Cyanogen refuses opportunity to make the nintendo switch os

[spartaman64]

Cyanogen CEO, Kirt McMaster, says that Nintendo has approached him for bring Android to the next Nintendo console that we know today as he Switch, and he said to Nintendo "stick it" [This sentence was added by GoodBytes to meet posting guidelines as example]

 

XDA Developer reports:

Quote

Nintendo had approached Cyanogen Inc. in the company’s early days with a proposition to create an OS for a “certain portable”, which clearly refers to the Nintendo Switch given the context of the conversation. In a fashion typical of Cyanogen’s younger days, Nintendo was told to “stick it”.

I'm pretty sure cyanogen in tough times right now. If they had accepted the offer instead of turning it down they might be in a better position. And i can't think of a good reason why they refused. Even if the switch flopped it would gain them recognition. 

 

Source: https://www.xda-developers.com/nintendo-approached-cyanogen-to-partner-for-the-switch-cyanogen-refused/

Edited March 22, 2017 by GoodBytes
Layout fix, and put made it to follow the tech news guidelines as an example to others.

[tlink]

why would they turn something like that down? its a huge opportunity and exactly what they wanted to do no? design operating systems for hardware. where the terms and conditions horrible or something?

[FPSwithaWacomTablet]

Welp, that would have been easy money. Idk about the Cyanogen's IP though once the deal goes down however. 

 

Nintendo would sue the crap outta that, if not trying to stifle the future 3rd-party projects that Cyanogen might partake in.

 

We all remember the "Let's Play" incidents, right?

[MoonSpot]

10 minutes ago, tlink said:

why would they turn something like that down? its a huge opportunity and exactly what they wanted to do no? design operating systems for hardware. where the terms and conditions horrible or something?

Liability would be one reason.  Since the OS is android, I am afraid to imagine how much of a POS the switch is going to work like in 2 years.

[tlink]

1 minute ago, MoonSpot said:

Liability would be one reason.  Since the OS is android, I am afraid to imagine how much of a POS the switch is going to work like in 2 years.

well look at the oneplus one, they did that fine. the problem often doesn't lay with android but with SoC manufacturers releasing files or something, and manufacturers actually updating. there is a reason why on XDA new android versions are often available for months before the phone manufacturer updates.

[TidaLWaveZ]

Not saying his choices weren't dumb as hell, especially telling a company that makes you a grand proposal to "stick it", but he'd be criticized either way. If he accepts he's a sell out, if he declines he's an idiot. I would choose rich sell out over broke idiot any day though.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

16 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

grand proposal

Knowing Nintendo, it probably wasn't all that grand. 

[GoodBytes]

5 hours ago, tlink said:

why would they turn something like that down? its a huge opportunity and exactly what they wanted to do no? design operating systems for hardware. where the terms and conditions horrible or something?

He probably hates Nintendo for some reason. Or he knows that working with Nintendo can be difficult due to the culture differences between Japan and US. In the past (ages ago), Nintendo record isn't particularly clean either.

 

In the end, I think it ended up being good for Nintendo. Android isn't the best gaming platform (I mean in terms of how much hardware performance you have for a given game). But, even if it were using Android, I doubt that it would be any different for the end user. Nintendo is known to lock things down and have complete control on everything. They don't like anything open, and it is very difficult for them to be open. Takes a long time (See: Region locking, Game voice chat, and the still present YouTube story). So I expect the OS to be identical as now, if it where to use Android, as Nintendo would go to the trouble to make it, and ensure that nothing from Android OS itself (Settings panels and such) be accessible.

 

But, I think that Cyanogen did a big mistake. The company isn't particularly striving, and anything that could help them financial would have been welcomed, even if would have been a lot of work (especially to modify the OS to maximize hardware performance). They could have used this as advertisement vehicle. Similarly to what Nvidia did with the Nintendo Switch, to attempt to boost manufacture and consumer interest to the Tegra SoC on mobile devices.

[BachChain]

How does the company still exist

[Misanthrope]

Well of course they refused: people forget that their "company" is just blowing up a bunch of modders out of proportion to what they really are. Coming up with their own OS without working off of Android wouldn't be as simple. 

[SCHISCHKA]

It's obvious that girl in the Mario game was cyanogen's girl friend. He lost to a Nintendo exclusive plumber. Id be pretty sour about that if my girlfriend was that pixelated and banging a podgy plumber

[Bouzoo]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

He probably hates Nintendo for some reason. Or he knows that working with Nintendo can be difficult due to the culture differences between Japan and US. In the past (ages ago), Nintendo record isn't particularly clean.

Considering the recent (last year) DCMA youtube takedowns and how they approach censorship per se, I want to hear both sides because as you said, Nintendo is far from clean. 

