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Game Developers Eyeballing Kindle Fire

Posted by Soulskill on from the hot-for-fire dept.

donniebaseball23 writes "Amazon's entry into the tablets market has gone probably even better than they expected. And now the Kindle Fire is quickly becoming a viable games platform. Developers have come out in force to lavish praise on the Fire for its price and ease of use. 'People are fired up about Fire because they know it's part of a service they already use and trust,' said Josh Tsui, president of Robomodo. 'It becomes effortless to buy and use because it does not make them break their usual buying patterns. It enhances it.' Added Igor Pusenjak, president of Lima Sky: 'In many ways, the best thing about Fire is that you barely feel it's an Android device. Amazon built its own closed-system OS on top of Android.'"

48 comments

  1. I suppose these are different kindle people? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The reason a lot of Kindle owners wouldn't buy a Fire is because the e-ink kindle is the greatest thing ever, doesn't really matter if it's rootable or not because if all you want to do is read it's more or less perfect, just load up with gutenberg downloads, no drm leave wifi off and you're set for months. So it probably makes sense people buying a Fire will be interested in games if it's a different market.

    1. Re:I suppose these are different kindle people? by Jmc23 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but nooks let you root and read your manga :)

      --
      Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
    2. Re:I suppose these are different kindle people? by dasunt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The reason a lot of Kindle owners wouldn't buy a Fire is because the e-ink kindle is the greatest thing ever, doesn't really matter if it's rootable or not because if all you want to do is read it's more or less perfect, just load up with gutenberg downloads, no drm leave wifi off and you're set for months. So it probably makes sense people buying a Fire will be interested in games if it's a different market.

      I just saw my first Kindle Fire today. Nifty. It looks good, it plays videos off youtube with decent quality, and for $200, it's nicely priced. But the display is not optimized for reading books. I'd hate to read books on it for hours on end.

      It's a tablet. Even though the price is nice, I don't really need a tablet. I love my Kindle with e-ink. If it broke tomorrow, I'd rush out to buy a new one. But because I love the Kindle with e-ink, I'm not interested in buying a Kindle Fire for reading. The e-ink Kindle is far superior for books. As for everything else, I tend to do too much typing online to want a tablet.

      YMMV, but I agree with the parent poster. This is more for the non-reader market.

    3. Re:I suppose these are different kindle people? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      You so silly. The classic Kindle is perfectly rootable. It even has an motd set for when you ssh into it the first time! Installing weird fancy programs like nibbles or a local terminal is as simple as adding the appropriate signature to your keychain and popping the .jar (well, .azw2) into the documents folder. Amazon's effort toward securing the device against local attacks has been described as "accidental at best."

      Welcome to Kindle!

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    4. Re:I suppose these are different kindle people? by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      I'd have to agree. I think it's because the kindle is a niche product, but I just want to read on it and maybe play battleship for a minute or two. The passive display is a god-send with the Kindle. The 9.7 inch screen on the DX just makes it awesomer...

      The two devices are for different things completely. The kindle fire is more adept to be great competition for the cheap chinese android tablets that are available now.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  2. Sound like it was written by marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nobody I know talks this way, unless they are in sales or marketing - they just don't.

    1. Re:Sound like it was written by marketing by Suddenly_Dead · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It sounds like a big long press release.

      Despite the low price, however, Kindle Fire hosts a variety of quality games that were ported with little effort, which is a rarity within the Android market. Chalk that up to Amazon’s developer friendly system ...
      "From a developer’s point of view, it makes creating an experience much easier, as we don’t have to take into account every single piece of hardware that’s out there, which quickly dilutes how good a product can truly be."

      What? Might as well have said

      Targeting a single Android device is easier than targeting several.

      Since the article doesn't specifically mention anything that makes the Fire more developer-friendly than any other device. The vague claim that it's easier to port to than other devices is dubious, but it's also worded so vaguely that it might mean "porting to the Fire alone vs. porting to every device in existence at once". Would it be any different if the developer was solely targeting the Nook Tablet, or the Transformer? Doesn't the iPad have an even bigger advantage in this respect since it has a relatively enormous userbase?

