Posts tagged with "games"

The Case for Videogame and App Preservation

On the same day that the App Store turned 15, the Video Game History Foundation released a study that concludes 87% of all classic videogames released in the US are no longer commercially available. The study looked at a broad cross-section of platforms and found that this isn’t a problem that’s limited to one corner of the videogame industry. It’s universal. As a result, a large segment of videogame history is at risk of being lost forever.

The Video Game History Foundation’s mission is to preserve videogame history, and along with libraries, museums, and archives, they’re seeking exemptions from US Copyright law to make game preservation easier. On the other side of their efforts is the gaming industry, which argues, among other things, that commercial re-releases and remasters of classic games are satisfying preservation needs.

That debate is what prompted the Foundation’s study:

It’s true that there’s more games being re-released than even before. But then why does the gaming community believe that so few classic games are still available? What’s the real story here? If we want to have a productive conversation about game preservation, we need an accurate understanding of where things stand right now.

We conducted this study to settle the facts. It’s not enough just to have a hunch. We need hard data.

The results of the Video Game History Foundation’s study tell a different story than the one the videogame industry tells and is one that’s equally applicable to mobile games and apps on Apple’s App Store. Federico and I have written about app and game preservation before, including during the 10th anniversary of the App Store. And while I applaud Apple’s decision to promote classic iOS games as part of Apple Arcade, the Foundation’s study shows that it’s not enough. It’s a start, but for every game that is given a new lease on life as part of Arcade, there are dozens that lie dormant and unplayable.

The problem extends to apps too. Craig Grannell, with the help of Internet sleuths, set out to recreate the list of 500 apps and games that debuted on the App Store as its 15th anniversary approached. Grannell’s Google Spreadsheet currently lists 355 titles, and guess what? By my count, only 43 of those apps and games have live App Store URLs, which works out to 12%, almost exactly the same results as the Video Game History Foundation’s study. Grannell’s spreadsheet may not have been compiled as rigorously as the Foundation’s study, but the point stands: we’re losing access to culturally significant apps and games on the App Store alongside the videogame industry.

That’s why I was happy to see the Video Game History Foundation take the important step of gathering the facts that support their preservation efforts. Its focus is on games, but hopefully, it will help raise awareness about preserving apps too.

A good way to learn more about the Video Game History Foundation’s study is also to listen to the latest episode of its podcast, where Kelsey Lewin and Phil Salvador of the Foundation were joined by Brandon Butler, Director of Information Policy at the University of Virginia Library and Law and Policy Advisor at the Software Preservation Network.

Snazzy Labs on the Trouble with Mac Gaming→

Quinn Nelson of Snazzy Labs has an excellent video about the trouble with gaming on the Mac. The video’s title says it all: “Macs Can Game. But Apple Can’t.” As Nelson explains, it’s not the hardware or the software that’s holding the platform back. It’s the size of the Mac market and the lack of any apparent strategy to attract more than a few big-name game studios to the Mac.

Nelson’s critique is spot-on. More than ever, Apple seems to be interested in and care about gaming on the Mac. That’s gotten a lot of people’s hopes up, including mine, but the company needs to start spending money to get AAA games as exclusives on the platform if it ever wants to compete with the PC gaming market. Apple spent the money to go from Planet of the Apps to Ted Lasso, and it’s going to have to do the same with videogames if it wants to attract the industry’s biggest names and titles.

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Tears of the Kingdom Travel Guide Is the Ideal iPhone and iPad App to Keep Track of Your Zelda Adventures

TotK Travel Guide.

TotK Travel Guide.

If your summer’s going to be anything like mine, some of these things should sound familiar: you’re going to play around with the iOS and iPadOS 17 betas and get on some TestFlights for third-party apps; you’re going to spend some time at the beach or perhaps even travel abroad; and you’ll still be playing through The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is a ridiculously massive game well worth waiting six years for. If the latter scenario applies to your life right now and in the near future, you’ll want to install TotK Travel Guide, which came out earlier this week for iPhone and iPad.

