Windows Phone left on launchpad by Angry Birds in spaaace
Rovio has shunned Windows Phone for the latest outing of the super-soaraway Angry Birds franchise, saying that it can't support every platform and has no plans to support that one. Angry Birds in Space is out for iOS (£1.99), Mac (£2.99), PC (£4.97) and Android (free but plastered with ads), but notably absent is a Windows Phone …
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Yet ... we keep getting told how great its app store is
Such contradictory messages. Microsoft: "It's great". Buying public: "Microsoft have a phone out?"
Re: Yet ... we keep getting told how great its app store is
Why would you not expect Microsoft to promote it's own products?
Re: Yet ... we keep getting told how great its app store is
Well, as an end user I have to say that the app store ("Marketplace") is a lot better than I expected. I mean there's plenty of stuff available, it certainly meets the quantity part.
The only issue is that you can never be sure how good an app is. And what troubles me a little is that I'm a little hesitant to install & remove apps because IMO you can never be sure that they perform a clean deinstallation.
android
'Free plastered with ads,'
sucks batteries dry sends out ads sends out your location, reads your phonebook, can look at your SD card modifies......etc etc.
Cool or what?
Re: android
Or you could just pay the $0.99 for the ad free Android version on Google Play (still can't get used to that name).
Language?
Has it got anything to do with the difficulty of porting the physics engine? WP8 will (supposedly) allow native c++ apps.
Re: Language?
I would think that for a game all the artwork is where the real effort is.
Rewriting such a simple game in C# or XNA shouldn't be that hard.
Soudn more like negotiating the contract with MS via the press.
Games? Pah!
No need for games on WP7. All of us Windows Phone users are grownups, busy using the fine suite of business productivity tools and enterprise-ready UI provided by Microsoft on their flagship phones. Mutter, mutter...
Re: Games? Pah!
Latest news on the WP7 users convention, it's now being held in the phone box on the corner of shit street in Lower Peover
Re: Games? Pah!
All^H^H^HBoth of us Windows Phone users are grownups...
There, fixed that for ya...
Crystal ball gazing........
I seeeeeeeee.............. A small mobile game company being bought by a large provider of OS, enterprise and office software........
Java?
They could've written in Java, I guess ("Write once, run anywhere") but I reckon the time to let the bird fly, to seeing where it landed would've used up an entire tea-break.
Java: "Write once, run anywhere - fuc*king slowly"
Re: Java?
WP7 doesn't run Java. Not even slowly. I guess C# was too hard for them to use on their Macs.
Re: Java?
The core is written in C++. That's well known because it uses the open source Box2D framework, slightly controversially without giving any credit (short version: the licence doesn't require it; people think they should anyway as a courtesy).
Windows Phone 7 uses the Microsoft-invented C# and shuns any language not invented by Microsoft. For security reasons, we're told. All the other major and minor platforms can be targeted with C++ (including iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Bada...) so there's a significant extra cost in supporting them for a multi-platform title.
Quite probably the original port was subsidised and Rovio thought it worth the punt. As El Reg imply, they're probably otherwise aware that the time they have to milk the franchise is likely to be short and that decisions need to focus on the facts right now.
@ThomH
Actually that's not quite correct. WP7 development relies on .NET, as such their free Visual Studio version provides support for both C# and Visual Basic. Obviously C# tends to be the more popular of the two.
meh
didn't want it anyway. Proper Skype integration at the phone/people hubs level now, tell me they'll never do that and I'll consider dumping the platform.
Wait - clarification. Tell me they'll never do that with reputable sources for your statement (Mikel, you bullshitter) and I'll consider dumping the platform.
Available for...
iOS, Android, Playbook OS, PC, Mac, Chrome, Facebook, but not WP7 (completely).
Says a whole lot about the success of the platform, to be honest.
Re: Available for...
It is available for WP7.
Angry Brids in Space will be as avaialbel for Playbook as it will for WP7. I.e. not at all.
Hm
Angry Birds. The Doom of the teens decade. #fogy
Just hope they don't get Bungied.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/23/rovio-windows-idUSL6E8EN7NH20120323
This is not true they are working on it they just dont have a date yet
Except that's not what Rovio said
What Mikael Hed actually said was, "we are working towards getting Angry Birds Space to WP7", which sounds like marketing-speak for "we're not working on it yet, as we're still figuring out whether it's worth the effort."
Not surprising at all
I forsaw this as soon as I read that Microsoft insisted all apps be written in C#. Every other platform has a common denominator of C/C++. You can write your main code in C/C++, and then all you have to do is layer the platform specific stuff on top. Even Android, with it's focus on Java, has an NDK that lets you integrate C/C++.
But not Microsoft. They were too good for the plebs and their common languages. And, oh look, everyone is giving them the finger.
