About the game
- The Cave
- PC, X360, PS3
- Published by Sega
- Developed by Double Fine
- French release: Available
- US release: Available
What's up?

Top stories
About
- Copyright 2007-2009 Gamersyde SARL
Log in
Express links
- Microsoft launches Xbox Wire
- CI Games unveils Lords of the Fallen (Next-gen/PC/2014)
- EA abandons the online pass
- Ubisoft indefinitely suspends production on 1666 after firing Patrice Desilets
- EA opens new DICE studio in Los Angeles
- Disney and EA announce multi-year Star Wars games agreement
- Rumor: Internal Microsoft memo says Next Xbox works without internet
- Bethesda Softworks teases a new game
- Australian classification board lists Pacific Rim game
- Why the next-generation of game design has to happen
- 2K Games won't have a booth at this year's E3
- Nintendo skips E3 conference, games & events still there
- Next Xbox will be revealed on May 21
- SCEA registers 'The Order: 1886'
- The Bureau (XCOM shooter) to be re-revealed on April 26

All comments
Digital download games seem far more interesting than AAA games these days.
I've always said that all Microsoft (and for that matter, even Sony) ever needed to do to make a successful portable device, was make one that plugged directly into XBLA (PSN) and only played those games.
Microsoft in particular, as they not only have the 400+ games from XBLA, but they also have over 2,000 XNA games from XBLIG, at least 300 to 400 or so of those are really good games. And with prices ranging from $1 on the low end, all the way up to $15 on the high end ($20 being the rare exception for the occasional game like Minecraft), and you'd have a successful, and winning portable platform on your hands.
QFT
I've always said that all Microsoft (and for that matter, even Sony) ever needed to do to make a successful portable device, was make one that plugged directly into XBLA (PSN) and only played those games.
Microsoft in particular, as they not only have the 400+ games from XBLA, but they also have over 2,000 XNA games from XBLIG, at least 300 to 400 or so of those are really good games. And with prices ranging from $1 on the low end, all the way up to $15 on the high end ($20 being the rare exception for the occasional game like Minecraft), and you'd have a successful, and winning portable platform on your hands.
That just makes sense, wonder why something like that haven't surfaced yet? :S
*looks at apple and android phones*
Can't fully understand the love for Android anyway...
True, but most of those games are play-for-5-minutes-throw-away types. The games on PSN/XBLA tend to have more depth and player involvement.
Can't fully understand the love for Android anyway...
And figures show we love CoD and want more of it...
I consider myself to be sufficiently "hard core" but to be honest, i wouldn't lug a PS Vita around. My phone is perfectly fine for playing a little game on the buss/subway or whatever. Whenever i get a portable system, i just end up playing that shit at home. I imagine that's true for a lot of people, hard core gamers included.
Just look at the Vita, it offers exactly that kinda of stuff, but it's sales are still kinda "meh". It's just not the experience a lot of people want i imagine.
As far as portable games go i think phones are stealing quite a bit of the market.
I consider myself to be sufficiently "hard core" but to be honest, i wouldn't lug a PS Vita around. My phone is perfectly fine for playing a little game on the buss/subway or whatever. Whenever i get a portable system, i just end up playing that shit at home. I imagine that's true for a lot of people, hard core gamers included.
Just look at the Vita, it offers exactly that kinda of stuff, but it's sales are still kinda "meh". It's just not the experience a lot of people want i imagine.
I understand that, but phones are heavily competing in that market now, as figures show people are more interested in mini games on the move than they are with games that have depth
And figures show we love CoD and want more of it...
http://tachyoniccargo.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/the...
http://tachyoniccargo.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/and...
Sony's biggest problem over the past decade, has been the erroneous belief that they live in a vacuum away from the rest of the game industry. Back before Sony and any serious competition, they thrived despite being completely off the mark about almost everything. But when the competition picked up, you began to see the holes in Sony's armor; holes that ultimately led to huge market share losses to competitors like Microsoft and Nintendo in the console space. And over the course of a single generation, Sony has literally dropped from 90% market share, to about 20% to 25% market share. Those are some pretty gaping holes.
Fast-forward to the now, and Sony still has their blinders on. They entered into the portable gaming space for their sophomore portable, without taking into account they do not live in a vacuum. The space in which they operate, is currently dominated by multi-function devices like smartphones and tablets that retail for $200 (on subsidy), that do so much more than just play games. And even the games on these platforms, as these games grow in sophistication with middleware like UE3 being ported to mobile, the prices are still pretty low: $1 to $15 a pop. Introducing a portable into this environment, that firstly only plays games, secondly costs $50 more than subsidized multi-function devices, and thirdly, the games run $40 to $50 each, that is suicide -
That's why the Vita does not work. And it's not because the majority of mobile gamers only want mini-games, or throwaway games to play on their mobile. I think in time we are going to find out that the opposite is true; the mobile gamer wants sophisticated games as much as they want throwaway games. They are just not willing to pay the $40 to $50 price for those sophisticated games any longer; and they are most certainly not willing to spend a dime over $200 for the device to play them on. We already see evidence of this last bit, with the 3DS. It could not move hardware either, until the price dropped. And then overnight, the system sold an additional 16 million units, and is currently tracking to sell faster than the DS, or the Wii.
The concept behind the inexpensive game portable that taps directly into XBLA/PSN was a concept I started coming up with way back in 2007, when download games started getting series - I always used to joke that XBLA was Microsoft's portable system, when people asked why won't Microsoft make one. By 2009 with the advent of games coming to Apple's App Store, and the sales figures coming out of that, I began to figure out pretty quickly that the only way forward for dedicated game portables, was something with a lot of internal memory, and a couple of SD card ports, that could be sold inexpensively at retail, with games coming directly out of XBLA/PSN. And now that we live where everyone has cloud game saves, you can play that game at home, save it, and then load that save on your portable while on your lunch break at work, and continue from where you left off. It really surprises me, that neither Sony, nor Nintendo even considered that as a viable option when designing 3DS and PSVita. So now Nintendo is losing money on hardware, and taking huge fiscal loses (the first time in 30 years), and Sony can't give Vita's away - all because both companies in their own way refused to look at the writing on the wall as they were developing their new portable systems. Instead of making portable systems for the consumer, or even for the portable game developer, they made their systems to shovel their own vision of portable gaming down everyone's throats. And as a result, they both are paying the price for that.
I really should put more of this stuff in my blog. I'm getting halfway decent at it.