Bioshock removed from App store, or why Mobile has no future

http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/23/bioshock-removal-2k-support-response/

So Bioshock was broken by an iOS update, and planned to be fixed. After spinning their wheels for awhile, 2K not only pulls the game from the app store listings, but rips it away completely. Even those with an older version iOS device for the expressed purpose of playing incompatible games are now incapable of downloading a title they paid for.

This is not a new event. Square has had problems in the past and I was livid when I thought this situation was the end for the port of The World Ends With You. At least in that occasion, it wasn't.

For all the back and forth about where Mobile gaming sits relative to other forms of gaming, there is one thing that I think is perfectly clear from this. Mobile gaming and its publishers couldn't give two shits about supporting legacy content.

This is the single quickest moving form of gaming, bar none. Hardware and software increments are rolled out at least on a yearly basis and by sheer volume alone, it's out of Apple's or Google's hands to possibly worry about compatibility.

Leaving us with publishers to make sure their apps work, which it seems is becoming more of a crapshoot. It's already hard enough to talk customers into dropping any money on an app, let alone a couple of bucks or more. Now considering how transient these titles have proven to potentially be, I'm more hesitant than ever to invest any serious money into a mobile game.

All gamers have those classics they like to go back to year after year. Mobile can simply not support this kind of behaviour. There is no promise that what you buy today will be available in a year, and this is not a problem anywhere else in the gaming space.

I see this as the biggest hurdle to mobile gaming getting anywhere beyond "Flavor of the month distraction for the casual player,". If somebody wants to invest in gaming as a hobby, mobile is the single rockiest place to do so.

What say you, Gamespot. Discuss, so to speak.

Lol Apple! Poor @mister-man

@FireEmblem_Man: None of that, please.

"Money spent" and "mobile game" is something that should not be in one sentence.

This is why all those people hyping up the Apple TV as a gaming platform were lunatics. Any system that connects to a mobile ecosystem will never be a viable gaming platform.

@Ant_17: So how would new games get made if nobody paid for them?

There's a whole other discussion about abusive fee to pay in the same industry.

Can a phone even run Bioshock, last I heard GTA 3 was just somehow made to work on phones.

Lol @mister-man

What? He only posts in the Mobile forums!

EA did this, too. Pulled their games because of the update breaking all their content.

Title is misleading. It has a different future and is pulling alot of money. Just because our gamer circle doesnt like what's going on, doesnt mean the market that is invested in mobile gaming isnt.

@illmatic87: I don't mind publishers de-listing a broken game while it gets fixed. This is about how easily a mobile publisher can completely take back a game you paid for and the transience of Mobile gaming compared to the rest of the industry, which is already shit at preserving its history.

Don't be so literal. Mobile is, for better or worse, not going to die anytime soon, clearly. But it's not going to go anywhere else in this state.

Well that's what happens when you have hardware and software that changes every 8 months. Publishers aren't going to spend money keeping their games up to date when they've already made the bulk of their sales in the first few months or so, and they obviously can't sell broken games to the public, so the next best thing is to just remove the game entirely from the store.

This happened to me with one of Ubisoft's games. After updating my iphone I realized one of their games wasn't working anymore. When I checked the appstore for an update I saw the game was nowhere to be found, and an update never came, nor did the game ever return to the store.

Here's the thing. The iOS and Android - and whatever other app environments... They just aren't suitable for video games.

I think mobile gaming is something that is going to see lots of improvement one day. But for that to happen, some company that is experienced in managing downloadable games and making a good service for them will probably have to step in and say, "This is how you do it", or else take over themselves.

Smartphone peasants don't need quality games like BioShock or The World Ends With You (and **** you weeaboos thinking I don't play Japanese games because I had actually played this one)...They want shitty mindless grinds marred by microtransactions.

I know this is off-topic but I really wonder why publishers chose to port Bioshock and GTA 3, Vice City and SA to mobile devices but not to Vita.

Is it because they like making money way more than providing a quality game experience for the end-user ?

Seems a no-brainer these days.

Mobile gaming has no future because it's intended entirely for filthy fucking casuals

I imagine that this phone will have to gain momentum if we're to ever see any hope for mobile gaming.

@Salt_The_Fries:

Well, let's see if 2K offers refunds for everyone who bought a product they can't play anymore.

If not, the publisher is definitely on my "watch out" list

Wait, there was an iOS port of Bioshock? How the hell did they make that work in the first place?