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Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit’s Support for DirectX 12 is a Big Deal for Gaming on the Mac→

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Earlier this week, I linked to Tom Warren’s story on The Verge about Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit and gamers’ early experiments with running Windows games on Apple silicon Macs running macOS Sonoma. Yesterday, Christina Warren, writing for Inverse, published an in-depth look at why Apple’s innocuously Game Porting Toolkit has the potential to be a big deal:

…buried in the keynote was a macOS feature that Apple should have called out with more fanfare: DirectX 12 support for macOS. As PC gamers already know, this software support means the floodgates are open for some real games — not that casual Apple Arcade stuff — on Mac. Maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of the end to the old joke that Macs can’t play AAA games.

As Warren explains, Apple’s DirectX 12 support is thanks to a patch to Wine that the company developed:

That toolkit largely takes place as a 20,000 line of code patch to Wine, a compatibility layer designed to bring support for Windows games to platforms such as Linux, BSD, and macOS. Wine, which is primarily supported by the company CodeWeavers (which also makes a commercial version called CrossOver), works by converting system calls made to Windows APIs into calls that can be used by other operating systems. It isn’t emulation, but translation (an important semantic difference).

If this all sounds a lot like what Valve did with Proton and the Steam Deck, it’s because it is:

In some ways, the fate of Mac gaming mirrored another desktop platform: Linux. Like the Mac, and in spite of a very vocal contingent of users, Linux gaming largely remained largely elusive until Valve introduced Proton in 2018, a way to play Windows games on its Linux Steam client and on its Linux distribution SteamOS (which at the time, was primarily used for its failed Steam Machine devices). And notably, the open-source technology at the heart of Proton, is the same technology that Apple is using for its Game Porting Toolkit.

Does all of this mean that the Mac is on the cusp of becoming the AAA gaming platform that has eluded it for years? As Warren rightly notes, it’s too early to go that far, but it is cause for optimism and is a big deal even if it remains a niche way to play DirectX 12 games on a Mac.

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Apple Releases Developer Tools to Facilitate Porting Videogames to the Mac→

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

During the WWDC keynote, Apple showed off Game Mode for the Mac, which gives a game priority over a Mac’s CPU and GPU resources. Apple has also reduced the latency of AirPods used while gaming and doubled the sampling rate for connected Bluetooth controllers.

Game Mode promises to improve the overall experience of gaming on the Mac, but it’s not all that was announced at WWDC. Apple has also announced a series of developer tools designed to make it easier to port games to the Mac from other platforms.

Among those tools is a Game Porting Toolkit, which Tom Warren of The Verge says is:

 similar to the work Valve has done with Proton and the Steam Deck. It’s powered by source code from CrossOver, a Wine-based solution for running Windows games on macOS. Apple’s tool will instantly translate Windows games to run on macOS, allowing developers to launch an unmodified version of a Windows game on a Mac and see how well it runs before fully porting a game.

The Game Porting Toolkit is meant as a way for developers to quickly see how much work needs to be done to port their games to the Mac, but that hasn’t stopped gamers with developer accounts from downloading the tool and taking everything from Cyberpunk 2077 to Diablo IV for a spin on the Mac according to Warren.

Along with a tool to convert shaders and graphics code to Apple’s Metal framework, The Game Porting Toolkit and other announcements at WWDC mark a concerted effort by Apple to expand the catalog of games available to Mac users. Whether game developers will take advantage of these tools and bring their games to the Mac remains to be seen, but recent announcements that Stray and Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, Director’s Cut are coming to the Mac are both good signs.

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Snowman’s Laya’s Horizon Takes Flight

There’s a lot to like about Laya’s Horizon, the brand-new mobile game from Snowman that’s available today on iOS, iPadOS, and Android via Netflix. However, it’s the game’s control scheme that elevates it to unique heights. Laya is by no means the first game to employ a simple two-finger control scheme. But, it’s the best I’ve tried, enabling a surprisingly deep and intimate gaming experience. Combined with Snowman’s excellent taste and attention to detail, Laya’s Horizon is incredibly fun and a game you won’t want to miss.

I got an early glimpse of Laya’s Horizon in early 2019, sitting on the floor of a Marriott in San Francisco during the Game Developer Conference. That feels like a lifetime ago, but it should give you a sense of how much work has gone into the game. What I saw in 2019 was a very early demo, but even watching someone else control the game, the sense of flight was palpable. With the game in my own hands, that sense became tangible instantly.

