“With Jumpgate evolution and Star Trek online about to come out (maybe… ) and Eve online seeing (or at least it was) steady growth – do these up and comers have a chance or is the market already saturated with these ‘niche’ titles?” - TickledBlue. I don’t think they are niche titles. I think space games have a ton of potential, and there’s a lot of space (wee, pun!) for more. Jumpgate Evolution seems to be taking a good approach by trying to be very different from EVE within the same basic genre. As for why we haven’t seen many Freelancers and the like, it boggles my mind and saddens me because I really love that type of game and think they’re very popular.

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“Your thoughts on when has a big developer/publisher buying up a small one been a good thing for the gamer in the medium/long term?” – Frawd. Generally, when a big publisher/developer buys out a small one instead of negotiates a publishing deal, it’s often because the small one has to be bought out. If there’s no buyout, the company is probably gone completely. So, I’d generally say in the medium and long term, things are better for the gamer because the small company gets to exist. Whether the bigger company is at fault when the small company’s game ends up below expectations is up for debate, but at least they get to put out any product at all.

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“Where are my pants?” - Cyanbane. Trick question. Knowing you, you don’t actually own any pants. It’s your upbringing, I suppose, to refuse to wear pants. That said, the world would appreciate it if you covered up your chicken legs. So, the answer to your question is, your pants are hanging on a rack at the clothing store.

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“Why do companies – like Sony with the new PSP GO – continue to try to pursue a business plan that is customer unfriendly and expect better results?” – Genda. Answer: They think they are being customer-friendly by offering their system in an all-digital format. It’s more convenient to the customer to not have to lug around hard copies of games. Unfortunately, they didn’t come up with a way to convert your existing games to digital format, so it turned out to be unintentionally unfriendly to customers.

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A friend of mine here at 38 Studios just launched an iPhone/iPod touch game. It’s called Keep Defenders, and is described on the site as: “Keep Defenders is a highly addictive, fast paced real-time combat game. The object of Keep Defenders is to defend your keep as waves of enemy soldiers attack from all directions. If your keep is destroyed or you lose all of your units, you have been defeated. Use your spoils to hire reinforcements and turn back your attackers!” It’s pretty darn fun, so give it a go! Check out the video after the jump. Continue Reading »