Android Reaches 20,000 App Milestone, Still no Good Games in Sight
Still somewhat shy of the iPhone’s 100,000 applications, Google’s Android mobile OS now has 20,000 apps available on its system. Gaming on the platform is sure to explode into iPhone-ish glory! Right? Probably not.
Android’s list of available applications may be expanding at an exponential rate, but sadly it looks like we’ll be waiting a bit longer (possibly forever) to see the level of quality games the iPhone basks in. For starters, larger developers like Gameloft aren’t embracing Android, though that’s arguably because there’s not as many Android based phones in the world than there are iPhones. Gameloft’s finance director recently said that “nobody is making significant revenue” on Android. EA refused to make games for the platform until they could charge (when it first went live, there was no built-in billing system to charge for content).
The slow growth is echoed in how long it’s taken to get those 20,000 applications. Apple claim to have reached the goal in February, a mere seven months after the App Store was opened. It’s taken Android twice as long from their initial launch more than a year ago.
There’s also the problem of mobile gaming in general feeling the pressures of the very recent tidal shift towards very profitable social gaming. Before people saw the money flowing from less-core games, there was a higher emphasis on actual, deep games. Now that emphasis has shifted.
EA recently bought Playfish, a company who focus on casual and social mobile games, showing the company is keen to move more into the mobile space. Yet the developer they chose has only released one game on Android. Looking at the difference between EA’s iPhone site and their other, smart phone site, it’s pretty clear which one they’re pushing (the iPhone site also boasts 35 titles, whilst the number of titles available on the G1 is 1).
Whilst congratulations are due for Google and its crossing of this arbitrary achievement point, very little applause can really be left for us gamers looking for the next great mobile game.
If you know of any good Android games, or would like to buy me an Android and subsequently sponsor any and all Android reviews the site does in future, get in touch.
Every iPhone game I’ve played has the longevity of a banana in the sun. Especially the tilting stuff which ends up your point the screen away from your viewing angle most of the time.
Not played any on Android (but should be getting a HTC Hero soon), but it seems that this whole games on your mobile thing needs to develop a little more.
Sadly Android gaming really isn’t amazing but there are a few things worth playing (and they’re all free!)
There’s a couple of decent Bejeweled clones, a quality Doom port (with suprisingly good controls), a passable TD called Robo Defense, and loads of good chess/sudoku/oXo aps etc.
My two favourites though are Teeter, which is a marble-maze you tilt and shake like a real marble maze and Throttlecopter, which is nearly as more-ish as Peggle. You can find the web version here (be warned though, it’s brutally addictive):
http://www.seethru.co.uk/zine/south_coast/helicopter_game.htm
So nothing that’s going to set the world on fire but then mobile gaming doesn’t as a rule. And at least you don’t have to use a fucking stylus…
Mobile developers aren’t in the business for a popularity contest. Shame on Google for not trying to at least offer them some kind of way to monetize their products. Especially with the big ones (EA/Jamdat, Gameloft, Glu, ngmoco, etc…) they need constant revenues to keep afloat just like any other big business.
Mobile games aren’t going to change the world, but if you’re an Android phone user there’s no reason you shouldn’t have access to the same or equivalent software that’s on the iPhone.
The biggest problem with android is the wide variety of phones with different control schemes and different versions of the android os. My hero is practically useless for any game that needs a keyboard, but there are a few puzzle and tower defense games are ok at best.
Forgot to mention that I can’t save apps to my SD card without rooting my phone. I have 23 megs of space left on my phone for apps but a gig and a half of space left on my SD card.
@player66:
The fact is, the android app store DOES now have in built payment, making that complaint now-redundant. So what has the fact that developers aren’t developing same/equivalent software for Android got to do with Google nowadays? It’s a great platform for it, and it’s getting more and more users every time, so it’s really just up to developers now. Everything is in place.
As for AzNheadbanger’s point, I suppose it is a disadvantage of having an open platform that not everything is compatible with everything. But it also allows for greater freedom in what can be developed, so it goes both ways. Personally I prefer to have a phone based on an open format which is very customisable than one which looks the same from phone to phone, because I like to play and experiment.
Sky Force by IDreams just came out yesterday!
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_games/arcade_and_action/sky-force_bnzn.html