      Multiply that vague claim several times, add in a general description of the device ("[a] tablet you can take anywhere that stores books, games, videos and other kinds of media"), some praise ("We can't wait for the Kindle Fire 2"), and you've got the article. I totally expected a disclaimer at the bottom about it being paid-for.

    2. Re:Sound like it was written by marketing by hort_wort · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed, I'm definitely not believing a word of it. Every other thing I've heard about the Fire has been negative thus far. In fact, the linked article doesn't even sound as hyped up as the summary:

      “Kindle Fire has great potential if Amazon improves its performance and irons out a few of the current bugs, which I'm sure they will,” added Pusenjak. “It's not exactly a prediction to say that Fire will become thinner, less expensive and more powerful over time.”

      So even the game developers are saying they're not gonna touch it unless it's fixed.

    3. Re:Sound like it was written by marketing by SlapChop · · Score: 2

      Yeah, "Developers have come out in force", for what 3 developers? That's a gross generalization. That being said, I have KF and it's got an amazingly bright screen that is great for games.

    4. Re:Sound like it was written by marketing by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      yep and well.. it is an android tablet.

      but what makes it interesting for android game developers is that .. well fuck, if you got an android game that'll run on 2.3 - it will run on fire and shitloads of fire's are being sold at the moment.

      so for many it just means that they'll have to start using amazons appstore as well googles for sales.

      it's performance isn't "bad", imho. I haven't ran benches but it seems in most things about as fast as xperia play, which isn't actually bad. biggest problem is that it's not honeycomb+(to get hw accelerated option for View's). it doesn't seem that their customizations affect the speed too much, if at all.

      oh and like all androids it spams debug shit to logcat so much that I really wonder if it would run faster if one just stripped all Log.d's away from all apps on it. pity java doesn't have a standard way of doing #ifdef's.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    5. Re:Sound like it was written by marketing by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      as far as apps are concerned, the fire is about exactly like any other 2.3 android.

      which means there's shitloads of games and apps for it already. anyone doing a game specifically just for it is an idiot btw.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  3. Fired up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Existing Kindle owners will be fired up about the fire/ipad/whatever until they read a 500 page book on a non e-ink screen.

    1. Re:Fired up? by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      I have a nook color and have read several books that length. What problem do you think there should be?

      I sit in front of a pair of lcds for 8+ hours a day, and that does not seem to be an issue either.

    2. Re:Fired up? by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      90% worse? On what scale?
      What are these percentage points of?
      I have read novels on LCDs and that worked fine and well. I bet you are reading on one right now!

    3. Re:Fired up? by True+Vox · · Score: 1

      Just to add another data point, every book I've read for the last two years has been on my Android Optimus V (which is only used as a PDA as the Sprint network (which I guess is what Virgin runs on) is trash around here). I read maybe 2 books a month, and I've never had an issue with it. I'll happily submit that e-ink is better, but for me, not a lot better.

      --
      "Gratuitous complexity is akin to chaos" - True Vox
  4. My app has sold after release of the Fire by Jaxim · · Score: 2

    Before the release of the Kindle Fire, my boggle app "Word ZigZag" (http://goo.gl/OFT0o) had been up on Amazon's appstore and sold hardly anything. But as soon as the Amazon Kindle Fire was released, I sold a whole bunch.

    So I agree that app developers are probably now considering the Amazon Appstore.

    1. Re:My app has sold after release of the Fire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sounds like you considered Amazon before you uploaded your programme there.

    2. Re:My app has sold after release of the Fire by SomePgmr · · Score: 1

      You're not alone. Moving a million units a week and directing them at their app store can't hurt. :)

      http://gigaom.com/2011/12/05/the-kindle-fire-the-next-big-haven-for-developers/

  5. Flamebait or what? by migla · · Score: 1

    'People are fired up about Fire because they know it's part of a service they already use and trust,' said Josh Tsui, president of Robomodo. 'It becomes effortless to buy and use because it does not make them break their usual buying patterns. It enhances it.' Added Igor Pusenjak, president of Lima Sky: 'In many ways, the best thing about Fire is that you barely feel it's an Android device. Amazon built its own closed-system OS on top of Android.'

