'The Trace,' Sega's 'Sonic' series come to Apple TV's tvOS App Store

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in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV
Two popular games from other platforms -- "The Trace" and "Sonic the Hedgehog" -- launched for the fourth-generation Apple TV on Thursday, with Sega promising that more Sonic titles would be making the trip shortly.




Sonic the Hedgehog costs $2.99 at the tvOS App Store, and is essentially a port of the iOS title launched several years ago, itself based on the original Sega Genesis game. It has, however, been optimized for the Apple TV, and supports the touch controls of the fourth-gen set-top's Siri Remote, as well as certified Made for Apple TV controllers.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will arrive on the Apple TV March 24, while Sonic CD will show up on March 31.

Developer Relentless Software has meanwhile released an Apple TV version of The Trace, previously popular as an iOS game. Players become a detective investigating a suspected murder, inspecting 3D crime scenes and solving puzzles in story-based gameplay.



Like Sonic, The Trace has been optimized for the Apple TV and the Siri Remote's touch controls.

For launch the game is priced at $1.99, half off its regular price. Relentless didn't say when it might jump to full cost.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    I am absolutely confused as to why game companies are not porting over their games to iOS/TVOS...charge $2.00 and let's rock. They would sell like mad. I am sure there is a reasonable way to amp the graphics a bit and keep the content the same or even add bonus features...don't give me this protecting the brand/intellectual property bit. Get it out there for all to enjoy.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    supadav03supadav03 Posts: 503member



    sog35 said:
    Nice.

    $3 for Sonic is a reasonable price.

    Now lets see these games for $3 also:

    SuperMario 1, 2, 3
    Zelda 1, 2, 3
    SuperMario world
    Zelda OOT
    Thunder force 3
    Strider
    Street Fighter 2
    ect, ect, ect...

    If not then I'll just keep playing them on my AppleTV4 emulator.  
    I wouldn't hold my breather for first party Nintendo games hitting the ATV4 any time soon.....or ever.

    In regards to this Sonic news, i immediately lost interest when I found out this game has no MFi controller support. Can't imagine it would be fun playing with the Siri remote.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    sog35 said:
    Nice.

    $3 for Sonic is a reasonable price.

    Now lets see these games for $3 also:

    SuperMario 1, 2, 3
    Zelda 1, 2, 3
    SuperMario world
    Zelda OOT
    Thunder force 3
    Strider
    Street Fighter 2
    ect, ect, ect...

    If not then I'll just keep playing them on my AppleTV4 emulator.  
    Hahahaha...nope. 
  • Reply 4 of 12
    sog35 said:
    Nice.

    $3 for Sonic is a reasonable price.

    Now lets see these games for $3 also:

    SuperMario 1, 2, 3
    Zelda 1, 2, 3
    SuperMario world
    Zelda OOT
    Thunder force 3
    Strider
    Street Fighter 2
    ect, ect, ect...

    If not then I'll just keep playing them on my AppleTV4 emulator.  
    I'd pay more than $3 for Street Fighter 2 :)
  • Reply 5 of 12
    supadav03supadav03 Posts: 503member
    sog35 said:
    supadav03 said:
    I wouldn't hold my breather for first party Nintendo games hitting the ATV4 any time soon.....or ever.

    In regards to this Sonic news, i immediately lost interest when I found out this game has no MFi controller support. Can't imagine it would be fun playing with the Siri remote.
    I thought the article says Sonic works with the controllers?

    Well I guess I'll just play Sonic, Mario, Zelda, ect on my AppleTV emulator.  Its pretty cool and it works with the Steel controller.


    You are right Sir. Read on another site previously that the game only supported Siri remote. I guess that's what I get from skimming the AI article :neutral: Looks like they will get my $2 after all.


    On a side note, I'd love to see Sony release a PS Now app for the ATV. Since the games are streamed, you wouldn't be limited by the ATV hardware. $100 a year to stream a great library of PS3 games without having to buy another console. Yes please! I mean, if they are willing to bring the service to Samsung smart TVs I don't see why the ATV wouldn't get consideration. 

  • Reply 6 of 12
    supadav03 said:



    sog35 said:
    Nice.

    $3 for Sonic is a reasonable price.

    Now lets see these games for $3 also:

    SuperMario 1, 2, 3
    Zelda 1, 2, 3
    SuperMario world
    Zelda OOT
    Thunder force 3
    Strider
    Street Fighter 2
    ect, ect, ect...

    If not then I'll just keep playing them on my AppleTV4 emulator.  
    I wouldn't hold my breather for first party Nintendo games hitting the ATV4 any time soon.....or ever.

