RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:METAL GEAR R.R. sales
yyz123 wrote: The other thing I would say is don't fall in love with the tech. It's a rabbit hole. Many times people are blinded by what they see as unique tech. It may even be unique.
It's not:
https://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames/.
It doesn't have to be unique - it's about the whole service that is offered - but they need to keep advancing the technology at the same pace as the rest of the industry to be able to build a valuable service around it in the first place.
The issue is is there a viable market for it.
Of course there is. Simultaneous release on Windows, Xbox One, and Mac would create a sea-change in the perception of Mac systems. Gamers currently don't buy Mac systems because they don't want to risk getting the games later, or not at all. By enabling simultaneous releases TransGaming would single-handedly turn that perception around, increase Mac sales, and be able to scoop up a significant portion of the revenue generated during the first week. Apple would buy them, or Microsoft to prevent losing its gaming monopoly.
This opportunity is fading fast as the decision to use this kind of porting technology is made early in the game development process. There are more opportunities ahead with DirectX 12 and the next generation of OpenGL, but that's even longer term and TransGaming has yet to prove it can do anything beyond DirectX 9, so leaping three generations ahead seems most unlikely.
Sure they have this patent gupta claims eveyone wants for SS, but are they selling much of it? Will there really be a shift away from hardware gpu's to software? Personally I am very skeptical. So that said where's the money in OpenGL? Is it worth company resources in personnel and cash to go down that road? I'd be interested in your perspective.
Patents are just trophies. Or better yet, they're like guns. Most of the time you just keep them in a trophy cabinet. Saying you have a gun doesn't impress the big guys who flaunt hundreds. It's when you start shooting at things that they'll take notice. But it either means they'll take it away from you (the patent gets invalidated by finding prior art, or finding a flaw in the description, or finding a better way to achieve the same thing), or the big guys shoot back (finding a patent that TransGaming might infringe).
Beyond the patent I don't think the product has much value either. It also only supports DirectX 9. Microsoft's WARP project supports DirectX 11, and the Mesa LLVMpipe project supports up to OpenGL 3.3, both of which are free.