    For some reason I feel a sudden urge to tell people not to feed trolls and not to respond to flame baits. Not that I would want to tell people what to do. And neither should you!

    --
    Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
  6. Year of the android! by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Funny

    the best thing about Fire is that you barely feel it's an Android device.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  7. Yep, and what's wrong with that? by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    Not everyone knows what they want in life. One man's greasy sales rep is another man's consultant.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  8. Fired up!!! by Dan+East · · Score: 2

    Yeah, we're fired up too! We sent our totally unmodified, stock game exactly as distributed in Google Marketplace, to Amazon for approval, and it went right through in about a week! Amazing!

    On a serious note, the main issue developers would have supporting the Kindle Fire is the lack of the Back and Menu buttons. However, our game was originally developed for iOS, thus we already had that functionality onscreen (the hardware buttons are essentially redundant).

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  9. I smell astroturfing by Fujisawa+Sensei · · Score: 1

    I smell astroturfing from Amazon.

    Seriously when you look at reviews people seem to be split between the nook and the fire.

    --
    If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
  10. freudian slip by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    Game Developers Eyeing Kindle Fire

    fixed it for you.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:freudian slip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Game Developers "I" 'ing Kindle Fire.
      There. Jim fixed it for you .. and You ..and You.

  11. Funny, all the mobile app develpers I have ever... by Assmasher · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...spoken to about the device say "Sorry, I won't publish through Amazon's App Store because it is sh**."

    The same reason I hope the Fire fails absolutely miserably; whereas, if you could use Google Market with it I would buy one immediately.

    Amazon are climbing on Google's back to create another closed system.

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  12. Other way around... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Yes current Android developers dislike the Amazon App store...

    However the Fire is the first Android tablet I've even seen gain interest in development from current iOS developers. I hear a number of them talking about supporting the Fire only...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Other way around... by Hotweed+Music · · Score: 1

      Astroturfing, like this summary for example.

    2. Re:Other way around... by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

      The summary may have been astroturfing (I agree it sounded overly "marketeese".

      But I am a professional iOS developer, and I am just telling you what I see and hear. The Fire is the first Android tablet I have seen people who were otherwise dedicated iOS developers think "hmm, perhaps I could make something for that". A client I am currently working for is doing an Android solution for part of the project that specifically targets the Fire.

      It is really tempting to use treat the Fire as a totally one-off platform and build something for it, if for no other reason than you know Amazon is going to market the hell out of it - and they, unlike so many other companies, know how to market (AND have a base of customers that really like Amazon as a company).

      That's not Astroturfing. That is common sense. That is why the Fire is gaining traction, because the thing is being marketed not as an Android device but as an Amazon device.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    3. Re:Other way around... by Assmasher · · Score: 1

      I develop for both iOS and Android right now and I'm telling you, once you read the Amazon App Store terms you're going to say "f*** that..."

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  13. Re:Funny, all the mobile app develpers I have ever by lostmongoose · · Score: 1

    You can use Google's Market on it. They removed the redirects in the 6.2.1 update that just came out.

  14. Say what? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the best thing about Fire is that you barely feel it's an Android device. Amazon built its own closed-system OS on top of Android

    Whoa, that's a goodthing?

    Remind me never to buy any of that guy's games.

    My brother-in-law bought a Kindle Fire, and it's really disappointing. It's flimsy and designed to be little more than a shopping tool for Amazon. They should give them away for free.

    I don't see why this developer guy, this "Igor Pusenjak, president of Lima Sky" thinks that there's something about the Kindle Fire that makes it an attractive game platform. It's an android tablet, not a very good one, and there's an Amazon skin on top of it. Why would that be a better game platform than another android tablet? Is there something about the Amazon skin that makes it better? Is there something about the lack of an SD slot that makes it better?

    And the last update for the Fire made it impossible to root, so it's not even useful as an inexpensive android platform (I hear B&N did the same with the Nook tablet).

    This story smells fishy. There's some other agenda going on here.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Say what? by dufachi · · Score: 1

      Please describe exactly how it's "flimsy". From my experience, it's pretty solid physically.

