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Fear not, gamers: Epic Games hasn’t changed their stance on Android. The problem is the stance itself: fragmentation sucks, and the lack of it on iOS doesn’t suck. Thus, iOS will continue to be their primary focus. They showed a demo of Epic Citadel running on Android in an interview with Slowdown.vg, so it’s not like they’re just saying this stuff – they just want to wait until they get their iOS aspirations situated before they deal with the challenges that present themselves with Android. [via AC]
I hope they start to develop soon ^^
And on what phone was this certain game demoed hmmmmm? :p
Ok more like a tease but whatever.
I hope Google does something about fragimation, such as requiring stock android instead of motoblur and they should allow developers to choose which phones can’t download their apps.
They can require certain features on the phone inorder to download their app, but the developers can’t choose exactly which phones can’t use their apps.
I can’t say I’m too surprised. Based on my own experience as a developer, fragmentation is a bigger issue for games (or, well, anything that’s heavily dependent on either OpenGL or the NDK) than almost any other strain of app.
Every Android phone should come stock and depending on what phone you have used should have special content in the market to download and be able to download the custom skins like touchwiz to your device. Boom fragmentation solved send me my check
@Joe I agree stock is the best, but that would defeat the purpose of open source and a lot of people like Sense and others
Fuck em’. It would be nice if they did, but nobody is begging them.
I think there is a piece missing from the title…like epic games choosing to miss the boat….
When a game developer talks about fragmentation I don’t think they are referring to skins such as motoblur and all that crap. I think they are referring to the giant soup of 2.0-2.2 phones out there. They are also likely referring to the many variants of phones, some with gyroscopes, some without and so on.
I am not sure google can do much about this. Android succeeds in part because it is offered on both high and low end smart phones.
Consumers are likely the only ones who can influence this problem, by purchasing phones from manufacturers who provide quicker updates.
GOOGLE need to fix this problem they should send all the phone updates not just certain phones… i get a lil tired with all this sometime i just want to go back to apple…
Add graphics settings in the game. fragmentation problem done. Hey, if PC gaming lived like this for probably 30 years, why not on android? Sure, it might not look pretty, but if the guys with midrange phones get to play the latest and greatest games, why not?
though personally, i really don’t give a crap about playing games on my phone :P
I’m at the point where I wish Android wasn’t open sourced. Not that I care about these games at all but that I feel like we miss out on a lot of Apps because developers re afraid of the frag and its gotten annoying.
The VP had a Galaxy S phone. No one has said which one specifically tho
Make every phone stock and make the manufacturer skins only available to the people who have their phones via the Android market, think LauncherPro or ADW Launcher. Then if Google does make a iTunes like program they could make the newest update available to everyone at once. Downloading via Google Tunes(LOL) lets Google, Manufacturers, and the Carriers not have to worry about the cost of sending updates over the air (it is not free).
I don’t buy the whole fragmentation issue on Android. I see the stats and it shows that 80% of all Android devices are running 2.1 or 2.2 and considering 2.3 just came out you can’t hate on that just yet. http://www.talkandroid.com/22600-android-2-x-os-distribution-over-80-of-devices/
Now Apple and others like to target Android based on each revision of the OS as a platform, well what about iPhone OS, how many are on 3.x, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 and soon 4.3. Apple and others like to neatly package it as OS 4.x and give the appearance all is nice. I call BS on that.
Lets also keep in mind that Apple’s support cycle on any iOS device is not super long. You will be lucky to get N+1 years out of it. In fact iPhone 3GS won’t be getting OS 4.3 or any variation there of. So fragmentation for Apple too. I know plenty of iPhone uses who have iPhone 3GS and 3G’s why upgrade if the phone works. Too bad they can’t get the latest OS, or EPIC games etc.
Apple/Jobs look in the mirror, I sold my apple iTouch, iPad, iPhone I just don’t support their mobile platform any longer. Android just works for me. Oh and I don’t bother waiting for the mfg’s and carriers I go rooted.