"Sega pulls more than a dozen games from iTunes App Store, Google Play

The following Android titles are no longer available from Google Play:

After Burner Climax

Jet Set Radio

Super Monkey Ball 2

The following iOS titles are no longer available from iTunes:

After Burner Climax

Altered Beast

Ecco the Dolphin

Golden Axe

Golden Axe 2

Golden Axe 3

Streets of Rage 2

Phantasy Star 2

Sega Columns Deluxe

Space Harrier 2

Streets of Rage 3

Super Monkey Ball

Super Monkey Ball 2

Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition

Virtua Fighter 2

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown Guide"

Albeit some of those apparently returned.

"Some EA games are being removed from the App Store

Alice: Madness Returns™ iOS 4 7.1.2

Alice: Madness Returns™ for iPad iOS 4 7.1.2

BATTLESHIP iOS 3 7.1.2

BATTLESHIP for iPad iOS 3.2 7.1.2

Bookworm iOS 4.3 7.1.2

CLUE iOS 2.2 7.1.2

CLUE: Secrets & Spies - A Hidden Object Game iOS 3.2 7.1.2

Coconut Dodge iOS 3 7.1.2

COMMAND & CONQUER™ RED ALERT™ iOS 3 7.1.2

COMMAND & CONQUER™ RED ALERT™ for iPad iOS 3.2 7.1.2

Draw Jump HD iOS 3.2 7.1.2

Fight Night Champion iOS 5.1 7.1.2

Flight Control HD iOS 3.2 7.1.2

High Caliber Hunting iOS 3 7.1.2

Liqua Pop iOS 3 7.1.2

Max and the Magic Marker iOS 3 7.1.2

Max and the Magic Marker for iPad iOS 3.2 7.1.2

Max and the Magic Marker LITE iOS 3.1 7.1.2

Max and the Magic Marker LITE for iPad iOS 3.2 7.1.2

Mirror's Edge iOS 5 7.1.2

Mirror's Edge for iPad iOS 4.2 7.1.2

Mystery Mania iOS 3 7.1.2

Need for Speed Shift iOS 5 7.1.2

Need for Speed Shift for iPad iOS 3.2 7.1.2

Need For Speed™ Undercover iOS 2.2.1 7.1.2

Reckless Racing iOS 3 7.1.2

Risk iOS 3 7.1.2

SHIFT 2 Unleashed iOS 3 7.1.2

SHIFT 2 Unleashed for iPad iOS 3.2 7.1.2

The Simpsons Arcade iOS 2.2.1 7.1.2

The Sims 3 Ambitions iOS 4 7.1.2

Ultimate Mortal Kombat™ 3 iOS 3 7.1.2

Ultimate Mortal Kombat™ 3 for iPad iOS 3.2 7.1.2

Yahtzee HD iOS 5 7.1.2

Zuma's Revenge iOS 6 7.1.2

Zuma's Revenge HD"

Along with bigger games like Dead Space and Mass Effect Infiltrator being removed entirely too because OS updates.

In short, LOL MOBILE GAMING. IT'S TRASH.

It doesn't really bother me when a game is taken off of Steam, because you can still download it if you own it. I would probably not be a fan of DD if there was a chance I couldn't download games I had purchased, that had been removed from the store.

I will never get into gaming on phones or tablets cuz I can't tolerate not having physical controls. This thing with buttons and sticks/dpads represented as graphics on the screen that you operate via the touchscreen is unplayable to me.

GTA 3 has been out for at least 5 years on mobile. I was playing vice city on my Nexus 1 in 2011.

@R4gn4r0k: Vita has a low install base, mobile has hundreds of millions. All about the wonga matey

Yeah, if steam removed the game from your library too, it would be a big problem for people.

But like now: games like Wolfenstein 2009 or Butcher's Bay are no longer on steam. But people that bought them can still play and download them as much as they like.

Even then, you can still find games removed from steam on other stores. Or even find some hard copies for really old games.

And in worst case scenario you can pirate the game if there is absolutely no means of purchasing.

In short: games have a legacy and should have a legacy.

You're not some end user for as long as the publisher feels like it. They are seriously stepping out of bounds here.

I assume when we talk about the mobile game market we're just talking about game on the phones and not devices like a Amazon Fire stick or Apple Tv. If so the mobile market will always be big because a lot of people don't want to spend time playing games like most of us do. Mobile games get a crowd that plays the games in passing not as an actual hobby. So mobile games are here to stay whether we like it or not.

Some low res and low textures made it work. Also cluncky controls.

Very true, and that is the main reason they did it.

However, GTA and Bioshock would've been way more enjoyable on Vita.

I have GTA SA on my phone. It's just not any fun. Not the game itself, because I loved it on PS2 and PC, but playing the game is no fun. Is there even a single person that finished GTA SA on a phone ?

