Developers developers developers
by Matt on Apr.09, 2010, under Uncategorized
Apple appear to have outlawed the use of middleware in their latest iPhone eula. The unity3d community are waiting on legal advice as to where the os4 eula leaves them. All this as a result of apples rather weird and unexplained “war on adobe”.
It’s worrying for a few reasons.
One of the reasons I stepped away from active iPhone development was the lack of transparency in the review process. In the games industry, console manufactures have clear TRC ( or TCR depending on who we’re talking about ) requirements which you, as a developer must adhere to in order to pass certification. Apple either has none, or refuses to publish theirs, leading to a somewhat annoying and fruitless process when attempting to get applications approved for the service.
And now with the rather agressive change to the eula, it shows that apple are quite comfortable changing the playing field underneath developers for it’s platforms. Where was the consultation with developer groups? Or effected middlware producers? This isn’t the first time this has occurred. A friend reminded me of the JIT compilation changes last year in the 3.0 EULA, and I’m willing to bet this wont be the last.
One thing Microsoft understands well is how to keep developers happy. Apple, whilst having a very good understanding of what makes consumers happy, are proving time and time again that they just don’t get developers
Unfortunately for them, it’s the developers which produce the software that drives the sales. Apple are obviously trying to position the iPhone in the mobile gaming section, but continue to alienate those who could really provide the content to show the iPhone and iPad maturing in this sector. Games are expensive, front loaded projects. No one is willing to risk a significant amount of money and time producing a game only to find that the next revision of the os legally prevents release on the iPhone/iPad
Until such time as we get transparency, very few really ambitious titles will be made for the platform. And that’s a shame, wouldn’t you rather have the next ico or zelda on your iPhone Instead of yet another fart or soundboard application?
It’s just to risky to bet on apple right now.
Edit: The Unity3D folks have published a blog on the matter (http://blogs.unity3d.com/2010/04/10/unity-and-the-iphone-os-4-0/). I particularly like one of the comments.
“Doing business with Apple is putting your head in the lion’s mouth… a lion that’s inclined to bite it off for no better reason than “because”.”
April 9th, 2010 on 2:03 pm
A TRC would be lovely when one rejected with little more than a screen shot of the offending screen and a page number in the HIG to a guess at what had angered the reviewer.
Locking developers into one way of solving a problem with their software is too time consuming (and expensive) for subsequent refactoring.
It’s very risky for companies pinning their processes to the whimsical impulse of the publisher.
April 10th, 2010 on 7:46 pm
Microsoft have learned how to make devs happier… They still aren’t there yet
But apple are going in the opposite direction now. Not like they care, the masses will still buy their stuff and non-caring devs will still pump out crappy apps that get approved and will be consumed.