Why Make Bioshock for iOS and not Vita? - Podcast Beyond

Irrational Games' critically acclaimed first person shooter seemed a natural fit for PS Vita's twin stick controls. But it's coming to another mobile platform first.

[Kal-V3]

See.. i don't get it. Bio on the Vita would SELL, alot. Borderlands 2 made it over, great, but Bioshock and (at least) Deus Ex: the Fall should have a Vita version, no question about it. Also, how much is the Iphone version of Bioshcok going to be, $10 if that? Sell the Vita version for the same price as the iPhone version and tell me that wouldn't have a ton of sales.

[Mega24]

there are millions and millions of iPhones in the world, more then Vita. So they played it safe and made it for the bigger platform.

[GordonKnight]

The iiPhone shouldn't be considered a gaming platform. Just like the x1 & PS4 shouldn't be considered a multimedia center. IMO

What casual gamer would play Bioshock? What hardcore would play BioShock on the iPhone?

Look at the installment base of the PS3 and the 360 and then look at installment base of the Wii U. The Wii U sold more than the PS3 and 360 combine.

You have to put your media where your consumers are.

[Mega24]

"Look at the installment base of the PS3 and the 360 and then look at installment base of the Wii U. The Wii U sold more than the PS3 and 360 combine."
- Gordonkinght

Are you high?

There are way more iOS devices on the WORLD then there are PS Vitas. People who own phones are more likely to buy this $10 game from the app store then a casual or a core gamer buying a Vita to play this one game.

Edit: FYI the X1 and (some time in the Future) the PS4 are multimedia platforms, just as the games in the appstore are games... you don't seem to get the concept.

[GordonKnight]

@mega24

Yes, I jacked that sentence up and left out the mean part. No, I wasn't high. Just in a hurry to TLOU RE.

Look at the installment base of the PS3 and 360 and then look at the Wii U installment base. 160m to almost 7m and Rayman legends sold more on the Wii U that PS3 and 360 combine.

Even with the huge iOS installment base. I don't see Bioshock selling well on iOS.

IMO.

[Mega24]

@GordonKnight

Again wrong, Wii U did not sale twice as many copies as PS3 and Xbox 360 combine, PS3 actually surpassed the sales of the Wii U. X360 and PS3 have almost 600k copies while the Wii U has about 360k copies sold, I need to know where are you getting your info from.

You are so negative, if this is successful, it could mean the launch of the trilogy on the PS Vita. Stop being negative.

[Summons75]

Bioshock shouldn't even be made for IOS. This would have never happened if Irrational was still around. This just makes me fear how 2K is going to destroy the franchise :/

[barb_wire]

Irrational promised it (at least Ken Levine) for the Vita.. but they didn't deliver.

Kinda like Rockstar promising Agent for the PS3 - still waiting Rockstar!!

[Summons75]

Completely different situation though. IG ran into trouble and it's obvious the Vita version wasn't working as planned when they had to close the door and when they did mention it they were in full swing of Infinite so everything else was put on hold.

Rockstar is still pretending Agent is a real thing, at least IG admitted they put things on hold or were having trouble.

[SteamPowered]

I don't follow how this is bad for Bioshock. It's simply releasing the game on another platform and generating revenue from a new user base. Maybe they will eventually release it for vita of the demand is high enough.
Personally I think it's a great way to get cash trickling in from an old IP.

[dcbronco]

I think we are hearing voices mostly from people that don't understand business. Gaming or any other kind. This idea that casuals won't buy something is off. The reality is they will in smaller numbers. But those smaller numbers are relative to the install base of the iPhone. And that is ginormous compared to Vita. And always will be. Even if Sony gave away a Vita with every PS4 it couldn't match the number of iPhones sold each year. So ten percent of a huge install base beat 30% of the much smaller one every time.

[Summons75]

There has never been a made for controller game that has been ported successfully to the cell phone/ tablets. They all are horrid with controls and killed graphically. Not to mention the people who play cell phone games Dont care about BioShock and all the people who would want it have played it probably more than a dozen times now.

