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Monster Hunter Freedom Unite iOS (=15$) incompatible with iOS 9, Capcom don't care

Garou

Member
iOS 9 was released last week and one of Capcoms biggest iOS-apps Monster Hunter Freedom Unite / Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G is incompatible with the latest release. If you start the app you just see the Capcom-logo for a couple of seconds before it crashes to the homescreen.

Now mind that:
- The app was released less than 1.5 years ago
- The app costs 15$ / 1,900Yen
- Apple actually selected the game for their "App Store Best of 2014"-awards in Japan
- The game had 4.5 out of 5 stars as an average rating in Japan before iOS 9 came out
- The app still is in the Top 100 of paid apps in Japan
- Monster Hunter is a game where people invest 100+ hours into a character
- Hori actually released their iOS Bluetooth controller with MHFU as the flagship-title
- Capcom is not simply ignoring all of this, they even go as far as stating "This application is not compatible with iOS 9 (including the Beta). There are currently no plans to update this application in the future. Please keep this in mind when updating your OS."
- Capcom is still happily selling the game on the App store

Super-shady all around and a real shame, since the game was one of the better examples of how to bring a game from a dedicated gaming-device to a smart-device. This sudden mobile "End-of-Life"-ing has to stop. And you cannot tell me that one of your flagship-titles in Japan where iOS has an exceptional market-share is not worth of extended support.

---

Update Oct. 10: Japanese and English versions of the game have been removed from the App store.

---

Update Dec. 12: Capcom today announced to update the game for iOS 9 in spring 2016! People who kept the app on their device will be able to continue using their savefile.
 

Tripon

Member
Apple needs to make sure backwards compability is a thing too though. Can't keep on breaking things and expect every company affected to care.
 

Vuze

Member
That's a shame. As you said its an amazing port, superior to the original not only in terms of visuals but they introduced some QoL improvements from newer games too. I hope they'll address the issue. No-go for such a premium price app.
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
Apple needs to make sure backwards compability is a thing too though. Can't keep on breaking things and expect every company affected to care.

Apple does though, I think it has more to do with developers using APIs in ways that Apple didn't intend that then breaks once those APIs are changed in big iOS releases. There are far more apps that don't break than those that do. Onus is on Capcom to invest in keeping their apps current if they want to take a bite out of the mobile market.
 

Massa

Member
Apple does though, I think it has more to do with developers using APIs in ways that Apple didn't intend that then breaks once those APIs are changed in big iOS releases. There are far more apps that don't break than those that do. Onus is on Capcom to invest in keeping their apps current if they want to take a bite out of the mobile market.

That's not how public API's work. Apple doesn't give a damn but this is on them.
 

El Sabroso

Member
Capcom might have the team that made that game working on something else or disbanded, that could be why they cannot patch it for the new iOS

Apple don't care just as much.

also this, if the bew iOS is what causes it, the makers of the new iOS are to blame as well, is not that capcom could predict new system could break the game into not being able to launch
 

rezuth

Member
You can't carry around bloat forever for the sake of backwards compatibility.

I do think Apple has some responsibility but if you look at most apps its not like they're useless in iOS 9 if they have been keeping up. I don't want the OS to lagging behind because of extreme backwards compatibility.
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
You can't carry around bloat forever for the sake of backwards compatibility.
The app was released less than 1.5 years ago

Well....Apple just doesnt give a damn, either every Dev reworks and optimizes their Apps for iOS 9 or the customers are screwed.

Im sure that Capcom will release an updated version at some point, but dont expect every publisher and devs to have compatibility day 1 on such mayor updates.
 

