Yeah, no.

69 points
*

I mean personally I wouldn’t want to game like that on my phone, as it will almost certainly kill the battery and I need my phone for… well phone things.

But I don’t really see why it being $60 is at all weird. It’s a $60 AAA game everywhere else too. Same game as it is there.

Edit: and it also unlocks the game on m1 or newer iPads and macOS devices… really not seeing why this is so egregious. It’s $60 on steam too

permalink
report
reply
19 points

I understand your perspective, but the way I see it, it’s like renting a movie at home versus seeing it in a theater. For some people, the extra money to go to a theater is worth it. I’m not paying $20+ to see a movie once at home though, and especially not to see it on my phone. Discounted price for a discounted experience. If they want to charge $20 for the mobile version, and $40 for MacOS, then I’d be way more likely to try a triple-A game on a phone.

permalink
report
parent
reply
9 points

But you get it with no compromises on MacOS, so why would they discount the price there? This is buy once, play “anywhere” (anywhere that’s good for Apple). You don’t pay less for a game you only play on a Steam Deck either.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

Sure, then $20 for the mobile app, and $60 for MacOS (which should include a mobile copy). That would work for me too. I don’t have a Steam Deck, but I for sure would not pay full price for a game just to play on the Steam Deck.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

Yeah honestly the idea that a port should cost less because it’s a worse experience is stupid. As long as effort was put in and the game is still playable and as enjoyable an experience as other platforms whoever made it has any right to charge what they see fit for that platform.

Now should people buy it? Probably not and if it doesn’t run as well you can absolutely raise the argument of it was a pointless cash grab anyways but…

Being upset that a developer wants to get paid for a game no matter what platform they put it on… not a big deal

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

you gotta take into account that the conceptual design phase has been completely eliminated from the process. And lots of the core logic would’ve been ported over wholesale. one example you can find is searching about the code in the katamari ports, where there’s parts of the code left behind that don’t do anything, and point to ps2 libraries that don’t exist in Unity.

while there’s nothing revealed here on how much is just copy/pasted over, I’m sure they’d be motivated to bring over as much as they can when they were initially estimating the work needed for the project, and then test the hell out of it. A majority of the graphics engine would probably have to be remade if they didn’t aim to emulate it, and would be one of the major challenges in a mobile port of a higher-end console/pc game, but the assets/resources would be copied over and no work on that beyond ensuring it looks fine on the target resolution and framerate; maybe even with the use of automated AI upscaling/downscaling to reduce that workload even further. I find it safe to assume a straight port doesn’t usually require the same or more amount of work as the original

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Yup the switch mortal Kombat 1 port likely used a tool to just downgrade and straight port the game over and this it didn’t actually run particularly well and was a stupid and low effort port… but someone still made that game before that was done.

So if they want to shoot themselves in the foot and cripple their own launch and game with bad performance that’s their own issue and one that is a separate conversation to them charging what they think is appropriate for their brand new game.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Exactly, people have been buying worse switch ports for higher prices than the PS/XB versions for the portability for years now, phones shouldn’t be different if it’s a playable port optimised for them.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

Yeah, the confusion by everyone around this pricing is really counterintuitive.
The product is exactly the same as its console / PC counterpart.
How well it runs on Apple products remains to be seen.
I for sure would not opt for it since I have a high end gaming PC.
Also, especially considering how Apple pulls products from their stores w/o refund…

I do hope that this sells somewhat well and opens the door for more developers to release their games on iOS / Mac.
I still think that Apple could build a proper gaming rig / console, but are in the chicken / egg situation still.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Apple is no doubt considering moving more heavily into the gaming space. They’re looking for more revenue streams to keep feeding the corporate fantasy of perpetual growth, and there are only so many sweat shop laborers they can exploit. Wouldn’t surprise me at all for them to buy a publisher like EA and create some steam competitor (or just leverage the Mac app store).

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

This is what MS are gearing up to fight with their acquisitions and infrastructure. If you can buy a game on iTunes and it works across your Mac, AppleTV, iPhone, etc, then they need to have the same in the Xbox brand across console, PC, cloud, etc. Sony are only now putting games on PC years late and that business model is looking tired already, multi device is the future.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

That’s pretty good. Play anywhere across an ecosystem is always the right move. Sony expecting people to double dip on PS5/PC releases is going to look pretty old pretty soon.

permalink
report
parent
reply
20 points

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the answer to the question that’s posted all the time on gaming forums of: “Phones are so powerful these days, especially compared to the Switch, why can’t we have real games on phones without microtransactions?”

permalink
report
reply
19 points

LOL

permalink
report
reply
19 points

You know what I commend them for this. If it helps move mobile gaming away from a microtransaction pay-to-win hellscape I’m for it.

permalink
report
reply
6 points

It will be funny if they manage to implement microtransactions in some way.

permalink
report
parent
reply
18 points
*

Yep. Apple is definitely going to attempt to get into the gaming console business again

permalink
report
reply
8 points

Pippin 2!

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Ha ha good one!

All kidding aside, I’d say it will be an Apple TV refresh or spinoff from Apple TV to focus on microconsole gaming

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Which is good for competition. Still ridiculous price though for mobile.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

I mean isn’t RE4 VR coming soon? Great candidate for the Apple VR headset (that I have seen no one irl have)

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Didn’t that come out years ago?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

The RE4Remake VR, not the original. It was announced in May.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Great candidate for the Apple VR headset (that I have seen no one irl have)

It’s not released yet. And it doesn’t have controllers. I doubt that it would be usable for classic VR gaming.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

If you’re in the eco-system, the idea that you can play a game on your phone, pick it up on the TV at home, then at your deck on the Mac at the weekend is pretty sweet. I can’t see them making a high end console though, those tend to be money syncs and are going to have smaller audiences as mobile & cloud grow acceptable performance for the mass market. This is why MS are making moves they are. They’ll support the home console for a while as they can’t lose the legacy Xbox audience, but I think sometime next decade they may make Gamepass/Xbox store a multiformat service and phase out dedicated hardware.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Including right now, they have yet to prove that they know how to be competitive in the gaming space.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Gaming

!gaming@beehaw.org

Create post

From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it’s gaming you can probably discuss it here!

Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.

See also Gaming’s sister community Tabletop Gaming.


This community’s icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Community stats

  • 2.6K

    Monthly active users

  • 2.3K

    Posts

  • 36K

    Comments