Well I would be happy it if they would opensource the whole api etc..

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Every time that happens, the whole project falls 'behind the times' ...

... but your logic is all wrong. Even if Android makes less than iOS, a game on Android *and* iOS makes more than just iOS

I think you'll find your logic is a bit wonky here.

You've already said Apple give you a bunch of libs to work with, add to that a lower number of device and OS combinations to target you've got a relatively easy target area to hit to get your game out.

Android development, however, is a clusterfuck of bullshit and hate and generally takes more effort than the iOS version and for less return. Maybe it's a little better if you stay in Java land but if you are complaining about Apple's stuff then its logical to assume your theoretical developer is using C++ to at least cross platform as much as possible, at which point... ahahahahahahahaha.

So unless you are CERTAIN your Android version will make back the extra to cover the costs of development it might not be worth it. Higher revenue doesn't always equal higher profit after all.

However, as noted, mobile is a death march with most games and apps making basically nothing and certainly not enough to survive on, so even if you target both unless you've got a killer app AND you get lucky then you are unlikely to make any money regardless of where you publish your stuff.

It'll be interesting to see if Metal ends up being more than a stop-gap solution. Apple needs Metal (or something like it) now, GL/GL ES is holding back the performance of their desktop and mobile platforms, and Microsoft is about to address this across their entire ecosystem of devices (Phone, tablet, PC, and Xbox). But Metal, unless it evolves, isn't nearly the thouroughly-modern API that D3D12 is or Vulkan will be -- I've heard it compared to being a cleaned-up Direct3D9/not-quite-10, with proprietary compute shaders tacked on -- its maybe something a little akin to the Xbox 360 API (in function, not form) I might guess.

I think Metal on the desktop is about near-term need, and about convergence between OSX and iOS. As anounced, they've already ported some or their core media libraries in El Capitan to Metal, which means they've got greater source-code parity between OSX and iOS now. I'd wager, also, that we'll either see a converged iOS/OSX in the future (as Microsoft has done) or at the very least, the ability for iOS apps to run on the OSX desktop. But Metal as it is won't close the gap between where they are now and what D3D12/Vulkan will enable, as Metal isn't a great fit for modern PC GPUs, even though its more modern than classic OpenGL/ES and Direct3D 11.

I think Apple is using Metal and these other Objective C frameworks, like spritekit, scenekit as a trojan horse to trick developers into locking in their games to Apple platforms. It's only later on the developer releases that they can make a lot of money on other platforms, but they don't have to resources to re-write the game.

For anybody writing a cross platform game they wouldn't use Spritekit or SceneKit they would either use a cross platform engine or role their own engine which could use Metal on Apple stuff, DirectX on Microsoft stuff and GL / Vulcan on other platforms.
Spritekit and Scenekit are just for hobbyist developers or Apple app developers who want to have a go at writing games and multimedia without having to stray too far from the Objective|C / Swift technologies that they already know.

There are also ways of still using Apple technologies on other platforms such as AppPortable and also Microsofts recent announcement that they would be porting all of Apples APIs so that developers can run their iOS apps on Windows 10.

As for making a "lot" of money on other platforms this is simply not true. They could make "some" money on other platforms and that "some" amount of money could actually be cancelled out by the risks developing for the other platforms.

Every time that happens, the whole project falls 'behind the times' ...

For me anything OS related and not being open source, is a obsolete thing of the past.

For me anything OS related and not being open source, is a obsolete thing of the past.

So no DX12 for you then.

I'm sure Apple will be crying themselves to sleep on a pile of money that you think Metal is obsolete.

This metal announcement is pretty bad for Khronos...
Last year, console/non-mobile AAA game engines needed to support:
D3D(Xbox/Windows), G*M(Playstation), GL(Linux/Mac).
Next year, console/non-mobile AAA game engines will need to support:
D3D(Xbox/Windows), G*M(Playstation), Vulcan(Linux), Metal(Mac).

So, GL will be dead (in that space), and Vulcan will be relegated to "the Linux API"...

Hopefully Apple decide to support GL4 and Vulan on Mac, as well as Metal, to give options to developers.

For me anything OS related and not being open source, is a obsolete thing of the past.

So no DX12 for you then.

Or DX11, or DX9, or OpenGL, or OpenGL|ES, or Vulkan...

Oh sorry, you can use OpenGL on Linux on Intel hardware

I'm sure Apple will be crying themselves to sleep on a pile of money that you think Metal is obsolete.

Well they have the money to share freaks around them.

Personally I choose my hardware, assemble my PC and only maybe have a CD with whatever OS to go with and not the other way round.-

If I would for ex. like Austin Meyer provide OpenGL apps for osx, I would sue them one billion for not providing the latest 4.5 ogl and now even more...

Every time that happens, the whole project falls 'behind the times' ...

For me anything OS related and not being open source, is a obsolete thing of the past.

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I could go into a long rant of how outdated ( and obtuse ) many features of open source OS es are, however it would derail this topic into yet another OS flame war.

This metal announcement is pretty bad for Khronos...
Last year, console/non-mobile AAA game engines needed to support:
D3D(Xbox/Windows), G*M(Playstation), GL(Linux/Mac).
Next year, console/non-mobile AAA game engines will need to support:
D3D(Xbox/Windows), G*M(Playstation), Vulcan(Linux), Metal(Mac).

So, GL will be dead (in that space), and Vulcan will be relegated to "the Linux API"...

Hopefully Apple decide to support GL4 and Vulan on Mac, as well as Metal, to give options to developers.

Khronos/Vulkan also has the related problems that;
- Metal is here now
- DX12 docs are here now, beta is now and will be main stream release next month
- Vulkan has no spec, no beta and no release date and when last shown (GDC) had 'TBD' bits in the API and given it was based on Mantle I'm left thinking 'what the hell?'

Honestly, unless they release something at SIGGRAPH its starting to look like, once again, they have managed to screw up and miss the boat... I was all for Vulkan, looking forward to it, but as time has passed and I've read things I'm less certain we'll see it this year and my attention and focus has swung towards D3D12 once more.