No, no, Carmack doesn't really hate Apple, but he is willing to be on Jobs' "s***head list" to say Jobs doesn't get gaming. You've read it on every other site, and I'd be remiss if I didn't post it here. From Eurogamer.net:

The truth is Steve Jobs doesn't care about games. This is going to be one of those things that I say something in an interview and it gets fed back to him and I'm on his s***head list for a while on that, until he needs me to do something else there. But I think that that's my general opinion. He's not a gamer. It's difficult to ask somebody to get behind something they don't really believe in. I mean obviously he believes in the music and the iTunes and that whole side of things, and the media side of things, and he gets it and he pushes it and they do wonderful things with that, but he's not a gamer. That's just the bottom line about it. [emph mine]

Apple has flubbed gaming several times. I don't get it, and Carmack doesn't really go into why Apple's cried gaming "wolf" at least twice now. Jobs might not get games, but he does seem to understand business. The implication here is that Jobs doesn't understand he's tarnished Apple's reputation by exploiting Carmack a couple of times. We don't have a hint beyond naivety why Jobs doesn't ignore but, instead, botches gaming, and naivety doesn't seem like a fitting answer.

It could just be that, as a gamer once upon a time, I've had a difficult time understanding who is really in the driver's seat. I have no reason not to think Carmack's a nice guy, but I think we can read a bit into quick make-up session after the "s***head list" text-byte.

But I think the iPhone is a potentially extremely important platform for a lot of reasons, and I think it could be the type of thing that really makes inroads into...does it kill the PSP. [sic]
...
One of the best opportunities for years right now is for two guys to make a project - you know, an artist and a programmer - to go make something on the iPhone, and I think there are people that can make a couple of million dollars probably by having some breakout success that nobody's ever heard of, and I think that that's a really awesome opportunity right now.

I also know that Carmack would be programming for portable platforms right now if it wouldn't disrupt id, so this isn't just brown-nosing, but there is a little, "Steve, you're an idiot. But only in a small portion of the market that you don't care about anyway. iPhone? That's great!" in there, don't you think?

Why alienate one of your bigger proponents for the iPhone as gaming platform (heck, Carmack wonders on the record if the PSP is in trouble; regardless of if he thinks it's likely, that's good for Apple) who lives in the gaming world by screwing games over on your PC platform several times? You got me. All it tells me is that in the world of personal computing, Jobs means something and Carmack is, regardless of my particular bias, just playing games.

Labels: apple, business, developers, id, mobile, PC, ports, psp

--ruffin at 11:08

link

Comment [ 0 ]

Well, that explains the Game Boy market, doesn't it?

MobyGames just posted this from a Game Developer Conference talk by Trip Hawkins:

Trip also talked about the overcrowded license market and how more original titles will encourage the growth of the industry. Trip also talked about the royalty fees that a major licensor imposed awhile back. For GameBoy games it was 4%, for Playstation it was about 7%, online stuff it was about 11%, and for mobile games it was about 50%. This type of abuse causes the quality of games to be lower and as a result, the consumer, the publisher and the developer all end up getting burned.

Seeing that fee structure, is it any surprise that more than 50% of the GBA library was
licensed games when I crunched the numbers over 3.5 years ago? I'm betting it's far, far higher now. Of course the PlayStation was also a dumping ground for junk, as was its successor.

How depressing.

Update: Next-Gen.biz is also covering the Hawkins talk, and adds this bit:

He added that some larger publishers are too interested in playing safe, saving some direct criticism for the Electronic Arts, the company he originally founded. "They spent a lot of money tying up Tetris and gaining placement on the decks, but if that's the best we can think of [them?] then there is something very wrong." He said too many customers are simply being offered old games but in a second rate form.

I think Hawkins licensed this fiery old Costikyan rant regarding GDC 2003 changed a few words, and made it mobile-centric:

Year by year, budgets increase. Year by year, sales increase less. And year by year, the publishers become more conservative; at $3m a pop and a 3 year dev cycle, it's too risky to invest in any game that's--risky. Thus only sequels and licensed drivel get funded. -- Greg Costikyan, March 2003

Sequels, remakes, and licenses flood the game market. Now the same is happening game conference speeches. Where will the madness stop?

Labels: developers, gba, nextgen, psone

--jvm at 15:36

link

Comment [ 2 ]