, till now, I'm still impress how they produce just slightly better products than previous version and yet people still go buy them. My guess for next year, ipod touch 5 (or late 2011 model, perhaps) will have bigger ram and better camera...
Well for most people, their phone or media player is a big part of their digital lifestyle... So spending a couple hundred bucks a year on that isn't a big deal. I bet if you took the cost of your iPod/iPhone and divided it by how much you used it, you'd be looking at pennies per hour of entertainment.
If you manage to sell your old device, then you've covered 1/4 or even 1/3 of the price for a new one... What I did...
Hah hah, till now, i'm still impressed that for the past 15 years, PCs and Graphics cards were slightly better every year, and people still bought them. Or better yet, it still impresses me that people buy clothes every year because they're slightly newer/better. (sarcasm, for the less intelligent) Maybe these people have money.
