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Angry Birds dev thinks console games are 'dying'


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Console games are "dying".

 

That's the stark assessment of the maker of one of the most popular mobile games – Angry Birds.

 

Innovation has moved from console games into mobile games, Rovio boss Peter Vesterbacka told a panel at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, reported by Venture Beat.

 

Mobile developers are more "nimble", he said, and able to upgrade their games with new content quicker than creators of big budget console games.

 

Angry Birds, which costs 59p for the full version or nothing for the free version, has been downloaded over 100 million times.

 

A PlayStation Network version of Angry Birds launched earlier this year. Nintendo 3DS and Wii versions are planned.

 

During the panel Vesterbacka said he was tired of the phrase "casual games", and complained that no one talks about "casual movies".

 

The mobile/casual game versus console game debate heated up during the Game Developers Conference this month when Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata expressed his fears over the future of "high value" games.

 

His keynote was seen by many experts as a thinly veiled attack on Apple's App Store - and the many thousands of games available to download from it.

 

"A few games do become mega-hits, but it's not easy," he said. "With such competition, even being noticed is extremely difficult - huge investments promise nothing. Now, consider this. The corresponding number of games available to download from app sites is in the tens of thousands. Game development is drowning."

source

 

 

 

That's a bold statement, considering the continued success of console games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, which has sold 13.7 million units in America alone. Rovio's Angry Birds has been downloaded – according to the studio – over 100 million times. It's difficult to make a straight comparison with Black Ops' revenue, as the 100 million figure includes lite and ad-supported, but that does not detract from Rovio's overall achievement.

source

 

Me thinks Vesterbacka can go f*** himself. I want big worlds to explore, stunning graphics, immersive environments, and epic stories oh and not to mention multiplayer on a big scale.

 

AAA games will continue to rule! :bigyellowgrin:

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Mobile developers are more "nimble", he said, and able to upgrade their games with new content quicker than creators of big budget console games

:lol: By new content he means, 10 more levels of slinging the bird onto some pigs with some random combo of background, sticks, pigs and bird types...

Angry birds has gone to his head me thinks... Seriously, the game is so over rated. They keep releasing new "editions" every few months with hardly any "innovation" or "new content". I can't get myself to even finish the first one they released..

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One successful mobile game and suddenly they're experts on the game industry. :lol:

Moreover their success isn't all because of the game itself. I think Android is to blame for their "success". Android didn't have a lot of good games so when a high selling game from iPhone made it over, everyone in the android blogging and news industry just cried themselves hoarse by taking this as a sign of android's gaming roots beginning to flower. Rovio made their game free to get even more audience and press and then it percolated into other press as they started releasing the same thing for other platforms.

I seriously hate this game.

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^^ Hate the game? Its freakin awesome.

It's good for some time. But I do not like the new editions they keep releasing. Not much new. Of course, I can't complain when it is all for free but I hate all my feeds and twitter being flooded by this stupid game and it's every release and everything someone said about it or someone didn't say about it..

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This is what David Jaffe had to say about the two different streams:

"What's great about these smaller iPhone and iPad games is that, as a designer, it's the purity of play and interactivity. It's the essence of what makes this medium so special. I do feel that on the AAA console games a lot of times, for all kinds of reasons, a lot of that purity that I think is so important has kind of got muted. Now there are all these cutscenes and graphics, and the spectacle and set pieces. All of that's great and exciting and important. But I think the essence is that when you're playing a great game, you know it, and that great game can cost $60 or $.99. For me, I'm very called to these smaller games. But then I started reading about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim earlier and got excited, and started to think the next game I want to do has this big, giant universe. So I'm all over the place. You kind of just take it one step at a time and it's important not to get overwhelmed by the choices, and just go silent and listen to your gut of where you want to go next with your creativity. "

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Wasn't mobile gaming mostly suckly java games with small, ticky keys as controls? It's not even been 3 years since the App Store came about and look at what it is now.

 

A much better battery tech for smart phones & handheld consoles won't sell enough to justify their development cost. That'd be step one.

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