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Android Tablet Version

matthileomatthileo Member Posts: 59
edited July 2012 in Archive (Feature Requests)
This is my one and only feature request, everything else would be icing to the cake.
I don't have an iPad, I don't want an iPad, I'll never get an iPad.
I do have a nice Android tablet and I'd love nothing more than for this game to be available.

Comments

  • ElectricMonkElectricMonk Member Posts: 599
    Currently, there is no official plan to get this game on Android tablets. It seems that this decision was due in part to fears of piracy, which is apparently why many Android games are simply free and use ads for revenue, which is obviously something not acceptable for BG:EE. They (the dev team) have mentioned that they've considered getting it onto Android and Windows tablets, though as I said there's nothing official yet.

    You can always just play it on your pc, that's my plan anyway :)
  • matthileomatthileo Member Posts: 59
    edited July 2012
    "It seems that this decision was due in part to fears of piracy, which is apparently why many Android games are simply free and use ads for revenue"

    I hope that's not the reason, because realistically it's a bad one. Google provides licensing libraries (http://developer.android.com/guide/google/play/licensing/index.html) to deal with just this, not that piracy is as big of an issue as people act like it is. People who pirate a game were never that likely to buy it in the first place.

    That, and most BG fans would probably be willing to pay for it anyway. As long as they sell enough copies to equal the dev costs everything beyond that is profit, whether or not some people end up pirating the game.

    As another addition, there is currently a program that lets people load the PC version up on an Android tablet. It's buggy, and it's not "Enhanced", but it means that people can still have this -- just without Beamdog (or whoever) making any money.
  • ElectricMonkElectricMonk Member Posts: 599

    As another addition, there is currently a program that lets people load the PC version up on an Android tablet. It's buggy, and it's not "Enhanced", but it means that people can still have this -- just without Beamdog (or whoever) making any money.
    If you're referring to gemRB, I'm familiar with it and have used it. As for your comments regarding piracy issues, I agree with you for the most part. Inconveniencing paying customers is never an appropriate solution to piracy in my opinion, and I believe that even many people that do pirate things simply wouldn't be buying those products at all anyway. I'm not really sure if the piracy fears are more on the part of the developers or are more of a restriction placed on them by the publisher (ie a decision made by Atari), but I'm assuming it's the latter.
  • FrozenCellsFrozenCells Member Posts: 385
    edited July 2012
    I don't think they were ever keen on the idea for whatever reason. Trent mentioned the piracy thing a few times on twitter, and then someone mentioned enhanced security in Jellybean Trent was like "yeah well, we don't have time anyway" (paraphrasing)...

    Shame really since I was much more interested in getting a port to my android tablet, especially as it's becoming clear what the scope of BG:EE is. I already have BG1 running on the BG2 engine and high, widescreen resolution so my BG1 is already halfway to BG:EE anyway :P Would have been awesome to have that for my tablet. GemRB doesn't quite cut it for me.
  • ElectricMonkElectricMonk Member Posts: 599

    Shame really since I was much more interested in getting a port to my android tablet, especially as it's becoming clear what the scope of BG:EE is. I already have BG1 running on the BG2 engine and high, widescreen resolution so my BG1 is already halfway to BG:EE anyway :P Would have been awesome to have that for my tablet. GemRB doesn't quite cut it for me.
    Yes, well, I have BG1 running on the BG2 engine with the widescreen mod as well, but I would hardly classify that as "halfway to BG:EE." I mean, I understand that you're disappointed with the scope of the project, but the team never built it up to be anything more than it is, and what it is is a whole lot more than an engine port and the widescreen mod. They've done plenty of work to the engine itself, as well as dealing with a lot of bugs, and are creating an entirely new NPC and two new adventures set in new areas, etc. All of this for only ten bucks... doesn't seem like such a rough deal to me. Hell, I'd gladly pay more than ten dollars for this. The truth is, the mods that run BG1 in the BG2 engine are inherently complex and having the game just running naturally in an improved ToB engine is quite an improvement in itself.
  • FrozenCellsFrozenCells Member Posts: 385
    Nah, well, don't really want to debate the EE project itself here. Just what I meant was that an android port would be of more "use" to me personally, since I'm pretty happy with BG1 the way it is anyway (vanilla or BGT) but can't get it on my tablet sans GemRB. I'll buy BG:EE regardless but I would have bought it twice! :p
  • ElectricMonkElectricMonk Member Posts: 599
    Nah, well, don't really want to debate the EE project itself here. Just what I meant was that an android port would be of more "use" to me personally, since I'm pretty happy with BG1 the way it is anyway (vanilla or BGT) but can't get it on my tablet sans GemRB. I'll buy BG:EE regardless but I would have bought it twice! :p
    fair enough.
  • diggerbdiggerb Member Posts: 132
    Perhaps they will reconsider somewhere down the line; depending on the level of success of the release for other platforms they may consider revisiting developing for Android. I'm probably dreaming here...
  • ElectricMonkElectricMonk Member Posts: 599
    @diggerb well I don't think that this is impossible, and it's something that I definitely wouldn't mind seeing. It is unlikely though, but clearly posting your support for it here in a positive manner can do nothing but increase the odds of it being made in the future :)
  • AntonAnton Member, Moderator, Mobile Tester Posts: 513
    matthileo said:

