[casual_games] Slow death for the current generation of casual games? (Bugs, Parental Controls & Game Explorer)

[Daniel Kinney]

Forgive my ignorance, but how are the ratings handled in international
versions of Windows? ESRB is a U.S. entity, is it not? Since casual games
utilize the Internet as a distribution vehicle, would developers and
publishers be required to get certification from International ratings
boards as well, like the U.K.'s Elspa?

Even at a reduced rate from each ratings board, this would still add up to a
hefty fee for the developer. This is beginning to sound a little absurd...
someone please tell me I'm wrong.

Best Regards,
Daniel Kinney


On 12/18/06, Dave Selle <Dave.Selle at wildtangent.com> wrote:

>

>

>

> Hi Everyone,

>

>

>

> Just dropping you a bit of cheer before the holidays…

>

>

>

> But seriously I want to raise some issues with our game community that we

> are seeing currently in our network which will become acute in the very near

> future for many developers.

>

>

>

> Overall I also am very interested to hear in general what is happening

> with Vista preparedness across the industry and what issues you may be

> encountering. Here are some of the things that **we** have learned:

>

>

>

> *==Casual Games Vista Bugs==*

>

>

>

> About 80% of the games we get from third party developers have some kind

> of issue with Vista.

>

>

>

> Just under half of that number are "severe" issues that will significantly

> impact a user's ability to play the game. In our network, these will have to

> be pulled once our OEM partners start shipping Vista on new consumer

> machines. Outside our network, these will die a slow but equally inevitable

> death (if nothing is done to fix them) as consumer adoption of Vista marches

> forward.

>

>

>

> The issues are mainly in two areas:

>

>

>

>    - Installation/save games

>    - Sleep/Hibernate resume

>

>

>

> In terms of Installation, many games write config files or save game data

> into the program files area. In Vista this are gets virtualized per user.

> Depending on what data is written users can lose save games or in some cases

> will not be able to run at all as a non-elevated user after the initial

> install. One thing that you can do now in XP to check is to run in a limited

> user mode on XP. If your game installs and runs fine in that mode, 90% it

> will work in Vista also.

>

>

>

> The other big one is sleep/resume. Sleep behavior is turned ON by default

> in Vista, so everyone with a new PC will be experiencing this. Furthermore,

> Notebooks are the fastest growing segment of the PC market and there it's

> not just a nice to have feature. Many games do not recover well, or at all,

> when coming out of sleep mode.

>

>

>

> *==Parental Controls & Vista==*

>

>

>

> And finally, even if you fix your bugs there is one other issue looming

> which could significantly limit accessibility to your games under Vista:

> Parental Controls.

>

>

>

> Vista comes with a robust set of Parental controls based on games' ESRB

> ratings. And as we all know, relatively few casual games currently are ESRB

> rated because few developers have seen the ROI for the cost and effort of

> going through the submission process. Vista will certainly change this

> equation, especially for new games.

>

>

>

> Under Vista, as soon as **any** level of parental controls are set for

> games *all* unrated games will be hidden from the game explorer and

> require a lot of extra steps to access them. That's right: your games can

> just go "poof" and effectively disappear in Vista.

>

>

>

> The best defense against this particular threat is to get out in front of

> it and get your games ESRB rated. After the New Year comes and the Royalty

> checks start coming in I would strongly encourage all developers to consider

> this investment in the future of their games.

>

>

>

> Any other big Vista issues that folks are seeing out there?

>

>

>

> Here is wishing everyone a happy and successful holiday season!

>

>

>

> Best,

>

>

>

> --Dave

>

>

>

>

>

> *WildTangent*

> *David Selle*

> *VP, Content Acquisition & Developer Relations*

> dselle at wildtangent.com

> 18578 NE 67th Court

> Redmond, WA 98052<http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmap&addr=18578+NE+67th+Court&csz=Redmond%2C+WA+98052&country=us>

> tel: 425-497-4538

> <http://www.plaxo.com/click_to_call?src=jj_signature&To=425-497-4538&Email=dselle@wildtangent.com>

> fax: 425-497-4501

> mobile: 425-894-0707

> <http://www.plaxo.com/click_to_call?src=jj_signature&To=425-894-0707&Email=dselle@wildtangent.com>

> www.wildtangent.com

>

>

>

>

>

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>

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