[SteamPowered]

Summons, here is the deal; I own an Nvidia Shield which is a portable android device that plays Pc and Android games. So for me, this would be the best idea ever. I play GTA:SA, GTA 3, the Conduit, and Half Life 2 with full controls and portability. So for me, this port gets me excited that perhaps it will go from IOS to Android. The point Im trying to make is that the Shield kicks ass, and it has great controls, so the more portable games for me, the better!

[user9597082]

Because a lot of people have iPhones and not a lot of people have vitas.
The game's not meant to push system sales. They're counting on the system to push the game sales.

[iamnsuperman]

Pretty much spot on. This move makes sense. They could sell a lot moving to the mobile platform

[sephy]

WOW that is the smartest question i heard all day bros..

[gangsta_red]

Really? This question needs to be asked? I can count on one hand how many people I know that own a Vita and I wouldn't make it past the second finge. iPhone on the other hand is probably the most popular phone in the world, having this game on their will reach hundreds of millions.

[TheWow]

Also consider that the last few generations of iDevices are significantly more powerful than a Vita.
Having said that though, it's still a shame. I wouldn't have minded a down-scaled version come to it, just for the ability to play with physical controls.

[slivery]

The difference between the newest iPhone or even the iPad, is that they don't have as much VRAM as the PS Vita even still, they may have better GPU's but it doesn't make much of a difference when they have much smaller VRAM which is important for gaming.

The PS Vita's GPU is better because it has 128mb dedicated VRAM along with its 512mb RAM. Also phones are more like computers in the sense they are not optimized or specifically made for gaming, consoles and handhelds work more efficiently with far less when it comes to games and more importantly their components are much more synchronized versus a phone or PC.

That is why people are able to get so much out of consoles and handhelds, even with so little in terms of hardware. Games you definitely could never run on a PC with the same exact specs or a phone for that matter.

Bottom line, phones, tablets and PC's because they are true multimedia devices, they are much harder to optimize for, even more so since they are constantly changing when it comes down to hardware.

[TheWow]

@ the disagree-ers, go and educate yourself on the matter, otherwise you look like an arse.

@slivery

"Also phones are more like computers in the sense they are not optimized or specifically made for gaming, consoles and handhelds work more efficiently with far less when it comes to games and more importantly their components are much more synchronized versus a phone or PC.
"

This is true but lately has been exaggerated far too much until it is out of proportion. This exaggerated opinion is mainly due to last gen consoles being able to still run games (if you actually look closely, you'll see that they had to run at absurd resolutions with appalling framerates and textures to do so. Technically a PC from the same era might be able to run those games at those settings as well). While being able to optimise and run games at a lower level will improve performance, there is a limit at which point better hardware will just be better.

The above point can be supported when looking at current gen consoles i.e. the ps4/xb1. The PS4 is roughly equivalent to a 7870 in terms of GPU horsepower. You'd expect that considering it will be massively optimised for it would be able to far exceed a PC that uses a 7870. However, it's probably just slightly faster. You might blame this on the developers inexperience with the console, and that's a fair point.

Your second point: "The PS Vita's GPU is better because it has 128mb dedicated VRAM along with its 512mb RAM"

While VRAM is certainly important, it's by no means the be all and end all of performance. Not by a long stretch. It's the memory used for framebuffers and textures and other relevant data.

You're also missing the point that most iDevices have shared memory between their GPU and CPU.

[Yodagamer]

If it can run on older ios hardware the vita should be able to. The vita runs on a custom chipset that is also in the ipad 3 with the vita running a much lower resolution. With the lower resolution, custom hardware, and better use of the hardware due to greater optimization it should run it just fine.

[darx]

Vita...lol

[gabbboolo]

As much as I would love bioshock on vita, it makes more sense business wise to put it on iPad. Vita doesn't have a big player base.

[Artista]

as much as I'd like a Vita port of Bioshock, the truth of the matter is, there's more money to be made on iOS than on Vita.

They made the right business move..

But. . . . . .

Why not have the game on both? !!!

[jay2]

iOS will generate 4-5X + more return than Vita.

[DarkOcelet]

Its because the mobile market is much larger than the vita , but then again how many of those interested in such a title , vita owners have been wanting bioshock vita from a long time , such a shame they wont get it.