Features:

• Clunky controls

Wish I would see this listed more on the store page of mobile games.

Ive had my Minecraft game on my mobile device for years, its in Minecrafts best interest to keep running and supporting their game if they want continued sales from it. Only reason i think a publisher would remove content is from oversaturation, maybe they have too many games to sell and want users to focus in on new stuff.

Only way i think we can fix this is by having a legacy system that supports the old games. You cant have oversaturation in the newer libraries, it would only lead to worst sells, you need some sort of regulation. Its a reason Apple and others clean out their libraries so much, its also a problem Steam has and why it lets a bunch of old games go to GOG.

@Blabadon:

goodness gracious, I imagine @musicalmac is wondering where it all went wrong.

And this is one of the main reasons why i would never spend money on mobile games.

@Heil68: he'll spin it as usual. That's why he said buy a PC and Apple TV, you have to get the best to compensate for having the worst.

@R4gn4r0k: I doubt it, i certainly never did. The touch controls are atrocious and i can't be bothered having played it to death in my youth

Mobile gaming will, sadly, always be a thing. What will the teens do during class in high school?

This is not just a problem with mobile games, but with digital distribution in general. If you don't have a physical disk or cartridge, you DO NOT OWN WHAT YOU ARE PAYING FOR. I have lost access to several digital games I paid for due to BS reasons. Paying for a digital game is one really long rental.

I'm so distraught, I took the day off. And the burns I incurred from the peanut gallery here at GS have left me scarred for life.

You could always upgrade and get a Surface Pro 3 :D

Boo mobile games. Only puzzle games like bejeweled or puzzle quest are enjoyable on iOS.

That's true. If I ever feel as though I've sinned against humanity to such a degree that I deserve the self-flagellation of a Surface Pro 3, I can certainly go that route.

God help me if it ever comes to that.

@speedfog:

I'll have to check it out...I just can't imagine that game working well on a mobile platform at all.

Unfortunately, mobile gaming is rapidly increasing and will soon be the single largest gaming sector with revenues higher than PC.

Angry birds and it's multi billion downloads are the kind of games most mobile players want, they are not going away anytime soon. Where as games that are normally viewed as the main stay genres of gaming are actually a far smaller niche (who the fucks wants to play Bioshock on a phone screen?).

As an enthusiast PC gamer this makes me far from happy but I guess we all need to face up to reality sometimes. Mobile gaming has a stronger future than any other present day platform and the home gaming market is about to take a very different turn. The console market, especially, is becoming less and less sustainable without some major changes, while mobile is going from strength to strength.

I wouldn't say never, but the mobile environment in its current form and constant state of hardware and software evolution certainly makes it untenable.

You could have said the same back in the early 80s until the IBM PC architecture established its dominance.

I think the other missing link, that the try hard "i'm hardcore" plebs on this forum, gaf, or what ever gaming forum are dismissing, is that, the growth of this industry will actually mother fucking matter. The kids and more casual audience are important buyers who can validate big budget productions, in the case of the kids today's casual child gamer is tomorrow's forum nerd. If that audience is lost to mobile and tablet stuff, that impacts the type of games you get on your desired platforms.

The PC is the best example of this: PC centric franchises and style of games sold well at a time, then Halo showed how much more money was on consoles and Microsoft created a box that was easy to pair down for. Rest of it has been history, triple A PC games are like Blizzard and multiplats. Then there is also Japan, that market shifted so hard, they don't have a console market at this point. We've already seen even Nintendo hit a speed bump or two in the handheld space because of mobile gaming.

Mobile gaming to me ultimately isn't the problem, it's bait, but the console side of the industry needs to make more of an effort to accommodate them, while not compromising what people expect from the console side of things. It's a balancing act this industry has shown it has clearly been struggling with since the Wii opened the flood gates for motion controls.

I tried. I really tried. But eventually gave up somewhere shortly after unlocking San Fierro. The controls were just too horrible for me to handle. Suppose a MOGA controller could've helped, but then that would lose the portable factor, because I won't be able to lug that thing around.

Right now, though, I'm playing The World Ends With You, and it works really well. If they want to port AAA games, this kind of thing is what they should go for. Games that can actually work well on a mobile device with no buttons. Not Bioshock or GTA.

That said, the kind of update-related issues mentioned by OP can get in the way of any kind of game on mobile, sadly. And as gaming is clearly not a priority for Apple or Google either, they won't care about trying to get older ones compatible, and instead leave it solely to devs who may just take the easy way out. At least on Android, it's relatively easy to find games that get removed, but finding in that manner shouldn't be necessary at all.

hahaha **** off