The rise of new platforms had lead to more opportunities for game developers. However, this has also means that expectations from downloadable titles have risen not just from consumers, but from publishers as well.

“It used to be that ten years ago, it was PS2,” said Zoe Mode studio head Paul Mottram. “So you’d just do PS2 and then maybe some others. But now we’re finding that everyone is not knowing what platform is going to succeed – we did our first 3DS title – we got Crush onto that, but we had to delay the release of that because of the success of the platform.

“So it’s hard for us because none of the platforms are dominant at the moment, he added. The Wii is on the wane, obviously Zumba [Fitness] has done really well on that, and we hope we see some success there, but there’s a nervousness which we’re seeing from publishers who are traditionally funding some of our products. With the move to digital, what I’ve seen is people wanting to spend XBLA budgets but expecting retail content. Unless we can address that it’s going to be very hard for us to deliver the games we want to make.”

However, he admitted that he spends most of his time gaming on the iPad. “I pretty much do all my gaming these days on my iPad, and I never thought that would happen, said Mottram. I’m spending more on games on that, even at 59p, than I was on retail games at 80 or something. Now I’m spending £25 a month on getting games every day just to see what they’re doing. I think that’s good.”

Relentless Software co-founder David Amor agreed about the opportunities in app and browser games. “I like the fact that being able to play games in your browser and on your phone appears to have enabled a much larger audience,” said Amor. “I’m sure that most people didn’t buy their PC to play Farmville, and that most people didn’t buy iPhones to play Angry Birds. But now they have them, we have a wider market. So should we be sore that there’s a wider proliferation of platforms to be working on Well, no, because with that came a whole new section of people to be making games for.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz