[HN Gopher] World of Goo Remastered
___________________________________________________________________
World of Goo Remastered
Author : shrikant
Score : 75 points
Date : 2023-05-24 19:19 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (play.google.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (play.google.com)
| slily wrote:
| I wonder how many video game developers come out ahead with those
| exclusivity deals. Every story I've heard points to even limited
| exclusivity crippling lifetime sales.
| Gigachad wrote:
| The Jelly Car dev just released a new version on Apple Arcade
| and had commented that the deal was very favorable.
| jdlshore wrote:
| World of Goo is a very old game. At this point, extra revenue
| from it is pure gravy.
| pimlottc wrote:
| I imagine that most games have a very limited lifetime to begin
| with. Only a very free become "classics" that continue to sell
| well for years.
| MatthiasPortzel wrote:
| I didn't realize Netflix was now competing as a mobile game
| publisher.
| CharlesW wrote:
| Netflix stock price is half of what it was in 2021, and as a
| subscriber via T-Mobile I can confirm that their content
| situation is dire. This is a company throwing whatever they can
| find at the wall to see what sticks.
| ghaff wrote:
| The latest tempest over password sharing doesn't affect me
| but it did give me the motivation to look at their catalog
| last night. There are a few things I've been meaning to watch
| but I think I'll those and drop Netflix for the time being.
| Funnily enough, I might have given DVDs another shot but of
| course that's going away.
| binkHN wrote:
| It appears this Remastered version has "hi-res" graphics--though
| I'm not certain how valuable it is on a tiny phone screen.
| eole666 wrote:
| Well, it seems they just removed the old world of goo version
| from the playstore and published a "remastered" version
| exclusively for Netflix users that looks exactly the same (not
| even bothering to mention what the remastered game actually
| change ). At least the game is still great!
| mvdtnz wrote:
| > We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| I remember playing World of Goo back when it first launched on
| the Wii, it was a great game. I believe it was one of the first
| games I downloaded from the Wii Store as opposed to buying on
| disk. I'm ready to play it again via the Android version.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| I enjoyed this game a ton. The ambience is great. But when I went
| to play it again I found that my fingers obfuscating the play
| area was far more annoying than I remembered. Dragging things
| around the edge also sucked. I'd "let go" of goo balls all the
| time when I didn't mean to.
| skybrian wrote:
| Looks like the original version was taken down in the Android
| store, but is still available for $5 on Amazon [1]. The desktop
| version is $20 direct or $15 on Steam.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/2D-BOY-LLC-World-Goo/dp/B009MCRHH6
| donatj wrote:
| > Available exclusively for Netflix members.
|
| Wat, why?
|
| I have a Netflix subscription, and I find this infuriating. Just
| let me pay for the damned game and keep it.
| Gigachad wrote:
| Probably the Android equivalent to Apple Arcade. I know one dev
| who released their game on Apple Arcade and had said that the
| exclusivity deal is too good to reject. It isn't viable to sell
| the app stand alone because people just don't buy apps anymore.
| But bundling it in to an existing subscription works because
| you get paid regularly and don't have to convince users to buy
| anything which is a hard task.
| tiedieconderoga wrote:
| The funny thing is, World of Goo was already released this way
| on Android, and the old version still works fine offline.
|
| Too bad it's no longer available on the Google Play store.
| tantalor wrote:
| Netflix has a ton of games, if you've never noticed.
|
| https://help.netflix.com/en/node/121442
|
| It's a membership perk.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| ... I had _no idea_ this existed. I 've been a member since
| the DVD days (with a couple brief interruptions--and I'll
| probably re-cancel again pretty soon, until something gets me
| back in for a while)
| clnq wrote:
| So how does Netflix exclusivity work for apps freely distributed
| on the Play Store? Do you need to log in with a Netflix account
| and does it need to be always online to check that the account
| has not expired?
|
| Also, has anyone from Netflix shared why they wanted to make
| their own game subscription as opposed to the normal premium
| monetization (pay upfront) or other monetization models? I know
| Netflix already has a media business built around subscriptions,
| obviously, but did they say anything about why they chose this
| for games?
|
| I don't think games-as-a-subscription is a very easy monetization
| model. Even large game development companies struggle with it.