      --
      -Kinsey
    2. Re:Say what? by rsborg · · Score: 1

      I don't see why this developer guy, this "Igor Pusenjak, president of Lima Sky" thinks that there's something about the Kindle Fire that makes it an attractive game platform. It's an android tablet, not a very good one, and there's an Amazon skin on top of it. Why would that be a better game platform than another android tablet? Is there something about the Amazon skin that makes it better? Is there something about the lack of an SD slot that makes it better?

      It's all about the numbers. If it's reasonably easy to port the code (say you've developed on Unity3D) and Amazon sells enough units, it could pose a large enough target to make the effort.

      There are lots of qualifiers in that previous sentence, however (and another one: Amazon's pricing is not as cut-and-dried as Google or Apple's).

      --
      Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    3. Re:Say what? by SlapChop · · Score: 1

      Hang on guys. I got a Kindle Fire and I was able to install every app I normally use on my EVO except Skype and the Google Apps: That's 50 apps I was able to install that I've been using on my EVO. Remember, KF doesn't have bluetooth, GPS, accelerometer, 3G, cameras or a microphone (apparently if you plug in a headset that has a microphone, it works).

    4. Re:Say what? by SlapChop · · Score: 1

      I also downloaded some APKs from other places and installed them, that is, apps that weren't coded specifically for the KF and they all worked. My only real complaint is sometimes the desktop screen doesn't respond to touches and you have to touch it again. Within apps there is no problem so I think it's a code problem with the Amazon desktop (launcher, bookcase, whatever it's called). The lack of a volume control is only a problem if you accidentally start playing something like a controversial podcast and the entire elevator or your office hears it! With my EVO I just turn the volume down within seconds. With the KF, yikes. I haven't had it happen yet thankfully.

    5. Re:Say what? by Fizzol · · Score: 1

      Flimsy?! The thing's a damn brick. A thin and sexy brick, but still. And, it's already been re-rooted since the last update. What B&N did, which Amazon hasn't done, is remove the ability to sideload apps. If you're going to criticize something at least have your facts right.

    6. Re:Say what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He was having his facts straight, I think he just meant the fire itself is a flimsy idea ;)
      Much like the rest of the chinese android tablets out there.

  15. We should by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    kill this with fire.

  16. not an android device? hardly... by eratosthene · · Score: 2

    Posting this on my Fire. It is most certainly an android device. In fact, the *only* differences I can discern between it and my cyanogenmod phone (as far as User Experience goes) are the custom launcher and lack of android market. After rooting and installing a regular launcher and the market, it works exactly like you'd expect an android tablet to work. Are people really so shallow that they think the launcher and skin define a whole different OS?

    --
    -- There, everybody likes a gorilla.
    1. Re:not an android device? hardly... by tepples · · Score: 1

      Are people really so shallow that they think the launcher and skin define a whole different OS?

      No, but they don't want to have to (technically) pirate the Android Market application.

  17. Re:Funny, all the mobile app develpers I have ever by symbolset · · Score: 1

    You can browse the Android Marketplace with it now. Not the same thing.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  18. If you stick strictly to Gutenberg by tepples · · Score: 1

    just load up with gutenberg downloads

    If Gutenberg is to be believed, no new world views and no new literary techniques were created after the end of 1922. A steady diet of only Gutenberg may cause people to hold views that have since become politically incorrect, a phenomenon that TV Tropes calls once acceptable targets.

  19. My Kindle is frozen. Please Help!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I bought a Kindle for my mother for Christmas and I have been using it a little. A few days ago it froze and now it won't function. I've tried charging it etc. Any ideas? Is this a common problem?
    I watched some videos on this fanpage:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kindle-Fire-Reviews/286968834679702 , but it seems these don't help. Anyone has any solution?

  20. DId Amazon write that? by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 1

    If not, how did they pay for someone to write it?

  21. Kindle Fire Reviews by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just played with the Kindle fire. I'm impressed. A few thing s like the type usb port and no cable to connect to computer.
    For those who still don't have one, there are some great review videos on this fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kindle-Fire-Reviews/286968834679702
    Hope someone will find this useful.

  22. Re:Funny, all the mobile app develpers I have ever by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    It turns out that they stopped hijacking your URLs in the browser, you can look at things in the market, you can't actually buy/download/install anything from it.

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