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GameMaker to Drop Support for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2nd Generation

The latest update to GameMaker: Studio (version 1.1.622) will no longer export games for use on the iPhone 3G or the 2nd generation iPod Touch. These two devices were previously the oldest iOS devices on which games created with GameMaker: Studio would run. The dropping of support for these devices comes after Apple’s decision to discontinue legacy support for them.

Xcode 4.5 removes support for ARM V6 devices but adds support for ARM V7 devices, including the new iPhone 5. Apple’s iPhone 5 was released alongside iOS 6 which can only be targeted from Xcode 4.5, and therefore it is not possible to build a universal application for both ARM V6 and ARM V7 devices.

It should be noted that Apple does not allow the developer to drop support for specific devices. Instead, developers will have to drop support for iOS versions. Updates for apps that currently support the discontinued devices would need to be created in earlier versions of GameMaker: Studio in order to maintain support for them, potentially limiting the developer from the full potential of GameMaker: Studio in the coming months.

What do you think?

8 Comments

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  1. As an owner of the Master Collection I’d have to recommend either iOS, my main target platform or HTML5 which has a virtually unexplored market place.

  2. Hmm I just upgraded to GMS Pro (on steam) and still have to decide what main export module upgrade to do, this is another example of how difficlut such fast tech changes are making this decision. It also puts a major hurdle before larger game projects, which takes longer to develop.

    What are your thought on the module which has the best chance of stability in terms of earning potential and least amount of hacks and least amount of tech changes?

    • It’s honestly hard to predict. I believe HTML5 has a very bright future, but iOS is also a sound investment. You have to expect constant changes in the tech though, that’s inevitable.

      I can’t recommend Win 8 as a viable commercial platform just yet, and personally I’m not a fan of Android.

  3. Judging from my Flurry statistics none of my users use ARMV6 , I get 1 user using it but I’m pretty sure that was me testing, so I don’t think the drop of support is going to be that bad.

  4. This is definitely not our decision in fact we have delayed adding any iOS 6.0 (or iPhone 5) support because of this, but currently we can see no way around this that makes any sense to our business – continuing to supporting the ARMV6 devices would be too large an overhead for little gain (or thanks), we would rather continue supporting them but we are being forced to drop it by Apple and the third party library providers who have followed Apples lead.

    Sorry to everyone affected but it is the only sane way forward for us.

  5. As my current testing device is a 2nd gen iPod Touch, I have really mixed feelings about this. I don’t believe 3 year old tech should be considered legacy. But who am I to argue with progress?

  6. So as I understand it, this isn’t a personal decision by YoYoGames to stop supporting legacy devices, but instead a ramification of Apple’s own decision to drop legacy support. On one hand this is disappointing as the newest non-retina device for testing I have is an iPod touch 2, but on the other I suppose there wasn’t anything we could do to stop Apple from dropping ARMV6 support…

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