Mar 17
Console Makers: Welcome to Your New Job (responding to @gamesbrief)
Games Brief has a long discussion about how “recent pronouncements from Nintendo and Sony show they don’t even understand the threat they face”.
I have a short response. Console makers: your job today is simpler than ever and no less important. You just need to do it:
If you want to know what easy to program means, look at the new Monkey language and the games that people are writing in 4 hours. Your new business is all about building hardware, building a channel, and letting the new Miyamotos do what they are best at — making great games that run on simple, near ubiquitous hardware.
I have a short response. Console makers: your job today is simpler than ever and no less important. You just need to do it:
- Make hardware. Make it cheap. Make it good. Make it easy to program. Sell it like hell.
- Build an app store into the device. Make it easy for developers to set their own price. Make it easy for developers to incorporate advertising and in-app payments. Encourage lots of lovely sales.
- Get out of the way. Provide just enough filtering and curation to assure customers that your app store is safe and to assure developers that it’s fair.
If you want to know what easy to program means, look at the new Monkey language and the games that people are writing in 4 hours. Your new business is all about building hardware, building a channel, and letting the new Miyamotos do what they are best at — making great games that run on simple, near ubiquitous hardware.
