No loyalty to iPad users by Slitherine

[smjohnso77]

By refusing to update P&K and other games to 11.02 and 11.03 many of your iPad players were thrown under the bus because they did not know that updating their iPads would make their games unoperational. You threw us under the bus. No loyalty. Most of my challengers can't play anymore because of this. I don't care about your financial reasons for not updating. You will make your money in the long run because mobile/iPad use is the wave of the future. Many just do not have the time to sit at a PC. Please update your games and show some loyalty to your faithful comrades who love your stuff. I personally would like to see the Pike & Shot and the Japanese games updated to iPad. Younger users prefer mobile. I know about your explanation, but you could do it and It would pay off in the long run and the mobile users would appreciate your loyalty returned to those who love your stuff. Thank you. I hope you make the right decisions for your customers. Sincerely, Steven Johnson

[pipfromslitherine]

Thank you for your post. Unfortunately this isn't just a financial issue, but one of available time. We would have to stop doing all the work we are currently doing to rewrite the internals of the games. We are very sorry that Apple has decided to forsake 32-bit compatibility.

Cheers

Pip

[smjohnso77]

Bring a few hot shots at computer games for a short term gig to do it. It will pay off. I promise you. iPad/Mac is the number one computers and mobile devices in the world. Get this done. It will pay off for the company. Think about your faithful customers. I have friends that love your stuff and can't play anymore because you have not been willing to update with Apole. They are number one. They will increase your sales if you do this. Just bring in some temps to do it. Lots of guys like this kund of work and would be willing to do it. It will pay off and your faithful Apple customers will greatly appreciate your returned loyalty.

[smjohnso77]

Get on iTunes with Mac and iPad and see your sales soar. iTunes is number one in the world. Get with the number one sales company and make a commitment to get on with App,e. Most people prefer Apple products. Get with iTunes and you won't regret it. Get updated on iPad and get on Mac. You will be happy you did it.

[lk2500]

I have Pike and Shot installed on my Ipad Air and have upgraded to 11.03. What exactly does this mean for me? I can open Pike and Shot but get an error message about the game needing to be updated. The games still starts though and I started a skirmish and it seems to work.

Will the game still work if i keep it installed? I assume if I uninstalled it I would not be able to reinstall it? What else won't work? Just curious.....

[pipfromslitherine]

I have Pike and Shot installed on my Ipad Air and have upgraded to 11.03. What exactly does this mean for me? I can open Pike and Shot but get an error message about the game needing to be updated. The games still starts though and I started a skirmish and it seems to work.

Will the game still work if i keep it installed? I assume if I uninstalled it I would not be able to reinstall it? What else won't work? Just curious.....

On 11.03? I am surprised by that. I thought that 11 would prevent 32 bit games running at all. I am not sure whether you would be able to redownload if you did uninstall. Could just be Apple changing things.

Cheers

Pip

[w_michael]

I think that you could reverse your topic title and say "No loyalty to iPad users by Apple". You have not been served well by Apple's policy to discontinue offering 32-bit software.

[lk2500]

I have Pike and Shot installed on my Ipad Air and have upgraded to 11.03. What exactly does this mean for me? I can open Pike and Shot but get an error message about the game needing to be updated. The games still starts though and I started a skirmish and it seems to work.

Will the game still work if i keep it installed? I assume if I uninstalled it I would not be able to reinstall it? What else won't work? Just curious.....

On 11.03? I am surprised by that. I thought that 11 would prevent 32 bit games running at all. I am not sure whether you would be able to redownload if you did uninstall. Could just be Apple changing things.

Cheers

Pip

Hmmmm, well.... it does the same thing with Battle Academy - which I assume is not supported in 64 bit either, correct? I'll try actually playing a scenario and see if it works.

[VPaulus]

The games which are affected are:

• Battle Academy
• Battle Academy 2
• Pike & Shot
• Hell
• Quadriga
• Commander the Great War
• Legion
• History Egypt Engineering an Empire
• History Egypt HD
• Great Battles Medieval
• Conquest! Medieval Realms
• Ice Road Truckers
• The Tudors
• Magnifico

[lk2500]

I have Pike and Shot installed on my Ipad Air and have upgraded to 11.03. What exactly does this mean for me? I can open Pike and Shot but get an error message about the game needing to be updated. The games still starts though and I started a skirmish and it seems to work.

Will the game still work if i keep it installed? I assume if I uninstalled it I would not be able to reinstall it? What else won't work? Just curious.....

On 11.03? I am surprised by that. I thought that 11 would prevent 32 bit games running at all. I am not sure whether you would be able to redownload if you did uninstall. Could just be Apple changing things.

Cheers

Pip

Hmmmm, well.... it does the same thing with Battle Academy - which I assume is not supported in 64 bit either, correct? I'll try actually playing a scenario and see if it works.

Mystery solved, I am still on iOS 10.3.3. I must have looked at the screen that says I need to update to 11.03. I plan to stick with 10.3.3 as long as I can.

[MooN]

Get on iTunes with Mac and iPad and see your sales soar. iTunes is number one in the world. Get with the number one sales company and make a commitment to get on with App,e. Most people prefer Apple products. Get with iTunes and you won't regret it. Get updated on iPad and get on Mac. You will be happy you did it.

As a devoted P&S / iPad player I am also caught up in this impasse I note on another thread Richard quotes 6 months re- code time for a single developer which I appreciate would be a financial commitment, however as pointed out by the OP, given the potential for accessing a considerable long term revenue stream for the short term investment in making the game and future expansion available to the Apple community I cannot help but view the current descision as Rather disappointing and financialy shortsighted.

[smjohnso77]

I agree that the decision to not update by Slitherine and to not get sales going on Apple and iTunes which is the biggest computer/mobile/ iPad AP sellers in the world and the most popular globally is very shortsighted. It really would be a good financial decision and would show loyalty to your Apple customers. Get some temps in to get it done as the regular staff can work on what they want to since they do not want to do it. It would place Slitherine at a higher level and would pay off. Maybe try it with the P&K and Samurai games because there is nothing like those games from other companies. Other companies offers lots of Ancient Greek, and Roman battle war APs on iTunes, but no one has anything like P&K and the Samurai games. I think those would do well if made available on MAC/iPad to show you that it is worth the investment to do it.

[w_michael]

I trust that the publisher has considered the investment required and decided that the fantastic revenue stream from Apple users will not be what you guys are predicting. They know their own sales history for Pike & Shot Campaigns and are in a much better position to estimate future sales. It is very easy to recommend that someone else take financial risk when you have no skin in the game.

I agree that the decision to not update by Slitherine and to not get sales going on Apple and iTunes which is the biggest computer/mobile/ iPad AP sellers in the world and the most popular globally is very shortsighted. It really would be a good financial decision and would show loyalty to your Apple customers.

Show us your numbers. Let's see your sales projections, the cost of developing an iPad compatible game engine, the return on investment. It is insincere to offer the entire Apple/iTunes base of users as customers, when common sense tells us that such a game would appeal to only a very tiny fraction.

[smjohnso77]

You are just wrong on that. Apple/iTunes is the biggest AP seller in the world. I have a friend who is one of the main guys at Hexwar (Decision Games and several war game magazines) and he said they have a very good revenue from selling their Ancient War Battles, Civil War battles, and American Revolution games (Rebels and Redcoats I and II) on iTunes that they converted from their Decision Games board games. I do not want to say his name, but any any old hand board gamers would recognize his name and he said that their iTunes iPad /Mac games are their best sellers really. He said the company saw that this is the wave of now and the future and knew Apple was the number one way to sell their games. You are just being shortsighted. Get in some IT temps who will get these converted to Apple since the regular staff does not want to do it. It will pay off.