Windows 8 *might* help stem the tide, except for one teeny detail. It's not out yet, and won't be until fall (assuming nothing goes wrong). All these companies are just being smart by not wasting their limited resources on a clearly doomed platform. Especially one that insists you throw all your existing dev work out the window and do everything from scratch.
Re: Not surprising at all
That would be a brilliant "I'm so cynical" rant if not for the post directly above yours.
Fail.
As Amiga users used to say years ago when PC gamers mentioned there were no Amiga games: "If you want to play games, get a playstation".
Of course, things have moved on since then but I would imagine WP7 gamers would be better getting a Vita :)
And as we all know, the Amiga survived and was totally successful, whereas the PC has nose-dived into oblivion.
Not the best example you could have picked. ;-)
Re: What's Windows Phone?
What's a steming pile of dung?
Is it like Barry and Shitpeas?
Re: What's Windows Phone?
My kids can troll better than that!
Re: What's Windows Phone?
@Barry
Do you have some sort of memory problem?
I'll remind you: Windows Phone is the thing that you've been tediously banging on and on and on about slagging off in minute (usually incorrect) detail for the last year or so.
Re: What's Windows Phone?
Clearly my comments we lost on you.
Nobody knows about Windows Phone for many reasons.
1/ nobody supports it
2/ nobody wants it
3/ it's got no apps
4/ the phones are like bad Android phones from 2009
5/ It's Microsoft
This is why it's failing so badly. Even Bada outsells it. Microsoft and Nokia can't even give them away through Neilson survey promos.
@Giles Jones
Actually at the time Amiga was a better games machines that PCs.
They ported Angry Birds to Maemo! With five level packs at least as well.
I'm guessing...
...that this doesn't bode well for the prospect of seeing ABS on my Nokia N8 (Symbian/Belle)?
[where's the tumbleweed icon when you need one?]
Meet the bad guy - Two Face
The problem for Microsoft is they have a phone Platform that they aim at the twitter / facebook generation with their adverts and their tight integration to social applications and the horrid bright colour schemes they force on people and then they also try and say "oh but it does a form of office so it's perfect for the enterprise"
They can't have it both ways they either aim their OS at the consumers or they aim it at businesses / enterprises. It seems to have an identity crisis and they are trying to be the jack of all trades and master of none
At least with Apple they aim it at the consumer market and if any businesses buy them then it's a bonus for Apple and that adds to their bottom line. Game developers know what they will get from Apple and Android, but you don't know what to get from Windows as they could pull the rug from under this or change direction any time
Re: Meet the bad guy - Two Face
Well, I tend to agree with you but on the other hand; a lot of businesses also have an identify on social media. So its not as if the combination is a total logic flaw.
What with all the fuss about Windows 8, is the future of WP7 not a little uncertain? Do we yet know how Windows 8 will affect Windows Phone, whether it will replace it, compliment it, be merged with it, or whatever? I don't know, but I'm noty sure if thats because i haven't followed it, or because MS haven't said.
Either way, maybe this says more about what the developer think about what MS are going to do with the platform than whether or not the platform is a success or failure by any other measure...
Exactly what Rovio is contemplating
"Is another year of a limited WP7 market worth five man-years of effort in porting Angry Birds?"
Needs native support
As others have said, it's the native >> C# hurdle that is putting some dev's off. I had a brief conversation (ie twitter) with the developers of the F1 timing app about getting it on to WP7 and they said exactly the same. Their app is native c++ and they just don't have the resources to port on to a completely different platform that has nothing in common with their own code base.
If we are to believe the rumours that WP8 is going to allow 'some' native support, this can't come soon enough. The big fear though is that going native may not be open to small ISV's, but rather larger shops with bigger budgets.
Re: Needs native support
If they don't have the resources then nobody has them.
Angry Bird on the Seattle Space Needle
Perhaps slightly worth mentioning that there is currently a giant inflatable 'red' Angry Bird attached to Seattle's iconic Space Needle by two large slingshot style straps. It's looking a bit sad though, as it's just hanging there.
Implicit in this is the thought that a large number of punter's smartphone..............
..............purchasing decisions are informed by whether or not they can play "Angry Birds"? I think that I shall refrain from commenting further.
Re: Implicit in this thought...
Is nothing new, to those of us who recall the test for an acceptably IBM-PC compatible enterprise desktop. No good trying to get mgmt to consider a major-brand actually 16bit (8086, not 8088) machine with more memory and a faster clock, that could run all the official apps, for less money, than the beige-box from nowhere that could play Flight simulator.
Angry Birds in space
Just loaded it
WooT
PS: Did I tell you I got my iPad 3?
At MS' request
Ballmer: Please, SOMEBODY get people talking about WP7, I don't care how you do it!
Sometime after the PR company talks to Rovio...
Me: Wassat? A new version of WordPerfect? No Ribbon, you say?
STEVE BALLMER:
"Let's take phones first. Right now, we're selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year. Apple is selling zero phones a year."
Awesome!
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