Game developer Mika Mobile halts work on Android titles

When it comes to building an app for a ridiculously large amount of users only iOS and Android fit the bill. Both OS’s share hundredths and thousandths of apps, but they have different mechanisms when it comes down to development. Well, for some developers those internal differences are too much, as Mika Mobile, developer of several popular games for iOS and Android, announced he’d no longer support any of his Android offerings.

 In a blog post, Mika explained that developing and maintaining apps for Android had become way too expensive, and the demand for more “man-hours” became to strenuous for he and his staff.

“We spent about 20% of our total man-hours last year dealing with Android in one way or another – porting, platform specific bug fixes, customer service, etc. I would have preferred spending that time on more content for you, but instead I was thanklessly modifying shaders and texture formats to work on different GPUs, or pushing out patches to support new devices without crashing, or walking someone through how to fix an installation that wouldn’t go through. We spent thousands on various test hardware. These are the unsung necessities of offering our apps on Android.”

Another striking point the developer made on his blog was his assertion that his apps were cashing in as they should, he flat-out said “our Android apps aren’t making money.” That’s a big statement to make, especially since plenty of data research companies out there claim that just being featured on Android Market boost business.

The dev explained his statement further, saying “there’s a big difference between generating revenue, and “making money” – It’s not that they haven’t generated income, but that income is offset by the added support costs the platform has demanded.” He also added “Android sales amounted to around 5% of our revenue for the year, and continues to shrink. Needless to say, this ratio is unsustainable.”

Regardless, this is one developers point of view, as they’re probably others who love Android and would disagree with his stance. That said, this is a problem for Android as app developers try to adapt to fragmentation. I wouldn’t be surprised if more devs jumped from Android until it stabilizes a bit, because now there’s too many OS versions, and seemingly a zillion devices with different hardware. It’s becoming too much for developers to handle.

Original Source 

Mobile Game Development