[Micha63]

Only an idea, ask a programmer to get the game compatible to i pad. Find some other people to lower the costs. Thats exactly what i did for my favorite game peoples general for almost 10 years. Commerziell gamemakers don"t do anything what does not bring money, no matter how often you try. But i must confess i would do the same if PC gaming were my buisness.

[w_michael]

You are just wrong on that. Apple/iTunes is the biggest AP seller in the world. I have a friend who is one of the main guys at Hexwar (Decision Games and several war game magazines) and he said they have a very good revenue from selling their Ancient War Battles, Civil War battles, and American Revolution games (Rebels and Redcoats I and II) on iTunes that they converted from their Decision Games board games. I do not want to say his name, but any any old hand board gamers would recognize his name and he said that their iTunes iPad /Mac games are their best sellers really. He said the company saw that this is the wave of now and the future and knew Apple was the number one way to sell their games. You are just being shortsighted. Get in some IT temps who will get these converted to Apple since the regular staff does not want to do it. It will pay off.

Saying the same thing over and over doesn't make it true. You do not have the detailed information about costs and revenue to make the claims that you are making. The publisher does, and has decided that their time and money is better spent on other projects. You also don't seem to understand the concept of opportunity costs, where pursuing an iOS project for a mature program would prevent them from developing a new, more profitable Windows based game.

As I said at the beginning this is a problem of Apple's making. Write to them and tell them how much revenue they are foregoing by their decision. See how far that takes you.

[smjohnso77]

Don't hate the messenger, but a lot of people who loved your games (especially younger history buffs that prefer playing on iPads while they wait for appointments or in coffee shops or between classes that completely lost their games. They are upset that you are somewhat wanting to stay in the dinosaur days by not updating your games. Especially, P&K, but we would love to play your Samurai game as well. A lot of people lost their games and the money they paid for the games on P&K. The same old hands that play on pc's still play me, but I lost a number of opponents because Slitherine won't update the game. Like I said, don't hate the messenger.

[w_michael]

Don't hate the messenger, but a lot of people who loved your games (especially younger history buffs that prefer playing on iPads while they wait for appointments or in coffee shops or between classes that completely lost their games. They are upset that you are somewhat wanting to stay in the dinosaur days by not updating your games. Especially, P&K, but we would love to play your Samurai game as well. A lot of people lost their games and the money they paid for the games on P&K. The same old hands that play on pc's still play me, but I lost a number of opponents because Slitherine won't update the game. Like I said, don't hate the messenger.

No one is expressing any hate; just facts. You bought Pike & Shot on iTunes and it now doesn't work because Apple changed their policy and thus their O/S. The game publisher still supports their product, and didn't make any changes to stop your purchase from working, so your beef is with Apple. I lost the ability to play against a friend of mine who only owns an Apple tablet, so I am sympathetic to your situation, but this just reinforces my decision to never buy Apple products.

[smjohnso77]

Why didn't Slitherine send an email warning its customers to not update on Apple or they would lose their games and investments in these games? It is not fair. Slitherine needs to update to be fare to their customers. Show some loyalty to your customers and stop giving excuses that you don't feel like doing it. Get some IT guys for a temporary gig who will update the games to Aplle iPad and Mac. It will pay off and be worth it. It just is not fair to have a policy to just through many of your loyal customers under the bus. Update! Please! We love your stuff and it will show loyalty to your customers. Please don't just ignore your Apple customers. I'm their voice. Please get this do wand just bring in some temps who won't mind doing this.

[w_michael]

Why didn't Slitherine send an email warning its customers to not update on Apple or they would lose their games and investments in these games?

Your purchase was made on iTunes. Did Apple warn you that their policy change would result in your purchase being unplayable? Has iTunes refunded your money? You are blaming Slitherine for something that they had no control over, and who has acted in good faith.

You are working yourself through the five stages of grief, and you are almost at the last stage: acceptance. It is difficult to lose something that you love.