This might wind up being the bigger point - a foothold into China's internet system. Face it, writing games is small potatoes to Apple and outside their core. Maybe to dabble in them a bit. But to have ISP in China with rich-html experience? mmmm to me that sounds very good.
IMHO
Great observation! I must say this may very well be what this buyout is all about. Apple is doing just fine WRT a healthy game environment on the ios platform.. Buying a game developer just so Apple can have 10 or 20 more games to sell on the App Store certainly doesn't make all the much sense... Especially not at the cost of 100+ million bucks! Sure if they had a Halo caliber game in the works then maybe but even then it's really outside of Apples core competency... Yep the more I think about it and the more I read about Googles never-ending trouble in China... Yea, you nailed it...
Quote:
If the rumor is accurate, it could be yet another sign that Apple is interested in creating its own games for devices like the iPhone and iPad in-house. Last November, AppleInsider revealed that the Cupertino, Calif., company was looking to hire a AAA-caliber game developer for its team.
As to this.... While it could mean Apple is going to venture into the gaming market... It could just as well indicate Apple wants a top notch game developer on the IOS design team to better understand what the 3rd party game developers would really benefit from at the core and to act as 'The Face' of Apples gaming technologies / strategy. After all, given Steves history with game developers of years gone by, it might be best if a fresh face was available.
Kinda funny considering Steve hated originally the idea of the iPhone being a gaming platform since it made it seem less like a business device
What are you basing that on? I don't remember him saying anything like that. He did say he was "surprised" at the popularity of games on the platform at the release of the 3G.
Hope it's not true: if they are going to buy a game dev, they should buy a quality one. Which means not Chinese.
Like Blizzard (unlikely, they already release everything as Mac/Windows), Valve (controlling Steam? Hell yeah!), BIOWARE (Dragon Age, Knights of the Old Republic, The Old Republic, Mass Effect... would also prevent EA from murdering its core like they did to Maxis)
Or maybe even 2K (Same-date-of-release-as-PC Civilization V Mac version!)
But really, Apple should start their own game studio
When Apple buys companies, they usually integrate them in their company. They want intellectual property and people. Buying a company in the other end of the world is very unusual for them.
So what makes that company so special? I mean there probably are a bunch of nice, cheap gaming companies much closer to Cupertino.
It looks like Handseeing is a Sun partner and their "rich internet applications" are typically Java-based. Given Apple's aversion to mobile Java, I don't see a natural fit.
Maybe they own some specific Chinese patents that Apple needs in order to sell the iPhone in China?
My guess would be that the company has some patents that apple wants to get its hands on. It seems unlikely that if apple wanted to acquire a game development studio for the employees, there are a great many better web/mobile game developers they could go after.
I'm still wicked pissed that steve let Microsoft buy Bungie... Oh well at that time Steve had lots of other things to worry about I guess... Like keeping apple alive... But still, it still sucked AND one has to wonder what woulda happened if MS didn't have Halo... \
Why so bitter over the fact that Bungie was purchased by MS? I can still remember the early footage of Halo pre-MS and they were amazing. I honestly don't think that even if Halo was released on any Apple platform that it would have become as popular as Halo did on Xbox. Xbox could have been possibly dead in the water without Halo, but that would've left people with the choice between Sony( F that) and Nintendo. I do find it funny that when John Carmack and others ask Steve to implement a few things so they can create great games on OSX they get denied, but Apple bent over backwards for Bungie back in the day. I dont understand why Apple also didnt look at purchasing any of the dev studios that have been pushing out great games for the iPhone.
Comments
I find it interesting that it is also an ISP.
This might wind up being the bigger point - a foothold into China's internet system. Face it, writing games is small potatoes to Apple and outside their core. Maybe to dabble in them a bit. But to have ISP in China with rich-html experience? mmmm to me that sounds very good.
IMHO
Great observation! I must say this may very well be what this buyout is all about. Apple is doing just fine WRT a healthy game environment on the ios platform.. Buying a game developer just so Apple can have 10 or 20 more games to sell on the App Store certainly doesn't make all the much sense... Especially not at the cost of 100+ million bucks! Sure if they had a Halo caliber game in the works then maybe but even then it's really outside of Apples core competency... Yep the more I think about it and the more I read about Googles never-ending trouble in China... Yea, you nailed it...
If the rumor is accurate, it could be yet another sign that Apple is interested in creating its own games for devices like the iPhone and iPad in-house. Last November, AppleInsider revealed that the Cupertino, Calif., company was looking to hire a AAA-caliber game developer for its team.
As to this.... While it could mean Apple is going to venture into the gaming market... It could just as well indicate Apple wants a top notch game developer on the IOS design team to better understand what the 3rd party game developers would really benefit from at the core and to act as 'The Face' of Apples gaming technologies / strategy. After all, given Steves history with game developers of years gone by, it might be best if a fresh face was available.
Kinda funny considering Steve hated originally the idea of the iPhone being a gaming platform since it made it seem less like a business device
What are you basing that on? I don't remember him saying anything like that. He did say he was "surprised" at the popularity of games on the platform at the release of the 3G.
Kinda funny considering Steve hated originally the idea of the iPhone being a gaming platform since it made it seem less like a business device
Never heard anyone said that Jobs hate games on iPhone.
Anyway things change all the time.
Like Blizzard (unlikely, they already release everything as Mac/Windows), Valve (controlling Steam? Hell yeah!), BIOWARE (Dragon Age, Knights of the Old Republic, The Old Republic, Mass Effect... would also prevent EA from murdering its core like they did to Maxis)
Or maybe even 2K (Same-date-of-release-as-PC Civilization V Mac version!)
But really, Apple should start their own game studio
So what makes that company so special? I mean there probably are a bunch of nice, cheap gaming companies much closer to Cupertino.
Kinda funny considering Steve hated originally the idea of the iPhone being a gaming platform since it made it seem less like a business device
did steve tell you that personally?
Maybe they own some specific Chinese patents that Apple needs in order to sell the iPhone in China?
Low league system integrator with little to nothing in intellectual or engineering assets. But still dirt cheap one, which Apple always admires.
I'm still wicked pissed that steve let Microsoft buy Bungie... Oh well at that time Steve had lots of other things to worry about I guess... Like keeping apple alive... But still, it still sucked AND one has to wonder what woulda happened if MS didn't have Halo...
Why so bitter over the fact that Bungie was purchased by MS? I can still remember the early footage of Halo pre-MS and they were amazing. I honestly don't think that even if Halo was released on any Apple platform that it would have become as popular as Halo did on Xbox. Xbox could have been possibly dead in the water without Halo, but that would've left people with the choice between Sony( F that) and Nintendo. I do find it funny that when John Carmack and others ask Steve to implement a few things so they can create great games on OSX they get denied, but Apple bent over backwards for Bungie back in the day. I dont understand why Apple also didnt look at purchasing any of the dev studios that have been pushing out great games for the iPhone.