[sil3ntmac]

I would argue that "not a plugin" and "not controlled by a single corporation" are more than "irrelevant". Here's a few reasons:

- Want to port your game to a new platform (game console? embedded device?) - just get webkit/mozilla/<your favorite open source browser> to compile. Although this is no small task, in many cases it can be easier and way faster than rewriting the code for an entire game. not to mention this mandates one port per console, rather than one port per game per console. N^2->N time savings :D

- Not being controlled by a single corporation is incredibly important. Take iphone games: want to update your game to use some newly released feature of the sdk? Get ready for 1+ weeks of waiting for approval. Notice a low-level bug in the sdk? ha-ha, have fun talking to Apple's technical support. These are the obvious reasons, there are a million-and-one examples as to how limited access can slow down - and even halts - the game development process.

That's all I have time for now, I'll try and think of some more later

Edit: too/to

[riffraff]

they are mightily important concerns but not relevant to "create a quality game under time constraints".

Take flash, which is evil in a plugin and controlled by a cruel corporation and runs on unicorn blood. You will still be able to create a game in 24 hours and put it on the market, people do it all the time. No ipad? Sure, read the end of my previous comment.

Also, while this is still irrelevant (cause the statement is that html5 is better than all the others, but there are plenty of open source things), I don't see how finding a bug in the iOS sdk is any different than finding a bug in a browser's canvas implementation. You work around it in both cases cause you can't control your users software setup.

And the fact that iOS apps have to go through an approval process bears no weight in the generic statement that a proprietary platform causes slow time to market.

[sil3ntmac]

Okay, semantics; you're right, in my haste I misread the original quote. If you're judging a game strictly on quality, platform has nothing to do with it; most (all?) modern platforms have decent game libraries so dev time just depends on what you're used to. If you're judging a game on mass appeal, popularity, or user friendliness -- or just plain success -- platforms absolutely, beyond a doubt, matter.

As for your last point though... lolwut. iOS was just an example, the same is true for consoles, other app markets, etc. iOS apps bear "no weight" in the statement that a proprietary platform causes slow time to market?! iOS is one of the largest and most developed-for proprietary platforms, which makes it a great example, which means it absolutely does bear weight -- and a lot of weight at that -- in a statement that generalizes proprietary platforms. </semantics>