Isn't it nice when a company can step forward and admit that they've gotten something wrong? The folks over at TUAW are reporting that two of the biggest names in the video game industry have been busy licking their wounds and learning from their mistakes after somewhat dismal showings in the iTunes App Store.
Capcom, a company that can always be relied on to dish up twitch and combo pew-pew goodness on consoles, has suffered some pretty weaksuace sales in the App Store. When you consider the fact that they've been offering up some pretty big titles, such as Resident Evil 4 and Street Fighter IV, it becomes just that much more surprising.
Bioware, the company that gave us Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins, for consoles and computers, has taken a beating as well. Their first, and to date, only offering for the iPhone was a Mass Effect spin off that offered up some ho-hum top down gameplay. In an interview with Video Gamer, Bioware's Dr. Greg Zeschuk commented that there "wasn't even a mistake as much as we took a guess, our guess was wrong, and we learned something in the process--that the fundamental tactile gameplay is actually the key thing on the platform." Dr. Zeschuk may well have something there. If you look at best sellers such as Doodle Jump or Filedrunners, there's no control stick, no real backstory and a very small learning curve. The reason why the games are so much fun is that with a few taps and swipes, you can get the hang of it and feel like a champ almost immiediately.
No one wants to play a game that makes them feel like they suck. We all want to be winners--from the looks of things, even big money companies like Bioware and Capcom are coming to understand this.
