Bioshock IOS

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, but as the Vita has hardly lit the world on fire and there are like 100 million IOS devices, I hardly blame them.

I do. The app store is a seriously tough space to try to make any money in at all in spite of the amount of devices sold and sticking something like Bioshock on there being part of that space and, as mentioned, playing like ass with touchscreen controls will ultimately do nobody any favours. It's like selling your top caviar as part of McDonalds Euro/PoundSaver menu for a quid because they have tons of outlets and expecting that to be a good long term strategy. You're just targeting the wrong people and they'll never pay more than a quid. Even if you broke even in your little McDonalds experiment, now your caviar is worth a pound.

Edit: A very late addendum to this thought. Bioshock is limited to iPhone 5 and higher, iPad 4 and higher and no model of iPod Touch. The models it works on have sold incredibly well but that limitation does cut out a vast chunk of iOS users so my McDonalds analogy must be amended to mention that they can only sell the caviar in the more recent outlets.

[Asura]

I do. The app store is a seriously tough space to try to make any money in at all in spite of the amount of devices sold and sticking something like Bioshock on there being part of that space and, as mentioned, playing like ass with touchscreen controls will ultimately do nobody any favours

I disagree. Its status as a "proper game" (ugh, we need a better term) makes it pretty much unique on the AppStore. I actually suspect it'll sell better than everyone thinks. There might not be that many people with iOS pad controllers, but I wouldn't be surprised if nearly all of them buy this. Plus, it'll probably step over onto Android and Windows Phone (even more controller users).

Its a novelty, right now. That makes it AppStore gold in a marketplace that is fast running out of novelty.

[EvilBoris]

There are millions of kids quite happy playing minecraft with it's FPS controls on the touch screen, so I don't know why they'd find this any worse.

[Asura]

There are millions of kids quite happy playing minecraft with it's FPS controls on the touch screen, so I don't know why they'd find this any worse.

Yeah. They'll probably add in an extensive auto-aim feature and tone down the difficulty significantly.

Bioshock's perfect, really, because the star of the game wasn't really the gameplay - it was the atmosphere and visuals. There are probably plenty of people on iOS who'll play a "so-easy-it's-less-stressful-than-watching-Netflix" version of Bioshock, as long as it looks similar enough to the original.

[Dogg Thang]

Minecraft is an entirely different thing. It does not require anywhere even near the same kind of FPS control to play well.

[Asura]

Minecraft is an entirely different thing. It does not require anywhere even near the same kind of FPS control to play well.

That's what I meant, though. They'll cripple the difficulty and make it so you can't really lose.

[Guts]

This is just a cynical money-grab piece of ****. Who would have expected that from the video game industry? Infinite will no doubt follow too at some point (or as a next-gen remake) what with it probably losing money for the publisher.

Here's a thought, how about making games designed specifically to the touch screen phones, instead of trying to shoehorn games that weren't meant to be on them. Too much to ask, I know.

[EvilBoris]

So much hatred

[Guts]

It's true though. There's not an ounce of artistic merit in this garbage. It's aim is to gather as much money as possible out of old, recycled resources (because making an original game would cost a lot more than just sticking a six-year-old game there with ****ty controls) not to provide a good video game experience, because it cannot provide even as good an experience as the original.

[Asura]

You're talking about a platform where one of the most successful games was Rage of Bahamut. Believe me, a "good videogame experience" is not a requirement.

[fishbowlhead]

It's true though. There's not an ounce of artistic merit in this garbage. It's aim is to gather as much money as possible out of old, recycled resources (because making an original game would cost a lot more than just sticking a six-year-old game there with ****ty controls) not to provide a good video game experience, because it cannot provide even as good an experience as the original.

I don't blame anyone who wants to make money out of something they created, or bankrolled, it's their every right to do so. However the game deserves some justice done at the very least, that simply can be done without controls.

[Profit]

lol, the conversion might turn out to be good, they are very competent developers. I remember all the Cave shooter mobile conversion predictions of woe.

Remember that using a touch screen is more intuitive for many gamers than it is using control sticks and buttons, especially triggers.

[Lebowski]

There are loads of games that support mfi controllers on ios now monster hunter most recently game like this that seems essential, if this has support for them I can imagine it playing ok, dead trigger is infinity more playable with a moga controller on android so fps can be done just not very well with a touchscreen.

[Dogg Thang]

Engadget says this is "subpar" but does say that it plays fine even with the touchscreen controls. http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/04/bioshock-ios/