RevenantKioku

PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS oh god i am drowning in them
Capcom might have the team that made that game working on something else or disbanded, that could be why they cannot patch it for the new iOS

also this, if the bew iOS is what causes it, the makers of the new iOS are to blame as well, is not that capcom could predict new system could break the game into not being able to launch
iOS 9 has been available for months to developers. Nothing about "could predict". They just didn't spend the resources to test or if they did they didn't care.
 

bumpkin

Member
Apple needs to make sure backwards compability is a thing too though. Can't keep on breaking things and expect every company affected to care.
Not saying it's excusable for a $15 App, but I don't think it's entirely Apple's fault. I have an App on the App Store that I put out close to five years ago and it still runs on iOS 6 devices. All of the stuff in my App is using their OOTB Frameworks though. I'd be willing to bet just like how console developers frequently "code to the metal" on game systems, they did the same here, so when subtle architecture stuff changes, shit breaks.
 
also this, if the bew iOS is what causes it, the makers of the new iOS are to blame as well, is not that capcom could predict new system could break the game into not being able to launch
Developers have access to the new versions. They know it doesn't work. It's always Capcom games that break and even then remain on the AppStore.
 
Did anyone else read 'capcom don't care' in a sassy voice with a fictional personification of capcom shaking their finger at you
 

Luigiv

Member
Same thing happened with Ghost Trick when iOS7 released. As far as I'm aware, that one hasn't been patched either.
 

heyf00L

Member
Impossible to pin blame here without more info. I'm not an iOS dev but usually parts of the API would be deprecated where they're still usable but issue a warning if used. Then after a while those parts become unusable. If Apple didn't do that and suddenly broke features, that's on them (but if they didn't, I'd expect a lot more apps to stop working). But if Apple did do that, and Capcom used them anyway, that's on Capcom.

Or it could be something else entirely.
 

CronoShot

Member
This happens on Android too. Chrono Trigger breaks like clockwork on every new Android release. Then SE takes like 6 months to fix it, and it breaks again 6 months later.
 

akileese

Member
This is really common. Puzzle & Dragons breaks after almost every single iOS and Android update although unlike Capcom, they put PSA's on their app that says "don't update or it will break your game."
 

PAULINK

I microwave steaks.
On a completely unrelated note, Sonic the hedgehog 4, episode 2, did not work with ios 8. Now it magically works with ios 9, without a patch. amazing
 

Fhtagn

Member
I have apps that were released around iOS 2 (when the App Store first debuted) that still work even though they haven't been updated in 5-6 years and aren't even listed on the App Store any more.

Apple does betas far in advance, and people with iOS devices actually upgrade in mass numbers (50% of iOS devices are running iOS 9 already.) Keeping your app running across iOS updates needs to be part of your budget when making an iOS app.

Apple should probably force Capcom to delist the game if they are refusing to update it. (but let people who already bought it still download it, of course)
 
Could Apple possibly give less of a shit about games if they tried? They treat games on their app store with shame-faced embarrassment, could not possibly do less to support people who pay money for games, and lol 200mb limit on Apple TV games, please understand. They seem to dominate mobile gaming solely on the strength of "Hey, it's less of a pain to make apps for us than for Android's fractured-into-a-million-pieces ecosystem!" Not a healthy situation.
 

entremet

Member
This is why mobile isn't viable to me long term. As long as dedicated gaming platforms exists, that's where my gaming dollars are going to.

I'm saying this as someone that has a good amount of iOS games that I've enjoyed. But if you won't ensure future support, I'm not investing in the platform.
 
Ports like this are very likely running on some mobile middleware framework for ease of portability that Capcom licensed out, and said framework was doing tricks and going beyond the API to get things to work.

It's up to Capcom to do reasonable verification tests for their appstore offerings though. At the very least they should have had a statement on their support forums noting the product's lack of support and either a timeline for support for iOS 9 or a statement of not supporting it at all.
 

Fhtagn

Member
Could Apple possibly give less of a shit about games if they tried? They treat games on their app store with shame-faced embarrassment, could not possibly do less to support people who pay money for games, and lol 200mb limit on Apple TV games, please understand. They seem to dominate mobile gaming solely on the strength of "Hey, it's less of a pain to make apps for us than for Android's fractured-into-a-million-pieces ecosystem!" Not a healthy situation.

I see them highlighting games in the App Store on the first page all the time. And on stage at iOS events. Don't seem ashamed to me.

That 200mb limit is just for the initial download, you can design your game to request gigabytes more as needed as the game progresses. No point in making the initial download 2gb if most people aren't going to play past the first level. This number will go up with time, iOS apps used to have to be a lot smaller than they are now and the limit gradually moves upwards.
 

wrowa

Member
At the very least Apple could give devs better incentives to update their applications.

