Android Apps
Gameloft might sell even more games in the Android Market [Opinion]
May 12, 2011 | by Andrew Kameka
Android Games
Gameloft returned to the Android Market yesterday, announcing that Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus is available for sale. The first person shooter can lead to excitement on its own merits, but its arrival also signals that Gameloft may make more trips to Google’s official Android app distribution channel.
Is Modern Combat being in the Android Market a freak occurrence? Hardly. This is Gameloft dipping its toes back in the Market waters and seeing how much business sense it makes to dive in. I spoke with a couple of Gameloft reps following yesterday’s announcement and learned that the company is intrigued by the strides Google has taken to prevent piracy and provide more options for distributing apps to different devices. Those concerns were part of the reason that Gameloft previously sold apps only through its own store. After our conversation, I got the impression that Gameloft coming to the Android Market more often is a very strong possibility.
Gameloft is not abandoning its self-run storefront. Yesterday’s launch of NOVA 2, which is still available only in the Gameloft store, shows at much. And we’ll probably see some games launch as device exclusives. However, it’s good to see that the company is reconsidering its stance on the official Android Market. Aside from Dungeon Hunter and Asphalt 5, two games that we raved about, the bulk of Gameloft’s library has not been available in the Android Market. That also meant it didn’t provide the protection of re-downloading to different devices owned by the user, standard billing, and not being available to many because of frustrating download errors.
I’ve gone on record saying that Gameloft produces some of the best Android games but the store was too much to deal with those results. The Android Market is much easier to use, so games like Modern Combat are better served. Here’s a trailer of the game, and a link to the Android Market if you want to purchase the game.
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They need to make the game compatible (or, if it is compatible then show it on the market to be so) with tablets!
I was all set to purchase the game to encourage their use of Android Market… But, it didn't show to be compatible with the Asus Transformer… So, I didn't purchase it!
Cheaper if you buy it on their store.
"Pain in the ass tax deduction" Gameloft's store sucks. Transferring apps to another device is a trial worthy of monkship.
My recent post Garden check
They bloody should do. Re-downloading games from them is a nightmare. Probably bought a good 10 games and not one of them is showing on my new Samsung GS2 I just bought. Wouldn't have this issue if they were on the Android Market.
BOYCOTT GAMELOFT.COM I SAY!!!
They haven't updated all their games to support the Galaxy S2 and you would have the same issue in the Market.
At Google IO they announced lots of updates to the Android Market and one of them was the ability to more precisely target specific phones.
So if you buy Modern Combat 2 from the market today and use it on your Galaxy S 2. Then next year you buy the latest and greatest phone. If Gameloft has not added that new phone to the list of compatible phones with Modern Combat 2, you won't be able to download it and it won't even show up in the market on your phone.
Just bear in mind going forward that if your buying a 3D game there is no guarantee it will work on new hardware down the line, even if it was bought from the market.
You missed my point.
There is no guarantee for games to work on future devices. It will obviously work the device you bought it for, I never said it wouldn't. I was talking about the next device you buy and the fact that there is no guarantee it will work on it. The developer will have to add support for it and add it to the list of compatible devices.
More and more apps and games are being targeted at specific devices these days and the updates Google added recently allows developers to more specifically target them. Going forward the just because it's an Android device and you bought it from the Market doesn't give you any guarantee. Especially with 3D games which will be optimized for a specific chipset, for example any Tegra 2 game.
I'm hoping it doesn't get that bad but I'm not fooling myself into believing every app and game I buy on my current phone will work on new devices.
My recent post Google IO 2011 Recap
Gameloft presently has a very user unfriendly Android app policy for applications purchased from their web store. They tie the download not only to your device but to your phone number, change either one and the application will not work, even if you save your .apk and install it on your new device. This policy was confirmed by Gameloft. You can see my full post here http://goo.gl/eKWbk on the subject including an official response from Gameloft.
I'm a Gameloft fan, I've purchased many of their games across several hardware platforms but untill they change their policy for apps purchased from their web store I refuse to buy another title from them unless its from the Android or Amazon market.
I welcome their return to the official Android Market app store.
It's not tied to your device. I got a Nexus S yesterday to replace my dead Galaxy S, I went to gameloft.com on my phone and logged in with my account and downloaded a bunch of games I had purchased for the Galaxy S and they all worked with no issue.
My recent post Google IO 2011 Recap
Don't want to sound like a know-it-all, but… The first paragraph has 'its' spelled 'it’s' in two places. 'It' doesn't have a possessive apostrophe.