    In regards to this Sonic news, i immediately lost interest when I found out this game has no MFi controller support. Can't imagine it would be fun playing with the Siri remote.
    My SteelSeries controller works fine with Sonic, i'm playing now!
    lolliverargonaut
  • Reply 7 of 12
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,275member
    supadav03 said:



    sog35 said:
    Nice.

    $3 for Sonic is a reasonable price.

    Now lets see these games for $3 also:

    SuperMario 1, 2, 3
    Zelda 1, 2, 3
    SuperMario world
    Zelda OOT
    Thunder force 3
    Strider
    Street Fighter 2
    ect, ect, ect...

    If not then I'll just keep playing them on my AppleTV4 emulator.  
    I wouldn't hold my breather for first party Nintendo games hitting the ATV4 any time soon.....or ever.

    In regards to this Sonic news, i immediately lost interest when I found out this game has no MFi controller support. Can't imagine it would be fun playing with the Siri remote.
    Actually, Nintendo's proclaimed business plan counts on them porting classic games to iOS and other mobile systems as a significant revenue stream. You can bet that they'll space out releases to maximize revenue, but I can't imagine that they wouldn't port a game to tvOS at the same time or soon after iOS.
    lolliver
  • Reply 8 of 12
    adrayvenadrayven Posts: 460member
    supadav03 said:
    In regards to this Sonic news, i immediately lost interest when I found out this game has no MFi controller support. Can't imagine it would be fun playing with the Siri remote.
    You apparently did't major in READING.. It says it's certified for Apple TV (MFi) controllers.. wow..
    supports the touch controls of the fourth-gen set-top's Siri Remote, as well as certified Made for Apple TV controllers.
    edited March 2016
  • Reply 9 of 12
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    I am absolutely confused as to why game companies are not porting over their games to iOS/TVOS...charge $2.00 and let's rock. They would sell like mad. I am sure there is a reasonable way to amp the graphics a bit and keep the content the same or even add bonus features...don't give me this protecting the brand/intellectual property bit. Get it out there for all to enjoy.
    It's a new platform so it takes a while for the hardware units to build up. Some iOS developers complained about a large difference in TV revenue vs what they are used to on iPhone/iPad:

    http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/261313/Report_Devs_let_down_by_poor_sales_on_the_Apple_TV_App_Store.php
    http://toucharcade.com/2015/12/07/apple-tv-app-store-games-making-100-dollars-a-day/

    They should have expected this because it had only been out for a couple of months. Rockstar didn't bring GTA V to PS4/XBO until a year after the hardware launch and this was over a year after they made a PS3/360 version because developers like to focus marketing around the software launch and they can only ship to people who have the hardware. The cheaper TV sold 25m units up to January 2015, with 5m in the 9 months before that:

    http://recode.net/2015/01/27/apple-tv-hasnt-changed-in-years-but-has-sold-25-million-units-anyway/

    The gaming box is more expensive but has more compelling features. If we go with a 7 million units per year sale rate for the gaming model and it's only been out for just over 4 months, there would be around 2.5m units out there. iPhone/iPad has shipped over 1 billion units with an active userbase likely above 600m units. Apple TV revenue is reported in Apple's 'other' category. It made a lot last quarter at $4.3b, which includes iPod, Beats, TV, Watch. The Watch is responsible for the biggest portion, probably around half that amount. It's possible that the TV box made as much as $1b in which case it would be over 6 million units (a portion would be the lower end model). Apple might release hardware numbers next week if they are significant enough.

    With those numbers, assuming the same adoption rates on each iOS platform, developer revenue directly from TV sales/IAPs would be around 1/100th what they are on iPhones/iPads. That's why successful developers would be seeing hundreds of dollars per day vs hundreds of thousands to millions per day on iPhone/iPad.

    Even with a few million hardware units, it would be possible for someone selling a very successful software title to make millions in revenue but it's rare that every hardware unit owner purchases a popular title. The most popular games on consoles sell to about 1/3 the hardware owners, average seems to be about 1/10th-1/5th. It's a higher rate for Nintendo because there are fewer 3rd party titles and the audience likes Nintendo's titles:

    http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/69/playstation-4/ (hardware 38m units)
    http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/68/xbox-one/ (hardware 20m units)
    http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/47/wii-u/ (hardware 12m units)

    The company Harmonix who made Beat Sports ($10) exclusive for the TV is using $1.5m crowd-funding to port Rock Band to the PC:

    http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/1/11139986/rock-band-4-pc-crowdfunding

    They are contributing $0.5m but if Beat Sports had sold in significant enough numbers, it's unlikely they'd turn to crowd-funding for $1.5m. 1 million units of Beat Sports would have made them $10m revenue ($7m going to them).

