Arma 3 will be exclusive to Steam
Bohemia Interactive have announced that their upcoming military sim Arma 3 will be Steam exclusive. As revelations go, it seems rather quaint – at this point developers tying their games to Valve’s Steamworks suite is becoming increasingly the norm. It is, however, BI’s first go at distributor exclusivity, and the team seem aware that the announcement will upset some members of their community. The reason for the move, according to Arma 3′s project lead Joris-Jan van ‘t Land, is that, without Steam, the team wouldn’t be able to release the game in 2013 at all.
“Some of you will remember the huge amount of different distributed versions for Arma 2, and all of the problems associated with it,” he writes.
“We needed to spend far too much time on creating and testing all the master copies. Every patch had to be tested for every conceivable combination of distribution, patch and DLC. This drained so many of our resources, that we could not support the game itself as much as we’d have liked. By targeting Steam as our primary distribution, we can take those resources and put them to much better use: making the most splendid game possible.”Van ‘t Land also points to Steam’s proven distribution infrastructure and ready-made developer tools, as well as the dreaded P-word. “Think of it what you want, but piracy is affecting us as a business.” He claims that Bohemia are working on expanding Steam’s DRM solutions, announcing, “It will be possible to run Steam in Offline mode, and still play the game (with the exception of online services obviously, including multiplayer itself).”
As for the release, Bohemia say they’re gearing up to announce further details in the near future.
Gaming spending on iOS and Android surpassed dedicated gaming handhelds in Q4 2012: Report
Nintendo and Sony once held a lock on the mobile gaming industry, but Google and Apple have cracked that wide open with their respective mobile operating systems. A new joint report from IDC and App Annie claims that combined spending on games in the App Store and Google Play in the fourth quarter 2012 was higher than the amount spent on dedicated handheld devices.
Handheld game sales gained a bigger boost from the holiday season, with roughly 60% of all spending coming in December alone. As such, the difference between smartphone and tablet gaming and standalone handhelds will likely be more pronounced in future quarters.
It’s also worth noting that ad revenue wasn’t included. iOS and Android publishers tend to rely more on advertising than those on traditional handheld gaming devices, so smartphones would likely have the advantage there as well.
Breaking the figures down by region, almost 60% of consumer spending on Google Play in Q4 came from Asia-Pacific, led by Japan and Korea. Korean messaging service Kakao did particularly well, with several of the top 5 grossing games on Google Play.
North America accounted for about 40% of spending on iOS, with Asia Pacific in a close second. European gamers represented about 25% of revenue for handheld systems, a larger percentage than for iOS and Google Play.
Nintendo has stubbornly held out from bringing its franchises to smartphone platforms. Doing so has been costly, though, as gamers now spend roughly as much on Apple’s iOS as they do on Nintendo’s handhelds. Nintendo lowered its revenue forecasts for the fiscal year last month after lowering sales projections for its Wii U and 3DS devices.
Meanwhile, Sony reduced the price of its PlayStation Vita handheld this week in an effort to revitalize sales. Sony is at least acknowledging the usefulness of smartphones and tablets for gaming, as it plans to release a PlayStation app for iOS and Android devices that will turn them into second screens for its just-announced PlayStation 4 console when it arrives later this year.
The collaboration between IDC and App Annie is a fruitful one, since it allows them to play to their respective strengths. IDC excels at industry-wide hardware and physical sales estimates, while App Annie has deep access to mobile app store-related download numbers. The two plan to make this a quarterly affair.