    This is my one and only feature request, everything else would be icing to the cake.
    I don't have an iPad, I don't want an iPad, I'll never get an iPad.

    FrozenCells said:

    ...Shame really since I was much more interested in getting a port to my android tablet, especially as it's becoming clear what the scope of BG:EE is...Would have been awesome to have that for my tablet. GemRB doesn't quite cut it for me.

    Totally agreed
    diggerb said:

    Perhaps they will reconsider somewhere down the line; depending on the level of success of the release for other platforms they may consider revisiting developing for Android...

    Fingers crossed! Otherwise we will have to buy iPad to have portable BGEE :D
  • AntonAnton Member, Moderator, Mobile Tester Posts: 513
    @TrentOster, as the main concern regarding Anrdoid is piracy perhaps it would be safe for you as a developer to use Kickstarter for funding this platform only?
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    @Anton

    I believe kickstarter simply isn't an option with Atari on board.
  • matthileomatthileo Member Posts: 59
    ....sigh.
    If this doesn't get made because of hardware / software limitations, I'll be fine. Same deal with "fragmentation", but if this game doesn't get made because someone along the chain thinks that piracy will cost them then I've lost all faith in every company at the bottom of this screen.

    Dear people, let me buy your damn game. As long as enough people buy it that you recover the development costs, every sale after that is profit. That's the beauty of an eatheral product like a downloadable video game, all the cost is development. There is very little cost associated with ongoing distribution, and you don't have to "make more".

    Someone pirating your app/game != lost money, that person wasn't going to buy it anyway (and if you don't make it NO ONE will buy it). Basically, piracy doesn't hurt you, but sales help you.
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    matthileo said:


    Someone pirating your app/game != lost money, that person wasn't going to buy it anyway (and if you don't make it NO ONE will buy it). Basically, piracy doesn't hurt you, but sales help you.

    Its not as simple as that. While its true that most people that pirate wouldn't have bought the item anyway, when pirating becomes easy it can negatively affect sales.
  • matthileomatthileo Member Posts: 59
    1) Pirating isn't that simple unless you're at least a little tech savey (especially for Android). The average android user would have to know where to look to find a *safe* APK, how to install it from a source other than the market, and how to get around the licensing code google makes available to prevent piracy. An iDevice user on a jailbroken device would actually have an easier time, because they'd have to know at least enough to jailbreak their device before being able to install a pirated game.
    2) You can't negatively affect sales. A sale that doesn't happen is not a loss, it's just not a gain. That's the biggest lie of people who freak out about sales, that a lost sale is theft. There are all kinds of reasons for lost sales (cost, better competing product, lack of interest, etc). Piracy is much less a factor in lost sales than those things.
    3) As long as the cost of development is recovered it doesn't matter if 90% of people pirate the game. Profit is still being made. And once you break even, you're profiting off a product with an infinite supply. That's all good.

    I'm not saying piracy is ok, i'm not saying that BD shouldn't use google's DRM library to protect it's IP. It should. But let's not pretend piracy is the type of problem the content industry wants you to believe it is. And lets not pretend that most pirates would buy every game / CD / movie that they pirated, if a free version was not available. They wouldn't. So let's ignore the pirates. They hurt less than you think, and there are plenty of people who would love to fork over their cash for this game.
  • ZelmorZelmor Member Posts: 6
    I'd buy that. Fear of piracy is stupid anyway. I can pirate anything for any device of my choice, let it be Android, Windows 7 or Ubuntu. And here I am, buying things. I've grown up with BG and the Black Isle games, and now that I have a job, I'm willing to support good developers.
  • AntonAnton Member, Moderator, Mobile Tester Posts: 513
    Related article:
    The Nexus 7's Software Buttons: Designed For Gaming
  • AntonAnton Member, Moderator, Mobile Tester Posts: 513
    edited July 2012
    Woohoo!
    New home here: Android Category
    :D
  • AntonAnton Member, Moderator, Mobile Tester Posts: 513
    Interesting article:
    http://www.learn-cocos2d.com/2012/08/real-trouble-android/
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