QuakeCon is behind us now, but the news is still resonating. Two key points to emerge from the event, and the lips of CEO John Carmack include id's decidedly strong support behind the iPhone (which is still kind of weird being that it's Apple) where he revealed the studio would be creating three lines of id releases which include "classic", "role-playing" and finally "exclusive". This means you'll be seeing original titles such as Wolf 3D in the classic line, a Wolfenstein RPG in the role-playing line and all-new IP in the exclusive line.

The other key point sees id's new bank balance, as invested by Zenimax, allowing them to craft three specific internal teams only dedicated to crafting Triple A titles. Say what you will about their games of late, but it really seems like they're stepping up their game for the coming generation.

Tripe A indeed!

Why is it weird that they are supporting Apple platforms? Hasn't Carmack been an Apple fanboy since before it was cool?

It's not, but I guess id as a developer has always been for the hardcore PC crowd

which is still kind of weird being that it's Apple

They do the majority of their programming and design on Macs.

It may be weird that they're developing for a mobile platform, but it's no less weird than them now putting great emphasis on console development.

On the flipside, what's -not- weird is that they're supporting Apple platforms. id have been releasing games on the Mac ever since I can remember.

what IS weird is that they'd do an iphone exclusive.

What is even WEIRDER is that Hogfather and 3dee haven't posted in this thread yet.

what IS weird is that they'd do an iphone exclusive.

Its not weird at all. The iphone app store market is huge, it makes as much sense as developing for any of the portable systems because the market is only going to get bigger and the development cycle is months instead of years.

What is even WEIRDER is that Hogfather and 3dee haven't posted in this thread yet.

Eh, more games for my phone? I'll take em, no time to play em tho!

what is wierd is iphone users

What's really wierd is someone who chooses a name like Blunty picking on the Apple people.

Hai guys. Nice thread. No dragons though.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2458/3746037088_832cfdd333.jpg

Its not weird at all. The iphone app store market is huge, it makes as much sense as developing for any of the portable systems because the market is only going to get bigger and the development cycle is months instead of years.

you missed the point. it's not about mobile development, it's about, why make it iphone exclusive? the winmo market is not unconsiderable either.

why make it iphone exclusive?

why make any games exclusive?

why make it iphone exclusive?

Here's two:

1. Each phone is different to develop on then WinMo which is different to Palm etc. To do more phones, is really just doing new versions.
2. Many other phones (particularly your winmo example) dont have a substantive market for selling applications. Combine this with point 1, and you have to show that the cost of making each additional version will be recouped.

These are the same reasons that Linux has no games.

Winmo mightn't have a store system setup yet, but i'm sure you could buy the games online quite easily and get them on your winmo.

Android will shortly have an app store, if its not up already, and most people who dont want an iphone, seem to be relatively into android based phones. Though i have no figures for comparisons.

I know palm and other such have their own OS's, but i'd have thought that for the most part, the winmo market would be a fairly viable one.

why make any games exclusive?

most console exclusives come with dump trucks full of cash. I'm not sure mobile developers get the same consideration.


I dunno, just seems an odd choice to me. If id have been able to release concurrent mac/pc versions of their desktop games, i would've thought handhelds would be similar.

I dunno, just seems an odd choice to me.

The App Store has been much more successful at bringing mobile apps (iPhone apps that is) to the limelight. Before the App Store, getting apps for mobiles was a pretty mediocre experience and often you couldn't find much decent stuff other than some games and maybe opera browser (this comes from using various Nokias and Motorolas). You seem to underestimate how commercially viable the App Store has become.

Winmo mightn't have a store system setup yet, but i'm sure you could buy the games online quite easily and get them on your winmo.

I wasn't saying its not possible, I was trying to say that iPhone is really the only phone with a sizable market for 3rd party games. If Android or whatever actually gains a lot of users buying stuff, then I'm sure you will see games turn up.

In that I dont thinkthey are iPhone "exclusive", there's just (currently) no other handset worth bothering with due to the lack of a market to sell the product to.

I dunno, just seems an odd choice to me. If id have been able to release concurrent mac/pc versions of their desktop games, i would've thought handhelds would be similar.

Mac and PC are actually far more similar to develop for than mobile phones, if you decide upfront to support both platforms its not much extra work to do so.

Mac and PC are actually far more similar to develop for than mobile phones, if you decide upfront to support both platforms its not much extra work to do so.

Precisely. A lot of code libraries and APIs are cross-platform (the most obvious being OpenGL). A large portion of game code has almost nothing to do with the platform its actually running on due to this. OpenGL 2.0 code on Mac will work the same on PC (as far as I can tell).

Its not really an unusual choice.

The iPhone has a standard OS and hardware environment - at worst id need to develop and test against 3 versions of the phone, and a single version of the OS. The phone also has decent 3D hardware and standard control mechanisms.

There are a good number of iPhones out there and a centralised, controlled application distribution network exists. Piracy seems to be relatively low, and the price point of most iPhone software doesn't make it that appealing to jailbreak the device just to get free s***.

Developing games on the iPhone seems more like console development than anything else. At the moment the competition doesn't present as appealing a platform to develop games on imo, but no doubt they are working on it.

Developing games on the iPhone seems more like console development than anything else.

+1 to this - to be honest the question "why iPhone exclusive" to me makes more sense in the context of say, why not release on PSP? Instead of why not WinMo.