A big problem: although there were great 80's Mac games, Apple did not support game developers and publishers because Macs are for "serious" and "professional" purposes such as office and school use, film, art, graphics, music. Macs are for professionals who make content for the entertainment industry, NOT for frivolous entertainment such as games. Then cheap dual processor wintel boxes became weapons of choice for 3D game artists. Microsoft brass and staff saw opportunity in games and fostered the industry. Apple brass didn't want their cute designer Macs to be perceived as toys, hence they refused to support games. Avid and hardcore gamers in the market for a computer will buy Wintel, not Apple because you can't play most games on a Mac. I won't consider buying a Mac until all games are supported.
Neither GameBoy Advance nor the N-Gage have hardware accelerated 3D graphics. 3D effects in games for both systems use software emulation. GBA developers use proprietary 3D software emulation while N-Gage developers use emulation provided by Fathammer. The Sony PSP will have true hardware accelerated 3D graphics at least as good as PlayStation and the Zodiac has 3D hardware acceleration NOW.
Nuh uh. Many companies and investors including Microsoft, Comcast, have lost tons of cash trying to get Interactive TV going in the US. Because Euro networks were foolish enough to actually launch interactive TV doesn't put 'em ahead of us. Cellphones are another story, the Americas are far behind Europe and Asia on wireless networks, which is about far more than the narrow market for phone games. Remember VM Lab's Nuon? Tempest on a DVD player, woo-hoo! TV is a passive medium/device cannot compete w/game consoles or computers. People ain't gonna pay for it.
Licensing is by region in software, music and video. This makes sense because cultural differences in various regions change the value of media accordingly. Games and music that are popular in the US are not necessarily popular in Japan, and vice versa.
Console manufacturers are against mod chips because they enable piracy. It's not just the developers and third party publishers who lose money, the console manufacturers lose significant licensing fees. Games are expensive to develop and offer arguably better value than music or movies in hours of enjoyment vs. money spent. The game industry does not push crap at its customers like the music or film biz. Rampant piracy of games would cause retail prices to increase rather follow the natural effects of the market, which is to decrease as hardware penetration increases. Also,distributors of mod chips are under fire, not users. This is as it should be.
The author of the article in question points to a Hong Kong retailer selling games from other regions as proof of the industry's hipocrisy. This is patently ridiculous -- what does the stock of an independent retailer from the epicenter of world piracy have to do with the game industry? It's doubtful the out of region games were not pirated.
Mod chips and pirate software will always be available, but when everyone has access to mod chips and pirate-enabling software, profits go away and pubs and developers have zero incentive to make any more games. Then gamers will have to make their own or wait for the open source community to make some. I'll bet those games will suck.
Lik-Sang should stick to selling other wares which do not enable casual piracy. BTW, DVD's are cheap.
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A big problem: although there were great 80's Mac games, Apple did not support game developers and publishers because Macs are for "serious" and "professional" purposes such as office and school use, film, art, graphics, music. Macs are for professionals who make content for the entertainment industry, NOT for frivolous entertainment such as games. Then cheap dual processor wintel boxes became weapons of choice for 3D game artists. Microsoft brass and staff saw opportunity in games and fostered the industry. Apple brass didn't want their cute designer Macs to be perceived as toys, hence they refused to support games.
Avid and hardcore gamers in the market for a computer will buy Wintel, not Apple because you can't play most games on a Mac. I won't consider buying a Mac until all games are supported.
Neither GameBoy Advance nor the N-Gage have hardware accelerated 3D graphics. 3D effects in games for both systems use software emulation. GBA developers use proprietary 3D software emulation while N-Gage developers use emulation provided by Fathammer. The Sony PSP will have true hardware accelerated 3D graphics at least as good as PlayStation and the Zodiac has 3D hardware acceleration NOW.
Nuh uh. Many companies and investors including Microsoft, Comcast, have lost tons of cash trying to get Interactive TV going in the US. Because Euro networks were foolish enough to actually launch interactive TV doesn't put 'em ahead of us. Cellphones are another story, the Americas are far behind Europe and Asia on wireless networks, which is about far more than the narrow market for phone games. Remember VM Lab's Nuon? Tempest on a DVD player, woo-hoo! TV is a passive medium/device cannot compete w/game consoles or computers. People ain't gonna pay for it.
Licensing is by region in software, music and video. This makes sense because cultural differences in various regions change the value of media accordingly. Games and music that are popular in the US are not necessarily popular in Japan, and vice versa. Console manufacturers are against mod chips because they enable piracy. It's not just the developers and third party publishers who lose money, the console manufacturers lose significant licensing fees. Games are expensive to develop and offer arguably better value than music or movies in hours of enjoyment vs. money spent. The game industry does not push crap at its customers like the music or film biz. Rampant piracy of games would cause retail prices to increase rather follow the natural effects of the market, which is to decrease as hardware penetration increases. Also,distributors of mod chips are under fire, not users. This is as it should be. The author of the article in question points to a Hong Kong retailer selling games from other regions as proof of the industry's hipocrisy. This is patently ridiculous -- what does the stock of an independent retailer from the epicenter of world piracy have to do with the game industry? It's doubtful the out of region games were not pirated. Mod chips and pirate software will always be available, but when everyone has access to mod chips and pirate-enabling software, profits go away and pubs and developers have zero incentive to make any more games. Then gamers will have to make their own or wait for the open source community to make some. I'll bet those games will suck. Lik-Sang should stick to selling other wares which do not enable casual piracy. BTW, DVD's are cheap.