While GDC is often a place to celebrate videogames, there's plenty of room for complaining, too. Nintendo and Apple were both targets throughout the show, as a number of game devs slammed their business practices and the way they've helped to shape gaming.
"We used to have a free and open game business," said EA founder Trip Hawkins. "And then Nintendo came along and introduced a thing called a licensing agreement ... At least Nintendo had the courtesy to tell you upfront that you were going to be screwed."
iOS developer Natalia Luckyanova said that Nintendo's licensing model made it tough for small developers to make a game, and noted the arrogance of the company for criticizing mobile game development, as Iwata had done at his GDC keynote speech.
Apple has been accused of over-encouraging supply, with 350,000 Apps available on iTunes and little chance for the majority of them to compete. In addition, the company charges developer $99 per year and takes 30% of each transaction. Hawkins noted that Apps make $4,000 on average, which "doesn't even pay for a really good foosball table."
While I agree that Apple and Nintendo could stand to loosen up a bit, I'm interested to know when the industry was a better place. Back during the Atari days, when the industry crashed thanks to a slew of unlicensed crap? It's easy for developers to lament the way things are run now, but I'm not totally sure it would be even better in a Wild West market.
Some game developers unhappy with Apple, Nintendo [CNN]
Contest:
2:00 PM on 03.05.2011 | 
god damn apple what the fuck?
i never knew nintendo has a strict policy about releasing games in the system. kinda wish more smaller developer team would make games on the wii instead. they could concentrate more on how to make the game fun instead of the graphicz :P
Douchebags.
They don't HAVE to make iPhone/Pad apps, they could always make a bigger video game, and put some time and effort into their career like friends I know are doing/have done.
As for the iPhone development problem, it's another case of taking your content and growing it where the grass is greener and the platform/distributor's contract isn't as screwed up.
Obviously, people are going to complain either way, as this article shows. Letting "everyone" in isn't the answer either apparently.
It's fucking awesome.
If you don't like it go out and make your own hardware or.... maybe .... sell your games on the PC market. Sure seems to have worked for Mojang, thus far.
Trip Hawkins doesn't give 2 shits about EA's performance these days since he no longer works for them.
There were licensing costs for 3DO development, but it was $3 per game printed compared to Sega at $15 and Nintendo at $20 at the time.
I own an iPod Touch and have downloaded hundreds of games on FreeAppADay and OpenFeint (no piracy, but I ain't about to support Apple) and very few are worth even more than five minutes of play. iOS is this generation's Atari.
Steam is king. I want Valve to make a device
They're like what Apple and Nintendo should be.
In other news, large companies are dicks and small developers get screwed over. Wait, this is news? This has always been the case, and I don't know why they're complaining as if this is new.
Course that also doesn't make the way Apple does things right. As for Nintendo, I don't know enough about their practices to have an opinion on that front.
Ohhh well now I feel like retard, dammit for my ignorance
I'm sorry but you must have terrible taste/not pay attention to gaming news at all if you can honestly tell me you haven't found a single decent DS game in the past 6 months. I'd try to list them, but I'd end up writing a list as long as this actual article.
That said, this seems like a truly ancient complaint. I much prefer a gaming industry with some standards rather than the wild-west style one we had more than 20 years ago that nearly killed the industry.
Like when Coleco released an expension module so that ColecoVision could play all Atari 2600 games?
Apple is evil for being too permissive.
Last I checked, the overwhelming majority of games on ANY platform were shit, so maybe publishers are just generally pissed that their 80s-era business model continues to fall apart?
Might point being that things weren't at all utopian prior to Nintendo's entry into the console market.
In fact I believe Nintendo's licensing agreement was put in place as a preventative measure to ensure the market wouldn't be flooded with sub par offerings and collapse like the 2600 market did.
"to ensure the market wouldn't be flooded with sub par offerings"
Yet isn't that one of the foremost complaints about the Wii library?
HAH.
But we've got STEAM, Impulse, and stuff like Sins of a Solar Empire, STALKER, that would never fly on the new console "dumb everything down" paradigm. Put Minecraft in front of a console gamer and all you'll get is a confused stare. Where are the guns? Shit, what's that green thing? AIR SUPPORT, AIR SUPPORT!!
And if you can't live without your brown fix, there's all the shooters you want and even controls that don't suck. MMOs too, if you're into that... sort of... thing.
Consoles are still where the money is though, true. Fortunately the only games you can't get on PC are Nintendo-exclusive, and they're the cheapest ones to buy.
A mouse in one hand, my DS in the other, astride my trusty Wii, I SHALL STRIKE YOU DOWN, CONSOLETARDS!
No kidding!
Imagine if they had no standards in place! :)
This isn't modern EA, it's the guy who founded EA in the 90s.
He's still on the Board of Directors of EA, meaning he still calls the shots. Or, at least, has a say in them. My point still stands.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to playing the Wii and waiting until the 3DS comes out.