    The good thing with the TV gaming box is that the hardware unit volume doesn't depend on its gaming appeal. It will sell as a TV box. Once the hardware units build to a significant enough volume, developers can monetize their software better. The success of mobile titles depends a lot on scale:

    http://blog.vodafone.co.uk/2016/03/14/half-a-billion-people-cant-be-wrong-how-gameloft-took-the-mobile-gaming-crown/

    "Gameloft now has 6,200 employees. "We launch around 12 to 15 games per year across all genres". And doing that requires a big team and a lot in the way of investment. "The initial cost of development for our games is usually in the hundred-thousands, and around 50 people can work on a project at a time. We also need to update the games regularly in order to bring fresh content and improved gameplay experiences, as well as to keep them running on new operating system versions." That’s not to mention different screen sizes and platforms:

    "Fragmentation is a challenge for mobile game developers. Today we develop our games for more than 7,000 different smartphones and tablets, and more than 350 different feature phones!"

    Keeping all those plates spinning is no small task, but how does Gameloft manage when the vast majority of its games are free to download and play?

    The recent trend has seen the mobile gaming market locked in a ‘race to the bottom’ – a trend that’s seen the cost of purchasing games spiral down to nothing at all, with free downloads followed by in-app purchases, or in-game advertising, now being the norm.

    So is that set to continue, or will things reverse? Gameloft is a huge supporter of the free-to-play model, and Nicolas believes that it’s in everyone’s best interests:

    "The free-to-play revolution started in 2011. From our side, 'free to download' offers more people the possibility to discover our games. And having games be accessible to everyone means there’s now a larger audience for mobile games in general.

    "Our line-up of new games is mainly free-to-play now. The free-to-play business model is still growing in the video game industry as a whole, and we think it’s well-received by the players. Our game Despicable Me: Minion Rush, for example, has been played by more than half a billion people since its launch, and we think that its free-to-play model has definitely helped it reach such a huge audience

    "That’s why our commitment to the free-to-play model is stronger than ever and we plan to keep it that way". But Gameloft knows that making a game free comes with caveats – namely, how and how often to push the paid-for features in order to make the game viable while not annoying us as the player: "'Free to play' is a complex thing, it requires that we constantly adjust things to hit the right mark – the perfect balance between in-app transactions, or in-game advertising, and the experience for the gamer."

    When they don't hit profitability then they have to shut down studios:

    http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-09-10-gameloft-has-closed-seven-studios-in-2015

    Mobile titles need the unit volume to make free-to-play work because it depends on hooking in a small percentage of players enough to get them to part with money. Candy Crush only has 2.3% of players paying for it. They can have upfront payments but then they lose out on volume as Beat Sports shows.

    The TV platform is going to need a year or two to establish a sizeable hardware audience for developers to put more effort into ports and for developers to get titles ready. GameLoft mentioned just 12-15 titles per year and they are huge. Ports are easier but they still need testing and reworking.

    edited March 2016
  • Reply 10 of 12
    supadav03supadav03 Posts: 503member
    adrayven said:
    supadav03 said:
    In regards to this Sonic news, i immediately lost interest when I found out this game has no MFi controller support. Can't imagine it would be fun playing with the Siri remote.
    You apparently did't major in READING.. It says it's certified for Apple TV (MFi) controllers.. wow..
    Sheesh....I said my bad on this. Lol. Damn. mike1 said:
    supadav03 said:
    I wouldn't hold my breather for first party Nintendo games hitting the ATV4 any time soon.....or ever.

    In regards to this Sonic news, i immediately lost interest when I found out this game has no MFi controller support. Can't imagine it would be fun playing with the Siri remote.
    Actually, Nintendo's proclaimed business plan counts on them porting classic games to iOS and other mobile systems as a significant revenue stream. You can bet that they'll space out releases to maximize revenue, but I can't imagine that they wouldn't port a game to tvOS at the same time or soon after iOS.
    Uh no. They NEVER said they were porting classic games to mobile. They said they would use classic characters and franchises in mobile games but these will be new games designed specifically for mobile. Not ports. They have been very clear on this. So again, don't hold your breath for first party NES or SNES ports on ATV or iOS. 
  • Reply 11 of 12
    argonautargonaut Posts: 128member
    Excellent news!

    My children have been enjoying the games on ATV4 and they love the siri-remote for many of them ( although I also purchased 2 of the  Steelseries Nimbus controllers which are also excellent ).  

    The glaring omission for my kids (and me!) is the LEGO StarWars series...   Please bring these to tvOS asap! 

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