[casual_games] languages... (that's an 's' at the end!)

[Joe Pantuso]

With our test users nobody has even mentioned installation time as a factor.
Remember broadband penetration is greater than 50% in this country and
similar (or actually better) in much of the world.

There is also a high correlation between XP users and broadband, and 98
users and dial-up.  They seem to live in different decades.

So it comes down to development priorities and predilections.  You trade
away 50% of total existing PCs (if you include non-Windows) in exchange for
faster development, better tools and a smooth path to Vista.  Some people
will find that distasteful, others will wallow in it.

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Phil Steinmeyer
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 12:39 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] languages... (that's an 's' at the end!)

Right now, requiring a 25MB .NET framework download would be commercial 
suicide in the 'traditional' casual games distribution channels (RealArcade,

Yahoo, MSN, Pogo etc).

Perhaps that will change at some point in the future, but I think that point

is AT LEAST two years away.

Of course, for retail (on-disk) distribution, and possibly other alternative

channels (including marketing of niche games, marketing of an entire games 
'platform', etc), this may not be as much of a problem.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lionel barret De Nazaris" <lionel.bdn at free.fr>
To: "IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List" <casual_games at igda.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: [casual_games] languages... (that's an 's' at the end!)


>I don't like it but you're damn right. I can feel it in my bones ;)
> Lionel.
>
> Jim Buck wrote:
>> I think even 80% is a very high guess. If you want to target "casual 
>> people" with "casual game", I would think that targeting Windows 98 
>> (*maybe* SE) is the sweet spot.
>>
>>
>> At 08:58 AM 10/6/2005, Lionel barret De Nazaris wrote:
>>> got that : http://www.wininsider.com/news/?8359.
>>> the bottom line (according to the source) :  "That means Microsoft 
>>> distributed 58.8 percent as many copies of SP2 as of Windows XP."
>>> Even if  XP has 80 % (a wild guess) of the windows installed PCs, it's 
>>> not very encouraging ...
>>> Maybe in one year....
>>>
>>> L.
>>>
>>>
>>> Charles Parcell wrote:
>>>> I believe that I saw somewhere that Windows XP has a 65% penetration at

>>>> the moment. I don't think that it made a distinction between SP 
>>>> versions though.
>>>>
>>>> Charles P.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Lionel barret De Nazaris wrote:
>>>>> Jonas Beckeman wrote:
>>>>>> Seems I'm the only one who's gonna stand up for .NET here, so I'd 
>>>>>> better do
>>>>>> it tall...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Before I get off on how great it is, let me state some problems that 
>>>>>> may be
>>>>>> enough to make you look in other directions:
>>>>>> * .NET games need the .NET framework. The 2.0 beta is 25 MB.
>>>>>> * You'll probably want to use Managed DirectX. The distribution model

>>>>>> is
>>>>>> still very unclear to me, I don't know myself how large the add-on 
>>>>>> is, or
>>>>>> even how to obtain it without downloading the DirectX SDK
>>>>> A friend told me that the .Net Framework is included in the XP Service

>>>>> Pack 2, if so, the problem of the huge download could be avoided.
>>>>> Does anybody could confirm this ? And do we have numbers about the % 
>>>>> of penetration of XP Service Pack 2 on the machine of the potential 
>>>>> players ? Well, a percentage of machine with XP Service Pack 2 on the 
>>>>> global number of windows anyway.
>>>>>
>>>>> Lionel
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Casual_Games mailing list
>>>>> Casual_Games at igda.org
>>>>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/casual_games
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>> -----------------------------------------------------
>> Jim Buck
>> game developer
>> Twitchy Thumbs Entertainment, Inc.
>> email: jbuck at twitchythumbs.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Casual_Games mailing list
>> Casual_Games at igda.org
>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/casual_games
>>
>>
>
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> 


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