Had to check wth Rovio is. SO angry Birds is their contribution to the gaming world. A game that existed since forever in those flash free games websites. I'm sorry but I expect a little bit more from a multibillion company like Apple.

I'm not hating on Apple, they are a great tech company but they never cared about gaming. They never took a risk, never invested in pushing forward tech and software for games. They've been making computers since forever yet their PCs and OS suck at gaming. Their phones got popular so devs started to make games for those. Simple games that serve only to pass the time while you wait for the bus.

edidili

Exactly. They turned a simple-but-addicting flash-type game into a $2.25 *BILLION* valuation. Billion. With a B. As in, roughly three times what EA paid to aquire BioWare/Pandemic. And they did it by charging about the same as the cost of a bottle of coke (if at all; there's also ad-supported versions now) and offering it through a simple, easy to use app store. That's kind of a big deal in an industry that's struggling with piracy and a focus on high-priced, big-budget games (ie the type of game where if you don't move 2+ million copies, you're potentially looking for new employment).

The fact they didn't care about gaming in the past doesn't mean they can't care about gaming in the future (or now, for that matter, since they're making a ton of money off of it). It's not like MS/Sony/Nintendo are some noble bastions of gamerkind: they see it as a way to make a reasonable return on investment, and nothing more.

And yet those simple games that serve only to pass time while you wait for the bus are both wildly successful and all kinds of fun (nevermind the more interesting games like World of Goo, Swords and Sworcery: Brothers EP, Sid Meier's Pirates!, FF Tactics, etc). I don't see the lack of "Manshooter: Call of Honour" and "generic sci-fi FPS #127" as a bad thing.

Yeah is full of crappy "flash" games that fall under solitaire and farmville category. That's not much of contribution to the gaming industry from the biggest technology company is it? Let's not forget that is not Apple making those games anyway.

edidili

Nope. Rovio managing to turn one game into an apparent $2.25 billion dollar valuation on the back of the App Store isn't a contribution to the gaming industry whatsoever. Clearly there's no value in pursuing that sales model and/or type of mobile gaming.

And I have no idea what Apple not making the games has to do with anything; I guess that means we can discount the PC and third party exclusives in their entirety?

I think HTC already owns large chunk of OnLive

AdrianWerner

I don't think so. They spent $300+ million on a majority stake in Beats audio, but I can't find anything about OnLive. Plus my understanding is OnLive has always been looking to sell itself to an ISP.

iTunes+AppleTV+iCloud=what would Apple possibly need to buy OnLive for?

So their goal to not compete with Intel is... do the exact same thing Intel is planning to do with Atom?

Good point. Also Nathan Meunier? Sounds incredibly made-up. Maybe McShea is using a pen name? :o

Minecraft has a point? :oDarkLink77

Well, that kinda is the point: the ability to build virtually whatever you want from a limited-but-surprisingly-flexible toolset (that, and not getting the virtually whatever you want blown up by creepers). Between that and the cult surrounding the game, it's really hard to take your usual Consumer Reports Buying Guide-style review/score seriously.

Maybe a little on the hot side, but nothing to be concerned about (IIRC the newer Intel CPUs don't start overheating until 90C+). Getting a better cooler or maybe taking a look at your case airflow wouldn't be a bad idea, but you're not going to damage anything at those temps.

wasnt minecraft released like...over a year ago?lightleggy

Not really. It was always in alpha/beta; the official v1.0 release just came out a week or two ago.

Flop. :P Eh, they assign a numerical score because I guess that's normally how they review, you can ignore the score and just read/watch the review instead.SaltyMeatballs

I think Eurogamer got it right: get Alec Meer from RPS to review it, have him spend the first four paragraphs talking about how ridiculous a notion reviewing/scoring Minecraft is, and slap a 10 on it because anything else makes you look like you missed the point.