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Killer Game Programming in Java
book

Killer Game Programming in Java

by Andrew Davison
May 2005
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
998 pages
26h
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Killer Game Programming in Java

Java Isn't Supported on Games Consoles

Unfortunately, this criticism has some justification. Video gaming is a multi-billion-dollar industry, with estimates placing revenues at $29 billion by 2007 with the market catering to over 235 million gamers. PCs and game consoles account for almost all the income, but only about 10-20 percent of it is from PCs, the majority coming from three consoles: Sony's PlayStation 2 (PS2), Microsoft's Xbox, and Nintendo's GameCube. Sony is the dominant console maker, having nearly twice as many units in homes compared to Microsoft and Nintendo combined. Microsoft accounts for about 95 percent of the desktop PC market. Arguably, two important games platforms exist, the PS2 and Windows, and Java isn't available on the PlayStation.

This problem has long been recognized by Sun. Back at the JavaOne conference in 2001, Sony and Sun announced their intention to port the JVM to the PS2. Nothing has been released, but there are persistent rumors about a JVM on the PlayStation 3, earmarked to appear in 2006.

In the future, Java may have a better chance of acceptance into the closed world of console makers because of two trends: consoles mutating into home media devices and the meteoric rise of online gaming. Both trends require consoles to offer complex networking and server support, strong areas for Java and Sun.

The Phantom console from Infinium Labs was announced at JavaOne in 2004 (http://www.phantom.net/index.php). It's essentially a PC running an embedded ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596007302Supplemental ContentErrata Page