| The games need to retain players for a long time for
| subscriptions to surpass upfront sales in revenue per player. It
| is very challenging. The whole games industry is tilted the other
| way around - sometimes building up too much hype to get pre-
| orders and initial sales (which in itself is a large topic that
| I'd rather not open up right now). But the decision Netflix made
| seems to go against a lot of my professional experience in indie
| and AAA games. So it's very interesting.
| donatj wrote:
| I'm playing it right now. You have to sign in to Netflix to use
| it.
| zem wrote:
| whoa. well, that's certainly a choice they can make, but it's
| an extremely cheap and seedy look.
| crazygringo wrote:
| It's the same reason Spotify moved into podcasts and
| audiobooks, why Amazon moved into Prime Video, and so forth.
|
| Basically every major subscription service is trying to expand
| its offerings to make its subscriptions stickier. In this case,
| you might want to cancel one of Netflix or Disney or HBO for
| the next couple months, and you were going to cancel Netflix
| except your kid is _loving_ World of Goo, so you 'll cancel HBO
| instead.
|
| Sure, Netflix could license World of Goo and charge $5 for it
| directly. But not that many people are going to buy it. But
| literally 100x more people might download it and play it when
| it's free with their existing subscription, and then if just 1%
| of them extend their Netflix account for a couple months
| because of it, it's much more profitable for Netflix.
|
| (Edit: I don't work for Netflix, this is just general industry
| strategy right now that I'm describing.)
| ghaff wrote:
| I'm a bit surprised you haven't seen more of a move towards
| annual plans. HBO already offers a 20% discount. At some
| price delta you start to make switching in and out
| unattractive for all but the hardest core binge watcher and
| optimizer.
| imiric wrote:
| It's also a sure way to boost piracy.
|
| Service providers don't seem to learn that by restricting
| access to content they only incentivize people to pirate it
| instead. The more accessible content is, the less likely it
| is to be pirated.
|
| The music and gaming industries have mostly caught on, but
| for some reason TV and film are still clinging to their old
| ways.
| hadlock wrote:
| The guys running netflix now (35-45) were the kids and
| college students (14-25) running limewire and gnutella and
| later bittorrent and/or DC++. They might have even chanted
| "Dee Cee Plus Plus!" over and over at QuakeCon. They were
| the OG movie and TV pirating generation. They absolutely
| learned what was up and how cause and effect work in this
| industry.
| imiric wrote:
| And yet they're still ruled by the industry they have
| license agreements with. Which is partly why they started
| their own production studio.
|
| All streaming services are not much more than a coat of
| paint over the same old industry practices. Why do you
| think every media conglomerate has their own streaming
| service?
| vanderZwan wrote:
| Not that I'm agreeing or disagreeing, but it's kind of
| funny you mention that in the context of World of Goo, a
| game that famously was a gigantic hit, extremely
| affordable, made with love by two indy devs... and had a
| 90% piracy rate
|
| https://www.destructoid.com/wankers-world-of-goo-
| has-a-90-pi...
| diggernet wrote:
| Nice theory, but how is your kid going to love World of Goo
| when:
|
| > Note: Netflix games aren't available for Kids profiles.
|
| https://help.netflix.com/en/node/121442
| stavros wrote:
| Is there a name for this missing of the forest for the
| trees?
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| On the Netflix app it takes maybe 3 seconds to change
| profiles. Does it work differently with their games?
| diggernet wrote:
| No idea. But if you let your kid use your profile to
| play, how are YOU going to enjoy World of Goo?
| personjerry wrote:
| You're allowed up to 5 profiles. Why does this line of
| technicality even matter?
| dunham wrote:
| Yeah, the kid thing especially. (Mine likes Octonauts and Ada
| Twist.)
| boplicity wrote:
| My analysis: They already have subscribers. They're looking for
| ways to maximize retention of existing subscribers, as opposed
| to creating a new source for subscribers. Get someone hooked on
| a game, and they have another reason to stay on Netflix.
|
| The cost of acquisition for most of their gamers is likely
| close to zero -- depending on how you think about it. They can
| use their existing platform to direct people to play games.
|
| I also suspect they're licensing the games, which could
| theoretically be relatively low cost, especially compared to
| the cost of some of their video productions.
| clnq wrote:
| Hmm, yes, it's possible they want to diversify like many
| other tech companies recently. Add a music service and bundle
| everything into Netflix One?
| ghaff wrote:
| The existing services are pretty much interchangeable,
| especially from a content perspective, and there are
| already at least three of them--one of which probably has
| the strongest brand and the other two are already
| integrated with a bunch of other services.
