nice! great news for those who wanted to play all the Tegra games on their phone

 

WTF?

How big a con is the whole Tegra 2 exclusive thing if this is all it takes? I'd at least have expected the developers of T2 exclusives to be able to use nVidia specific stuff to save time, but this would suggest there is very little of that and I suspect, more like nVidia paying them off big time.

How is performance?

 

Performance in Dungeon Defenders: First Wave Deluxe HD is fine, but I've had stability issues. It might be nothing, I'll need to look into it.

 

This is a good early fix. But it is inevitable that once the Optimus 3D gets released, the top three flagship phones (Optimus 3D, SGS2, Sensation/Evo 3D) will all be available, none of which have Tegra, the devs are going to flip that switch pronto to sell to the masses. (Sorry Tegra peeps, but fragmentation is not good and the Atrix, G2x, and probably Droid X2 / Droid 3 are in the minority comparatively speaking. Won't bother mentioning honeycomb tablets.)

In a month this should all be a non-issue, so those not so technically inclined and not that desperate to play those handful of tegra games now would be better off waiting.

 

This is amazing news, not just for S2 owners. Android chip fragmentation wiped off the planet in one foul swoop!

If Riptide works it'll be happy days

 

I've never quite understood this kind of thing.

I love Galaxy On Fire 2 on my iPhone4, and that's only got 512mb of RAM and quakes with fear at the Galaxy S2 specs!

It's annoying that we're all Android fans here, and yet manufacturers and carriers seem to be putting obstacles in the way of it being really, really good. Games are ANdroid's Achilles heel (along with a few issues that can be fixed with hacks) - why woud they pull this kind of crap?

 

Doesn't matter, they've been outdone now!

Just a pity it requires root - unable to simultaneously use market movie rentals and chainfire middleware

 

exactly what i was trying to say on another thread before. Tegra 2 devices are only a fraction of the dual-core devices that will be released this year. TI OMAP4 devices still have yet to drop, too.

 

I wish I was as optimistic. Money talks and if Nvidia wave cash under developers' noses, there will be some who will sign away their first born child. Even if they could probably make more money from a full release, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and I could understand them taking the guaranteed pay check.

Unfortunately, this work around only makes the problem worse. Developers still get their kick back for making a Tegra 2 exclusive, and get additional sales from people who use this. Considering the surprisingly high prices of Tegra 2 games, they're laughing. Exclusives are, in the long run, bad fro everyone except Nvidia.

 

Dungeon Defenders does not work. It loads fine and the hands-off tutorial works (performance is excellent BTW), but what I assume is the main menu is blank apart from the tutorial button and a version number. It crashes to the home screen soon after. I haven't tried any others because they're expensive.

 

well, i would agree with this, except people like my fiance won't know how to do this. she is part of the majority of Android users who don't mess with stuff like this. when it comes to rooting, you're talking about like maybe 33% of total Android users who do it.

i still believe developers will get on bringing this to other devices without the Tegra 2 chipset. just a matter of time.

so no, exclusives are also bad for nVidia too. you gotta look at the big picture... 9 out of 10 have Tegra 2 devices. do you honestly believe nVidia doesn't want that 10th person's money? lol
the point with exclusivity is to try to draw people to your platform. with so many great handsets coming out unequipped with Tegra 2, i think nVidia will realize their mistake and make some kind of deal to get them to other chipsets.

maybe i'm wrong. maybe they don't give a flip. time will only tell. but these are my thoughts.

 

Nvidia aren't interested in making money from Tegra Zone. They are interested in making money and gaining industry influence from Tegra, and cornering the already lucrative and still growing quickly SoC (System on a Chip) market. The more people they draw to Tegra 2, the more powerful exclusives they can draw to draw more people. I believe they will throw many, many millions at achieving this and it would be good business. If they can corner the market, Nvidia would be one of the biggest companies around. If 9 out of 10 people had Tegra 2 devices, Nvidia would want the tenth person to have a Tegra 2 device, rather than to buy something on Tegra Zone (although they'd welcome that of course).

My point is that people like your fianc

 

Someone who has just bought a phone won't, but someone who is due for a new contract might see a game they like and ask the guy in Phone4U about it and walk out with an LG 2X.

If they see not enough people are adopting their chip, I think they will push harder and buy more exclusives. I could see them paying the next Rovio to make the next Angry Birds sized iPhone hit a Tegra 2 exclusive for Android. This would cost them millions, which Tegra Zone would never pay back, but it would be worth it. I don't think Nvidia care about Tegra Zone at all beyond pushing the T2. Qualcomm has revenue of about 3 times Nvidia's revenue, and they have less than half the SoC market at present. If Nvidia play their cards right, they could have Qualcomm's market share and ARM's influence, in a fast growing market.

They are a hardware company and have the expertise in chips rather than app stores, so aside from the (IMHO vastly) higher rewards, it makes sense that this will be their focus.

 

you're prob right. i could see them buying up more exclusives tbh before switching to a plan B. they would get more aggressive first. oh well. just sorta sucks for those that really want it but don't want a Tegra 2 phone for whatever reason. and you are right, they care about pushing their new chipset. their hope is to take some market share from the others, but i don't think they're expecting to do it with Tegra 2. i think they're trying to build momentum up so when Tegra 3 drops, they take a large slice of the pie.

 

Just gave this a try, tried a few from the market and they worked, all accept riptide which won't even start, all refunded now because I don't really want to encourage tegra 2 only stuff.

Now off to re-download them from elsewhere.

 

True, the Tegra 2 won't dominate. They probably want the market share of each to double, so if the T2 gets 5%, the T3 should get 10%, the T4 20% and by the T6, they're the daddy.

 

thanks for the heads up, just downloading some games right now

The Dungeon game freezes on me can see menus and stuff, but then it just ctd... downloading pinball now, i'll post back with results

EDIT: Pinball works, great graphics, I've never see anything that shiny on a phone! the huge screen helps of course, sounds are superb as well!

 

this is perfect!!

 

Samurai 2 works great too.

 

do any games ship on the device?
and better yet, does the game hub work that comes on it?