Laya’s Horizon is played in landscape orientation. You’re Laya, who has just earned her first cape for flying. The game kicks off with a tutorial that walks you through the mechanics of flying around its 3D map from a third-person perspective. Slide your thumbs down together to climb, up to dive, together for a boost of speed, apart to parachute down, and one up and the other down to bank left and right. It takes a bit of practice to get good at flying, but the tutorial does a nice job of walking you through the basics without overdoing it and becoming boring. As you play, if you seem to be struggling with a maneuver, on-screen reminders appear to help you along the path to mastering flight.

Opening up new areas of the map.

Opening up new areas of the map.

Those simple on-screen controls coupled with haptic feedback on the iPhone create a connection with what’s happening on the screen that’s remarkable. Before long, I found myself flying high over forests, diving into ravines, buzzing along the island’s shoreline, and bouncing off hot air balloons. There’s a lot more to Laya’s Horizon, but I expect that the simple act of flying around the game’s island will be more than enough of a hook to bring players back for more.

Aside from the joy of soaring through the sky, Laya’s Horizon offers a variety of challenges, races, and missions to level up your skills, collect new capes, and meet new islanders known as Windfolk. Alternating those activities with flying around the island, taking in the diverse scenery and enjoying the game’s excellent sound design and music, creates a soothing, relaxing experience reminiscent of Snowman’s Alto’s Adventure.

Diving down a mountainside.

Diving down a mountainside.

What’s very different from a game like Alto’s Adventure is that Laya’s Horizon is an open, 3D environment. The island’s map is revealed in stages as you explore and complete missions, opening up areas like the top of a mountain from which you can reach any other point. There are no restrictions on where you can travel, but missions and other activities are clearly marked, so there’s always something to do within your field of view as you explore. In all, there are 50 missions, 40 levels, and over 100 collectibles to find along the way, which is more than enough to keep you enjoying Laya’s Horizon for quite a while.

Races are one of my favorite parts of Laya’s Horizon. You’re shown the path from the finish line to the start and then compete with NPCs. Along the way are checkpoints you need to fly through, which act as loose directional signposts to keep you on the correct path. Flying close to the ground, through tight spots, and other risky maneuvers lets you collect sparks, which can be used to temporarily boost your speed during races, rewarding you for doing more than just floating above the fray.

Laya’s Horizon is a real treat to play. The game maintains a careful balance that allows players to dip into it for a short mission or get lost in its beauty for longer stretches. The result is a delightfully relaxing, fun-filled experience that I expect a lot of people will enjoy.

Laya’s Horizon is free to download from the App Store and play for anyone with a subscription to Netflix.

Six 8BitDo Controllers Add Support for Apple Hardware

Source: 8BitDo

Source: 8BitDo

8BitDo, a popular maker of game controllers, announced today that six of its products now officially support Apple hardware:

  • 8BitDo Ultimate Controller 2.4g
  • 8BitDo Pro 2
  • 8BitDo SN30 Pro +
  • 8BitDo Pro
  • 8BitDo SN30 Pro for Android
  • 8Bitdo Lite SE

The controller firmware update, which can be applied using the company’s Upgrade Tool, will allow gamers to use 8BitDo’s supported controllers wirelessly with any iOS, iPadOS, macOS, or tvOS game that has adopted Apple’s game controller APIs. Playing wired is also supported on iPads and Macs with USB-C ports.

According to 8BitDo, up to four controllers can be connected at once for games with multiplayer support, but rumble and motion control are not supported “for the moment,” suggesting that a future update may support those features. Links to detailed directions and illustrations of how to connect 8BitDo’s controllers are available by hovering over the images of the controllers on the company’s dedicated Apple device webpage.

I have a bunch of the controllers for which Apple device support was announced, and I can’t wait to try them. A couple of the controllers I have already have some basic support for Apple devices, thanks to compatibility with Sony and Microsoft controllers. However, the firmware update should extend the functionality of the controllers to the full set of features that Apple now supports.

Microsoft and Netflix Aim to Challenge Apple in Mobile Gaming

Two pieces of mobile gaming news caught my eye this morning.