Giving a fair service to their customers should be incentive enough for a developer, really.

I don't care if apps by hobbyists who don't care any longer stop working. I don't care if some F2P game that went out of fashion or never caught on to begin with stops working, either. But when a multimillion dollar company charges a premium price for one of their apps then I absolutely believe that their customers are entitled to a fair service.

It's too easy to blame Apple. Developers know that Apple always changes its APIs and that future iOS releases might break their games - for better or for worse, this is part of iOS' nature. This is something developers/publishers need to include in their plans from the very beginning. It's not enough to release a game on the App Store and then to refuse any kind of ongoing service.

Especially so, since usually the necessary updates wouldn't even be all that complex, time consuming or expensive to develop.
 
Especially so, since usually the necessary updates wouldn't even be all that complex, time consuming or expensive to develop.

You are assuming quite a bit with that statement. Here's something you may not know: as of February, Apple now requires that all new iOS apps or apps that get updates must include a 64-bit executable. This means that if this Monster Hunter game hasn't already made the transition, they now MUST do so if they release a new patch.

In many cases switching to 64-bit is as simple as setting a compiler flag or checking a box, but in other cases it can be completely game breaking. For example, I am working on a Unity game for iOS, switching to 64-bit support meant downloading a brand new version of Unity which changed some of the ways it works, deprecated a lot of function calls we were doing, and worse, made our licensed sound engine stop working (it was precompiled as a 32-bit DLL). We had to upgrade to a new version of the sound engine that had 64-bit support, which took a lot of time and money. Then our sound guys had to recreate all of the sound collections we were using, and they had to be re-linked to all the things in the entire game that trigger sounds. In the process, we had a huge problem where the largest collection of sounds just plain didn't work, which took a week to fix and we still have no idea why that happened - we had to recreate that collection again (by just copying and pasting the same sounds into a new collection).

So even if the fix for the change to iOS 9 is super simple, submitting an update could trigger a huge effort from the development team.

Then there's the actual problem of why their app stopped working in iOS 9 - I don't know what could cause that, unless the multitasking is making things take more memory so the device crashes the game because there isn't enough memory to run it.
 

Pila

Member
Being a MH player myself (on consoles) I can't even think about this shit, I know what kind of dedication it takes.

Brrr. :/
 

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Capcom might have the team that made that game working on something else or disbanded, that could be why they cannot patch it for the new iOS



also this, if the bew iOS is what causes it, the makers of the new iOS are to blame as well, is not that capcom could predict new system could break the game into not being able to launch

Actually Capcom could. Apple has released beta of ios9 to the developers months in advance before it is released for the public.

Fair enough, does it still work with 9?

Its no longer on apps store as of now.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Dual Destinies is not compatible with ios9 too.

In fact, most Capcom games are written with a disclaimer "Functionality is not guaranteed on devices that are updated to IOS 8".
Capcom Arcade
Street Fighter X Tekken Gauntlet
Resident Evil 4 LITE
Street Fighter IV
Street fighter IV Volt
Street Fighter IV Dojo
Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile
Devil May Cry 4 Refrain
Resident Evil 4 Platinum
Monster Hunter Dynamic
Mega Man X
Street Fighter II Collection
Dead Rising Mobile
Planet Work
Ghosts N Goblins Gold Knights
Dragon's Dogma Compendium of Wisdom
Tap Tip Block' em
Final Fight
Ace Attorney Trilogy HD
 

StereoVsn

Member
Basically, mobile platform is a terrible vehicle for realistically priced games. The issue is both with Apple and how they decomm their APIs and the publishers who outsource much of mobile development and don't bother upgrading.

For all the flak MS gets they are very solid on backwards compatibility. Android broke a lot of apps going from 4.X to 5.x as well.
 

Elija2

Member
It's kinda crazy that they'd rather just stop selling the game than update it. The game was pretty popular so surely they'd make back however much it would cost to update the game.
 

Garou

Member
Just got back from a chat-session with Apple-support. I was denied a refund. I quote: "I request you please contact the app developer they will be able to help you in this situation."
 
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