That’s what good businesses do, sitting on the sideline and waiting for difficulties to go away. Solving problems is for dummies.
@DrFill If you look at Dungeon Defenders running on their Unreal Engine. That game is really only optimized for Tegra 2 right now. It’s laggy on other processors. They have to optimize the Unreal Engine for Hummingbird, Snapdragon, and TI OMAP too.
Epic!! but what about controls? Controls on a touch screen is awkward. lol
Imagine the unreal engine on a 3D device. It’d be beyond beautiful. These guys have done an unreal(no pun intended, well maybe :P) job on the engine and the graphics look absolutely stunning for a mobile device.
Imagine the unreal engine on a 3D device. It’d be beyond beautiful. These guys have done an unreal(no pun intended, well maybe :P) job on the engine and the graphics look absolutely stunning for a mobile device.
Nearly all of y’all are missing the point. Fragmentation is mainly caused by the so called “skins” that are made for Android, that much is correct. However, a few of y’all are saying things like “Google should force manufacturers to go stock Android” and “the skins should be a download in the Market”. 1. Android is an open-source platform, to force a phone manufacturer to keep it stock would be defeating the point and would destroy the entire mantra of Android. 2. You are mislead when people call then “skins” for Android. HTC Sense, Motoblur, and TouchWiz are much more than just edits to the framework-res.apk and a new launcher. You reference Launcher Pro and ADW like they have any comparison, these “skins” are heavy modification to the Android OS, and that’s okay, its open-source. As for people commenting on Google releasing the updates, when a manufacturer asks for Android, Google gives it to them free of charge. So if your phone doesn’t have FroYo or won’t be receiving Gingerbread, blame the manufacturer.
I didn’t know you guys were that stupid.. An android firmware needs to be optimized for every device regardless if they have a skin or not. Just because you have stock android doesn’t mean google can provide you with direct updates. And the android market works like this, the app developer chooses which features are needed and if your phone doesn’t have that feature the app won’t show up.
@Wello the market filter is based on your SDK version found in your build.prop file in your /system partition.
Fragmentation was never a problem for personal computers. Why should it matter for a phone. Just excuses really.
It’s called a “graphics options” that all pc games have.
We don’t need them.
U can keep your apples.
Obviously the Android platform is not a priority. Most people jailbreak their phones anyways so in that case…why do people still choose Android…? A better question…why would anyone still choose Android after February 10th, knowing that viruses are formated for the Android platform?
The answer? Being stubborn…
If Dungeon Defenders is any indication, nothing short of a Tegra 2 is worth running the Unreal Engine on anyways. Or maybe that was their shoddy coding, lack of graphical tweaking options, or half-assed porting job from iOS. (Disclaimer: I’m still bitter over wasting $3 on a game that was advertised to work on my phone but then yanked from the compatibility list at the last possible moment. Thanks to the newly revised Market return policy, my time to return the game was up before the content finished downloading)
That said, it seems clear that the Tegra 2 chipset is going to become the standard for high-end smartphones. Might as well focus on that. Android needs a champion; what better way is there to kill fragmentation than overwhelming consumer demand for one particular chipset? It worked to clear up the SH3/MIPS/ARM war that started Pocket PC’s life.
I don’t see the problem? Android is always backwards compatible and it’s a VM since it’s Java-based. So no assembly crap or hardware dependant APIs.
The graphics are handled through OpenGL ES, like most mobile OSes/devices including those from Microsoft.
Worms has a graphics option (well, the option for low graphics anyway) and the graphics still look just as good on low but make it run a lot better.
Where the hell is ID software?
And this is why I’m leaving Android. FAIL.
100% of people who say FAIL are Fags
“We will only develop games for Amiga and not the PC because of all the fragmentation” -Game developer circa 1990
i hope they get on this soon..
who cares?
@Contraus
Now explain why you are a troll.