

If you think Apple's app store policies are ambigious, try Nintendo's - jasongullickson
http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/maniac.html

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chadaustin
Somewhere on Keith Boesky's games industry analysis blog (
<http://boesky.blogspot.com/> ) he draws a parallel between Nintendo's and
Apple's "slightly open" marketplaces.

During the games industry crash in the 80s (
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983)
) there were a glut of low-quality products, causing consumers to turn away
from video games. Nintendo entered the scene with a restrictive game approval
process - remember the Nintendo Seal of Quality? - reducing the number of
games while increasing their quality. In effect, he argues a "slightly open"
marketplace rebuilt consumer confidence and raised the Nintendo platform's
value.

If you look at the App Store today, there is a closed loop between the iPhone
consumer marketplace, app developers, and the App Store platform. Apple's
permeable nozzle on app submission increases the value of the platform while
leaving most of a free market in place. This draws consumers, increasing the
value to app developers.

In short, a slightly-restricted platform can be good for everyone.

I wish I could find the specific article. Keith Boesky is a little tl;dr but
quite insightful.

I'd love to hear counterarguments too.

~~~
_delirium
Does Apple's approval process actually have that effect, though? The feedback
I'm hearing from game devs is the exact opposite of that with Nintendo: Apple
lets basically anything through, so long as it doesn't run afoul of a few
specific criteria (no porn, no embedded scripting, etc.), regardless of
quality. That makes the marketplace as a whole sort of a sludge of junk where
it's hard to differentiate yourself--- in contrast to Nintendo's WiiWare,
which only releases games that Nintendo considers good enough.

------
ajg1977
While both are stringent and designed to protect consumers, I'm not sure there
are many other parallels between the processes of Apple and Nintendo. As a
developer who's gone through the process of submitting games many times to
Nintendo, these are why it's a far better process than Apple have.

(Note these all apply to Sony/Microsoft too).

1) You can send Nintendo a proposed game design before starting any work and
they will approve/deny it. Depending on how much detail you provide, you may
only get a conditional approval, but you can submit more information or
revisit later in development. If your game never stands a chance of being
published, you'll have wasted nothing more than the time to create the
documents.

2) If Nintendo have a problem with your game, they will tell you exactly what
the issue is. There's no ambiguous reference to some clause. They will say ABC
is in violation of XYZ.

3) If your game fails you can get a real live person on the phone or via email
to discuss the issue and what would be an acceptable change.

4) Nintendo not only test that your game is compliant, they will test it for
functionality and quality too. This is completely the opposite to Apple who
will happily allow buggy pieces of crap on the store that meet their
guidelines.

5) Nintendo provide comprehensive access to documents and newsgroups that
contain examples of common problems and suggestions, from the staff who test
the games, in how to avoid them.

There are more I can think of, but these are the big differences. Frankly
trying to suggest that Apple's process is in some way better than Nintendo's
is just a crock.

~~~
masterj
Some very good points, but something to keep in mind.

There is a much lower bar to creating a phone application than a console
application, leading to many, many times the number of applications that Apple
must look at compared to Nintendo. To provide that same level of attention and
care that Nintendo gives to developers for one of it's (few) products to app
developers would be impossible for a company of Apple's size.

Not that I don't think they couldn't do some of the above, and 2 should be a
given.

~~~
buster
First, the point of that is to reduce the number of applications. Second:
Apple is much larger then Nintendo, so they have the resources for sure.

Anyway, the free approach of the android market is the best way, in my
opinion. Oh, and also, that "free" model has worked for quite some years on
PCs, Macs and every other computer, so why shouldn't it work just as fine on a
mobile phone?

~~~
masterj
"First, the point of that is to reduce the number of applications"

True, quality over quantity, which I think we will see more of from Apple in
the future. The goal at first was to attract as many developers as possible.
Now that they have established the store, we will see more discrimination.
Hence the removal of the 'cookie-cutter' applications of late. Maybe I'm wrong
about that though.

"Second: Apple is much larger then Nintendo, so they have the resources for
sure."

True, but they also have many more product lines including a major operating
system and much more hardware to support and develop than Nintendo. I was
simply pointing out the failures of the comparison.

------
sgoraya
That was a fun read of an NES game submission...but to compare that with
Apple's app store is out of place. Different era, different type of hardware,
distribution model, etc. etc.

I've submitted games to NOA for the Gameboy Advance and Gamecube - out of the
big 3 (NOA, SONY, MS), Nintendo had the most stringent requirements (not as
bad as the article though).

I enjoyed the article nonetheless.

------
MrRage
That may be true but no Nintendo console has been hailed as the future of
computing. They're just game consoles.

~~~
patio11
My mother, who survived a stroke five years ago, spends an hour a day doing
physical rehabilitation on her Wii. Her doctors say it has helped her balance,
coordination, and confidence. It is the cheapest intervention that has
produced the most improvement in her life, and by extension the lives of my
whole family.

Not bad for a game console.

~~~
pw
"It is the cheapest intervention that has produced the most improvement in her
life"

Amazing. What games is she using?

------
mortenjorck
My, how things have changed.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFNJfDGSZp0>

Yes, that character at the end gets stabbed through the skull with a sign
post.

~~~
Batsu
To provide an earlier example (2001):

Conker's Bad Fur Day (NWS for language, I guess):
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w5neFPat1w>

Pretty much anything you can find out about that game is along the same lines.

------
Groxx
I've been voicing this side of the App Store argument for a while. _Nobody_ is
as closed as game console companies have been, and they've had an absolute
stranglehold on a small but complete monopoly of the game systems. And as
chadaustin points out, their earlier attempts at openness screwed them over
until they locked it down.

Not to say I _like_ the App Store policies, as I plan to develop some things
for it & Android, and would _love_ to have an open-market portal somewhere.
But it _does_ make sense that it exists, and the hostility about it is fairly
unbalanced in light of other similar systems.

------
nathanb
Nintendo no doubt knew that they had to establish itself in the minds of
parents as kid-friendly (though ironically, these days it seems like they're
trying to shake the image of the 'kiddy console').

I wonder if a similar statement extends to Apple. Perhaps they're trying to
establish themselves as being idiot-friendly, or at least clueless-user-
friendly. Makes me wonder if the irony also applies and they will eventually
have to go to great lengths to shake the image of being too dumbed down.

------
code_duck
The grip Nintendo had on publishers in the US in the 80s was dreadful, as
well. By demanding exclusivity with publishers for the US, they ensured that
the Sega Master System would stay marginal in this market. It's a shame,
because the SMS hardware was superior in every way to the NES.

------
jrockway
Exactly; closed systems suck. There's a reason why there are only a handful of
good NES games but that there are thousnads of good PC games.

