Re: Why EA games are not likely coming to the n900
 

@Flandry:
The trick here is not to buy into the hype; but you need to know what drives the hype and be able to turn it to your advantage.
We also need to know what drives a platform to grow up; IMHO Maemo is now still a baby. It needs to gain a lot more (users, developers, content creator, partners, etc) to make it a self sustaining platform regardless of what you want to do with it.... and EA is (unfortunately?) part of the baby food that could make that happen.

Re: EA games coming to the n900?
 

A - While they haven't made it, they do have Mass Effect 2 that's probally best game i have played. While i haven't really been playing games in receant years.
B - Don't think Apple got anything to do with this.

.... just saying :p

I don't really know how are example EA games in Iphone. Are they actually any good? Or are the best selling iphone games from Rovio types?

Like many others here if the bigger game companies will be targeting Maemo at some point it will be for Maemo 6.

Re: Why EA games are not likely coming to the n900
 

It happens. No need for a study. If EA thinks that a platform is good enough to make money off of, a lot of game companies will instantly follow, either because they want to just let another company do all the market research for them or because they want to compete against EA on each platform possible.

You might not think it makes sense, but as someone that makes videogames full-time, I can tell you that's often how things work out.

I want Burnout N900. :D

Re: EA games coming to the n900?
 

Early in the iPhone's life, it was mainly smaller developers like Rovio making money. But since then, EA and all the major game publishers have jumped into the iPhone market. EA has EA Mobile (formerly Jamdat), Ubisoft releases games under their own banner and under a sister company, Gameloft (owned by another of the Guillemot brothers, as is my company), Namco Bandai, Sega... Without these companies, games on your platform just end up being flash/homebrew style games which is fine if that's all you're going for, but if you really want to bring in the players and the eyeballs, these companies have to be a part of it.

Re: EA games coming to the n900?
 

DRM is never needed. It's a false measure of security that -only- punishes paying customers and doesn't crimp pirates in the least. Go ahead, ask a paying customer what good activation limits are, and how nice it was when StarForce started causing DVD-R burns to coaster. Or Sony's DRM/rootkit that should have sent people to jail.

DRM is only ever malicious, that people accept it proves they are used to abuse.

Re: EA games coming to the n900?
 

You're missing the point completely. All of that stuff may be true, but it doesn't matter. The content providers, who hold all the cards, simply ignore platforms that don't have some sort of protection for their content.

You don't need to argue whether DRM as an anti-piracy measure is good with me. I don't like it one bit. I'm just telling you the truth: Content creators and providers want protection for their investments into your platform and if they can't get that protection, they won't bother with you, period.

Re: EA games coming to the n900?
 

I suppose, so long as Nokia doesn't succumb to pressure to eliminate root access and the ability to disable the DRM, I guess it would be "acceptable" to include it.

Re: Why EA games are not likely coming to the n900
 

Here are a list of games made by EA mobile for the iphone:

Worms

NFS

Asphalt 5

Sims 3

FIFA

Worms

I can go on...I by no means like apple ipod/iphone, there's more than a thousand reasons why I dont like the idont. The easily crackable glass screen being one of em. However I must admit that some high quality games are being released for their product. Gaming, software, mp3 capabilites and price tag are what makes a gadget sell these days. Games increase popularity...
What's the point of having graphics accelerated hardware if no high quality games are going to be released for it? If just one or more quality gaming companies were to develop high quality games for the n900, there'd be a massive increase in the n900 sales, which in turn makes nokia gain more, which in turn makes n900 price tag less which in turn makes the consumers happy, which in turn attracts more developers to the phone whether game wise and or software wise, which in turn makes the phone extremely popular, which in turn makes everyone happy :D.

Re: EA games coming to the n900?
 

That's precisely analogous to saying:

"You don't need to argue whether dancing on a field will bring rain. It obviously won't. But farmers will not plant crops unless they can dance the rainmaker."

At some point, the industry will need to "grow up" and realize that DRM is:

1. Mathematically flawed (not hard to do right; mathematically impossible), and
2. A weakness against the competition (pirates)

Software locks should either exist as an accident deterrent (enter serial number), or as mathematically sound protection (encryption by and for the user and associated parties).

Attempting to obfuscate code in order to slow down crackers only encourages them. Many do it for the pride. It makes your software less valuable (it wastes the time of paying customers), less competitive (pirates strip out DRM and software locks), less reliable (added complexity), and more expensive to develop.

The n900 is one of the few pure devices out there at the moment that, almost without exception, obeys its owner by default.

If it gains popularity and the established players refuse to develop for it, great! That leaves the playing field open for new, innovative software shops that will start with the advantage.

Considering the millions of lines of solid, unencumbered code already running on these devices, why compromise now? We don't need to play this stupid game (no pun intended) any longer.

Re: EA games coming to the n900?
 

That's all fine and dandy in theory, but that's not how the real world works. Without the established players, you won't gain popularity. Until piracy disappears or there's a way to guarantee the content creators that their work won't be stolen, yes, we do have to play this stupid game or else it's pretty much game over and everyone will just head over for that little fruit company's products.

By the way, yes, ALL DRM can be hacked. That doesn't mean it's not useful. DRM isn't meant to stop everyone from doing what they want with the media they buy. It's there to stop *casual* copying and piracy. Hardcore pirates are going to get around the restrictions and they know that. DRM's not meant to stop those... it's meant to stop your everyday Joe from copying over everything his friend has, much like they used to do with cassettes back in the day.