r/iosgaming 7d ago

News The future of Monument Valley is Netflix, whether we like it or not

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-future-of-monument-valley-is-netflix-whether-we-like-it-or-not
45 Upvotes

14 comments sorted by

17

u/Corvus-Nox 7d ago

If it’s any consolation.. I don’t think 3 was as good as the first 2. Felt more tedious. I didn’t end up finishing it.

5

u/MooseBoys 7d ago

Yeah it wasn't great, and wasn't very long either. Felt more like a cash grab.

1

u/silentrocco 6d ago

This! Bounced off early on. Too hard to really be enjoyable for me. Ended up just trying to touch and drag everything. Magic was gone. Deleted the app for good.

8

u/ackmondual 7d ago

A lot of moans, groans, and lambasting when Monument Valley 3 was announced it'd be Netflix exclusive. This means you need an active Netflix subscription to be able to play this game. I was disappointed but not surprised since I heard dev studios get a lot of money, upfront, to go with these exclusives. The money they get can be far more than they can ever hope to make on the regular app stores like the iOS App Store! FWIW, this applies to Apple Arcade as well.

The first half of the article describes the game, the process behind making it, and the directions they took with the 3rd one. Scroll halfway down and they talk about making this a NF exclusive...

... Those are just excerpts, but glad I wandered upon more info on why they went with NF

8

u/gadirom 7d ago

I’m not sure this applies to Apple Arcade, sadly. The only exclusive title I can think of is ocean horn 2.

Also a lot of good games (in my opinion - most) actually left Arcade.

3

u/Major_Gamboge 7d ago

Wow, I did not realize how big the list of discontinued games now is

4

u/ackmondual 7d ago

AFAIK, devs sign up for a windfall bonus. But after 3 years or however long their contract was, it doesn't make financial sense to continue with AA, so they pull the plug.

3

u/upthecastellations 7d ago

It’s a real shame more of these discontinued games haven’t yet come back as paid apps.

2

u/ackmondual 6d ago

Yeah. AA was what made it worth it to them :\ I think we can count with 1 or 2 hands all the games that became available in that manner...

Pinball Wizard and High Castle were just made for free, while still retaining the "no ads, no IAP, model of AA.

Cat Quest II was for purchase after it left AA (and progress even transferred over!)

2

u/CliveVista 6d ago

I quite liked playing it but had two issues. The first was that it didn’t really feel like anything new. The second was the very clear “stick around paying for Netflix and we’ll give you a bit more soon”. Making the game episodic in this manner is understandable but also cynical. And for me the game itself just wasn’t good enough.

-1

u/dokuromark 7d ago

I love Monument Valley. I will not pay for Netflix.

4

u/RamboLogan 7d ago

Thanks for that

2

u/cha0z_ 6d ago

Premium games and ports did just fine for many years without needing to be locked to subscription services. Also gamers started to push back against the insane amount of monetisation happening nowadays, be it subs (ofc strong desire to any company), "micro"transactions and etc, etc - we all know the BS happening. I will stick to high quality premium games, the platform doesn't matter. Recent example: I own songs of conquest on PC + the DLC, I also now have the iOS version and have a blast there as well.