The first was an interview that Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, gave to the Financial Times. The annual Game Developer Conference began today, and Spencer wants developers to know that Microsoft intends to publish games on mobile devices:

We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play.

He continued:

Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up.

Spencer is banking that the EU’s Digital Markets Act will force Apple and Google to open up their devices early next year. Microsoft is having troubles of its own with US, UK, and EU regulators over its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Part of Spencer’s strategy to win regulators over appears to be the prospect of bringing competition to mobile gaming with its own store and a native Game Pass app that isn’t relegated to streaming via a browser, which is the case for it and services like NVIDIA’s GeForce Now under current App Store rules.

The second piece of news comes from Netflix, which says it has 40 mobile games coming to iOS in 2023, which will join the 55 already available. Working within the constraints of the App Store’s guidelines, Netflix’s games are released as separate App Store downloads that Netflix subscribers can download and play at no additional cost. I’ve been impressed with the quality of the games released by Netflix, which include titles like TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Kentucky Route Zero,Reigns: Three Kingdoms, Oxenfree, and Lucky Luna.

However, perhaps even bigger than the news of Netflix’s growing catalog is that the first two Monument Valley games are coming to the company’s mobile game catalog in 2024. That’s a big deal because both games are currently part of an Apple Arcade subscription, as well as being available as separate App Store purchases. It’s not clear whether the games will remain part of Arcade after they’re published by Netflix, but even if they are, it will provide another avenue to play the games at no additional cost, which will dilute the value of an Arcade subscription.

Microsoft and Netflix are already competing with Apple in mobile gaming to a degree, but their hands are tied by App Store guidelines. Microsoft has settled on streaming games, which is clunky and constrained, while Netflix has launched dozens of individual games without a good way to organize and market them under their brand.

What Microsoft and Netflix have done so far demonstrates that a little competition is a good thing. Developers have more avenues for publishing their games, and consumers have more choices. The Digital Markets Act has the potential to be the catalyst that opens the door to competition even wider, which I expect will create all sorts of new opportunities for developers and consumers alike.

Rovio Announces It’s Pulling Angry Birds Classic From Sale on Android and Hiding the Game on iOS

Angry Birds was a defining game of the first decade of the App Store, so fans and game preservationists applauded Rovio in 2021 when it announced that it was rebuilding the 2012 version of the game and relaunching it on the App Store and Android as Angry Birds Classic.

The game was relaunched last spring, after a three-year absence from the App Store with an emphasis on the game preservation angle:

“While we were rebuilding Angry Birds, we took great care to preserve the feeling of the original Angry Birds game,” says executive producer, Sami Ronkainen. “We know our fans are a discerning bunch and will be able to pick out even small differences. Matching the gameplay, and appearance of the game next to the original was crucial.”

Now less than a year later, it’s hard to read that as anything more than empty marketing copy in light of Rovio’s tweeted announcement yesterday in which it said:

We have reviewed the business case of Rovio Classics: Angry Birds, and due to the game’s impact on our wider games portfolio, we have decided that Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will be unlisted from the Google Play Store on Thursday, February 23. Additionally, the game will be renamed to Red’s First Flight in the App Store pending further review. Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will remain playable on devices on which the game has been downloaded, even after it has been unlisted.

We understand that this is sad news for many fans, as well as the team that has worked hard to make Rovio Classics: Angry Birds a reality. We are extremely grateful to the Angry Birds fans who have shown their love of the brand and this game from the beginning. We hope those fans can continue to bring that passion to our live Angry Birds slingshot games such as Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Friends, and Angry Birds Journey, where our goal every day is to craft the best possible experience for players.

It’s not clear what Rovio means by Angry Birds Classic’s impact on its other platforms. If I had to guess, though, I’d bet that the $0.99 price of Classic was cannibalizing sales of more recent versions built around In-App Purchases. But why not pull the iOS version completely instead of changing its name? By removing ‘Angry Birds’ from the name of the game, it will be harder to find on the App Store but remains available, which may have been deemed necessary politically given Rovio’s involvement with Apple Arcade. Speculation aside, though, it’s a shame to see a culturally important mobile game pulled from one platform and hidden on the other.