New Survey Highlights Substantial Developer Dissatisfaction With Mac App Store

[keysofanxiety]

Well for games I'll just stick to Windows. Much less headaches and I agree with GOG and - unfortunately - Steam. (you just can't avoid that DRM-powerhouse nowadays anymore for current titles)

Can you elaborate on the multiplayer part though?

Glassed Silver:mac

Yeah, I got Civ 5 from the MAS. No option for online play. Multiplayer wasn't cross-compatible, or even worked with my housemate's OS X Civ 5 that he got from Steam. Not sure if I was doing something wrong, but we couldn't even find each other in the LAN lobby. Had the same version and everything.

Maybe it's a case of once bitten, twice shy. But that was enough for me. I know that if I had such problems with the Steam version, a refund wouldn't have been an issue.

 

[Glassed Silver]

Yeah, I got Civ 5 from the MAS. No option for online play. Multiplayer wasn't cross-compatible, or even worked with my housemate's OS X Civ 5 that he got from Steam. Not sure if I was doing something wrong, but we couldn't even find each other in the LAN lobby. Had the same version and everything.

Maybe it's a case of once bitten, twice shy. But that was enough for me. I know that if I had such problems with the Steam version, a refund wouldn't have been an issue.

It might be that the MAS and Steam version aren't cross-compatible indeed.

Yeah, I only ever got MAS games when they were platform (as in OS X and MAS itself) exclusive.
Modern Combat comes to mind. I actually enjoyed those games, but I got burnt once, not twice.
Of course those apps aren't supported anymore and won't work on newer OS X versions.
Yay for Apple's terrible job at backwards-compatibility and of course an entire new OS major version EVERY YEAR.

Windows for anything PC gaming, end of story.
You can't trust Apple with this ****.

It's stuff like this that keeps reminding me of why I care nilch about Nintendo getting on mobile platforms other their own handheld devices or why I couldn't care less about Apple doing a better job with tvOS for gaming.
There's so much with Apple's philosophy that practically prohibits them from being a proper gaming platform beyond casual games I really do wonder why such a large crowd on here wants to force this to work.
I mean, I'm all for choice in the end, but I just think that this throw-away "digital-only" DRM-fest isn't the way forward for gaming.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[darrynsmith]

My biggest complaint from a consumer perspective revolves around upgrade discounts.

On the one hand, I don't think that buying a piece of software once should entitle me to lifetime upgrades. On the other hand, I resent having to pay full price for each major upgrade (3.0 -> 4.0 for example). For most of my decades-long computer experience, the discounted upgrade path seemed most fair – a loyalty reward but continued revenue for the developer.

Last I knew, this was virtually impossible on the MAS, and so I buy from dev sites directly whenever possible.

Best example: anything from the Omni Group.

 

[Luap]

Unsurprising. The MAS is absolutely rubbish.

Partly due to high prices, removed multiplayer options, a gruelling refund process, compatibility issues, poor ports, and lack of updates from developers, I wouldn't consider anything other than Steam or GOG to buy games for OS X.

Apple doesn't set the prices of software in its store, so your comment about high prices is completely irrelevant. Poor ports also isn't Apples fault. Neither is a lack of updates from developers.
Your comment about the 'gruelling refund process' is likely true however, although i've never had reason to use it myself.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Apple doesn't set the prices of software in its store, so your comment about high prices is completely irrelevant. Poor ports also isn't Apples fault. Neither is a lack of updates from developers.
Your comment about the 'gruelling refund process' is likely true however, although i've never had reason to use it myself.

Whether it's completely Apple's fault or not is somewhat irrelevant, because those problems exist, and that's why people don't use the MAS. And these problems don't exist on other stores, with the same games and developers, so there must be a problem somewhere.

Plus I didn't even say it was Apple's fault. I just pointed out why the MAS is a disaster. You seem to agree with my points, don't have an answer for why it's like that, yet take the time to say it's not Apple's fault.

 

[Jim L]

Based on how the geniuses in charge of the current App Store think, the solution to this dissatisfaction issue is nothing other than... Free Apple Watch bands! Free bands for everyone!

And a couple of U2 songs for iTunes.

 

[.max]

It's no better or worse than the iOS store for developers. It just has a (much, much) smaller user base. If anything the Mac App Store is better for developers because there is a lot less competition to be seen.

Developer here. It IS way worse. There's no way to manage beta versions (Test Flight), there's no way to track campaigns or download sources (Analytics). Generally its lagging behind and feels like an afterthought.

 

[sudo1996]

Hey, the Mac App Store could've been useful for consumers who want trusted apps and don't want to give out their credit cards to random websites, but Apple screwed it up big time. Too bad. It was a good idea! But:

- It's so laggy that you want to tear your hair out. Like, 30 seconds to open it and 10 seconds to load a page. Geez, any website doing that would be bankrupt instantly.
- It's so buggy that you're afraid to use it. Updates are especially bad; my apps have been rendered useless many times.
- Devs hate it for reasons I don't know, meaning there's nothing on it.
[doublepost=1465631060][/doublepost]

It's no better or worse than the iOS store for developers. It just has a (much, much) smaller user base. If anything the Mac App Store is better for developers because there is a lot less competition to be seen.

On iOS, (most) users can't get apps anywhere else than the App Store, so it's definitely more useful to devs than the Mac App Store.
[doublepost=1465631378][/doublepost]

There's so much with Apple's philosophy that practically prohibits them from being a proper gaming platform beyond casual games I really do wonder why such a large crowd on here wants to force this to work.

I agree that OS X is not a good gaming platform, but it works for more than enough games (namely CS:GO), and I don't feel like dealing with Windows. But I'd never buy from the MAS over Steam because the Steam version is going to be better supported. As much as I hate Steam and the entire culture of users on it...

 

[Internet Enzyme]

My main problem is that it's SO DAMN SLOW. I mean, I have a good internet connection (30 mbps on a good day) and it takes years to load anything. Also, why do I need to enter credit card info if I'm getting a FREE app?

 

[Florpy]

And it's only going to get worse when apple rolls out new desktop computers based on the A10 processor and ONLY apps sold through the app store will be allowed to be installed on the desktops and no third party apps. Just like the App Store is now for the phone.

This isn't going to happen. What makes you think this is going to happen?

 

[Nermal]

I hope Mac computers never have an ARM processor in the foreseeable future...

ARM-based Macs have been rumoured for more than twenty years at this point. I'll believe it when I see it!

(Hopefully I won't be eating my hat after WWDC tomorrow...)