iOS... Is Farsight stuck for life?

[Fungi]

So it occurs to me, and I pose this question here because of how everybody is so smart, that as long as the iOS platform exists, and continues to evolve from hardware upgrade to hardware upgrade, is FarSight now obligated to continue working on TPA for the rest of its' life? I guess sure, they can quit whenever they want, but to the extreme chagrin of all that have supported them.

Usually, a game is stuck in a box and is put out in the world to fight for its' life. When the platform it was made for eventually dies, it's understood that that one game you really liked is now done. But now, when Apple updates its' iOS every 60 seconds, FS has to be right on it or TPA flounders. Now that we have digital distribution that's hardware agnostic, aren't people now expecting the software they paid for to continue working forever?

I can see my choice of TPA for the PSN to possibly go away if or when Sony decides to abandon the platform, but I do expect my TPA for iOS to last forever because I'm certain Apple will never abandon their extremely successful ecosystem.

So doesn't that mean that FS shall forever be stuck debugging everytime Apple stretches its' limbs?

 

[Worf]

Not anymore than on Android, which is even more of a pain. At least Apple updates the OS once a year, and issues new devices once a year. With Android, there's a much wider spread of OSes (majority run 2.3, from 2010, 25% run 4.0, 2% run 4.1, rest run 2.2 or older), screen resolutions, screen sizes, 3D hardware capabilities, RAM, CPU, etc. Given the nature of TPA, supporting iOS is rather easy - maybe a capital investment of a few thousand dollars a year. But Android, following the hot devices and tablets to see what's wrong or if things get horribly screwed up... and reviewers are quick to post 1-star "it doesn't work" (just as they are on iOS).

Plus Apple gives developers OS betas and all that, so they have plenty of time to try with the latest (the only time it doesn't is when introducing new hardware, but the simulators usually do a good enough job). Google... not so much, which is why OS support lags horrendously.

And unless you don't buy another table, FarSight gets payment from that to maintain TPA. When they stop making money from iOS is when it's time to worry.

 

[Storm Chaser]

Commodore 64 and Atari was also really successful Nothing lasts forever.

 

[Fungi]

Commodore 64 and Atari was also really successful Nothing lasts forever.

Yes, but point being, EA isn't expected to continue updating M.U.L.E. anymore. As long as FarSight is happy and keeps cranking out tables, I'm happy.

 

[Jeff Strong]

My guess is this is fine with Farsight because it seems to be one of their most profitable platforms.