There is a saying that goes something like this: Beavers build dams. If you put a beaver on the top of the Empire State Building, he’s still going to try to build a dam.
To break it down, that essentially means that once an entity finds a successful way to do something, they will attempt to shoehorn that methodology into anything they do. The print industry has been very guilty of this in the mobile computing space recently, and so have game developers. Instead of taking the time to make games that appeal to iPhone gamers, many established game developers and publishers have tried to ship half-assed ports of their existing properties.
According to TUAW, Capcom has seen much less success in their released titles than they had hoped. Frankly, this doesn’t surprise me much. Taking stale franchises, and slapping them on 4-inch screens with touch controls isn’t exactly the formula for printing money. I think we’ve seen that creative, innovative small-scale games have been rewarded on the for-pay side of the App Store.
That’s not to say that all pre-iPhone game companies are bad, or that making new versions of games is doomed to failure. Take a look at the folks at Popcap Games. They’ve found their niche, and they serve it extremely well. This is how you grow and excel.
Article Via Mac|Life