| persedes wrote:
| my son is still playing the same version I bought on android
| years ago. Might give this one a spin. The changes seem to be
| improved graphics and more platform independent [0]
|
| [0] - https://www.androidpolice.com/world-of-goo-relaunches-
| androi...
| oh_sigh wrote:
| Well, now I feel old. World of Goo is older today than snood was
| when World of Goo came out.
| mattbee wrote:
| Ahhh I loved this game so much. There's such a lovely human touch
| to it. I tend to hate puzzle games but this makes you feel like
| you just found a good fudge each time you succeed.
| troupo wrote:
| I think I completed it five times :) I do wish there was a
| continuation (kinda hinted at by the ending)
| rxyz wrote:
| I remember this game fondly, though I don't really feel like
| playing it again. Sucks that it's a Netflix exclusive
| c7DJTLrn wrote:
| I used to waste hours in World of Goo and Little Inferno. Fun
| games.
| rzzzt wrote:
| Was Tower of Goo an early version of this game? You had to build
| a tower out of a finite number of blobs (duh) without them
| collapsing, the higher the better. Libertango was playing as the
| background music.
| treve wrote:
| I know this as a mini-game that's part of world of goo.
| marcellus23 wrote:
| available on iOS as well: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/world-of-
| goo-remastered/id6443...
| ed25519FUUU wrote:
| "No in app purchases"
|
| I absolutely love this! The App Store has become a wasteland of
| subscriptions and in-app purchases.
|
| I just tried to use a tape measure app. They wanted me to sign up
| for a $14.99 a week subscription! How did it get this bad?!
| frizlab wrote:
| I use Apple Arcade and have no in-apps for games (on arcade of
| course). I guess this is the netflix equivalent of Arcade.
| littlecranky67 wrote:
| It always was this bad. Google has no interest in a 'Show only
| apps without Ads and IAP' filterbutton on the Appstore. It
| would be implemented in a heartbeat and greatly improve the UX,
| but hurt sales. But hey, on Android you should know that you
| are the product (grass in iOS Land is not much greener though)
| skeaker wrote:
| On Android you can side load whatever you want at any time
| including exclusively FOSS if you want, so no, you're not
| necessarily the product there. On Google's store
| specifically, sure
| yrnameer wrote:
| You have to load a custom ROM if you don't want to be
| tracked without your consent. You have a crumb more freedom
| on Android, that's all.
| takeda wrote:
| They do, but it is well hidden.
|
| You need to have Play Games installed. On the home page,
| scroll all the way down until "Dive deeper" section (or do a
| search), then you have choice between:
|
| - Trending/New
|
| - Premium/Free install
|
| - Ads/No ads
|
| - In-app purchases/No in-app purchases
|
| and other categories
| nomemory wrote:
| This is why I've subscribed to Pay Pass. The games available
| don't have microtransactions and are usually more than plain
| android cash makers.
| falcor84 wrote:
| "Pay Pass" is actually a great descriptive name, but I assume
| you're talking about "Play Pass"[0].
|
| [0] https://play.google.com/about/play-pass/
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| > Available exclusively for Netflix members.
| dgrin91 wrote:
| $14.99 a week? I can't tell if you are serious or joking. If
| you are serious can you send which app that is? I'd love a good
| laugh.
| MarcoZavala wrote:
| [dead]
| nomemory wrote:
| That's a game that kept me hooked more than a game should keep a
| human captive. I have it on Steam, I don't see any reason to burn
| some hours on it on the phone.
| rob74 wrote:
| I played World of Goo on a PC and on a tablet back in the day,
| and I felt it's easier to control with a mouse, because you
| can't see the gooballs (which have to be placed pretty
| precisely) if your finger is over them. So, if you want to play
| it without a Netflix subscription, it's 12,49EUR on Steam. Or
| 60EUR for the Tomorrow Corporation Bundle, including WoG,
| Little Inferno, Human Resource Machine, 7 Billion Humans and
| The Captain.
| ghaff wrote:
| I played World of Goo on Wii and while it was sort of a nice
| game to play sitting back, I'm not sure the Wii controller
| was the most natural thing to use.
| [deleted]
| jamesu wrote:
| I played through this game the other month and was amazed at how
| well it still holds up. Also a good example of a game with a very
| complimentary sound track.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-05-24 23:00 UTC)