Great opportunity, absolutely, but under what circumstances? 

[tlink]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

He probably hates Nintendo for some reason. Or he knows that working with Nintendo can be difficult due to the culture differences between Japan and US. In the past (ages ago), Nintendo record isn't particularly clean.

 

In the end, I think it ended up being good for Nintendo. Android isn't the best gaming platform. I doubt that it would be any different for the end user. Nintendo is known to lock things down and have complete control on everything. They don't like anything open, and it is very difficult for them to be open. Takes a long time (See: Region locking, Game voice chat, and the still present YouTube story).

 

I think that Cyanogen did a big mistake. The company isn't particularly striving, and anything that could help them financial would have been welcomed. They could have used this as advertisement vehicle. Similarly to what Nvidia did with the Nintendo Switch, to attempt to boost manufacture and consumer interest to the Tegra SoC on mobile devices.

yea thats exactly my thinking, this is a great way to get market exposure.

[Misanthrope]

23 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

Considering the recent (last year) DCMA youtube takedowns and how they approach censorship per se, I want to hear both sides because as you said, Nintendo is far from clean. 

Great opportunity, absolutely, but under what circumstances? 

It isn't last years its current: Nintendo has not been sued for their illegal and blatant disregard of fair use and the racketeering-like nature of their Nintendo Creators program. They're basically getting away with illegal use of the DMCA because everybody is afraid to sue them.

[GoodBytes]

4 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

It isn't last years its current: Nintendo has not been sued for their illegal and blatant disregard of fair use and the racketeering-like nature of their Nintendo Creators program. They're basically getting away with illegal use of the DMCA because everybody is afraid to sue them.

More like, what Nintendo is doing is playing with the gray details of the law. So if you sue Nintendo, you better have the best lawyers 'cause Nintendo will be getting that, and if Nintendo wins, it could change the face the copyright fair use laws. And yes, Nintendo will be deeply hated by everyone, but they'll win, and expect the entire industry to change. Expect EA, Activitsion, all the terrible or insecurity indie DMCA everything unless approved, control content.

[Bouzoo]

12 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

It isn't last years its current: Nintendo has not been sued for their illegal and blatant disregard of fair use and the racketeering-like nature of their Nintendo Creators program. They're basically getting away with illegal use of the DMCA because everybody is afraid to sue them.

Just to be clear, you know current year is not even 3 months in?  It started months and months ago.

[Bouzoo]

5 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

More like, what Nintendo is doing is playing with the gray details of the law. So if you sue Nintendo, you better have the best lawyers 'cause Nintendo will be getting that

I said this before, there is nothing worse than multi billion dollar conglomerate lawyers. They are literally invulnerable super bosses. 

[NumLock21]

Opportunity lost for a company, where its head person, has a arrogant attitude. 

[VicBar]

10 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Opportunity lost for a company, where its head person, has a arrogant attitude. 

What can't be said about arrogance and Nintendo tough?

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

More like, what Nintendo is doing is playing with the gray details of the law. So if you sue Nintendo, you better have the best lawyers 'cause Nintendo will be getting that, and if Nintendo wins, it could change the face the copyright fair use laws. And yes, Nintendo will be deeply hated by everyone, but they'll win, and expect the entire industry to change. Expect EA, Activitsion, all the terrible or insecurity indie DMCA everything unless approved, control content.

The only reason fair use remains Grey Area is because big companies like Nintendo intimidate fair use advocates and because important legal cases are still being argued about in court so there's no solid precedence. But for the time being yes, it's still grey area since it's a legal quagmire with no end in sight I have to agree with you overall (Except on the part you state they'll win: I don't believe they have a solid case to completely undermine and ignore fair use).

 

Yet it also shows that the legal system and in particular copyright law is inherently flawed and just does not works. There is no way to legally prevail against Nintendo for anybody not their size or bigger so as consumers, the only thing we can do is advocate to boycott them for their practices.

[NumLock21]

4 hours ago, VicBar said:

What can't be said about arrogance and Nintendo tough?

They got $$$$$$$$$$$

[Hobox]

This is more like dodging a bullet.

[Cool Guy]

Knowing how Nintendo's legal department has been acting, I think the Cyanogen team would have good reason to hate Nintendo.  Nintendo also probably has a very strict and very difficult work policy, pushing people to limits they cannot even reach. Unfortunately, that is the case with many big companies, as there is so many proxies all the way down the chain, many managers will have different ways of managing people, and more often than not they will push the employees far too hard.  This is from my own experience. 

 

I highly respect people who value life, happiness and fulfillment over straight money.  While some people who have a lot of money will enjoy that lifestyle I know people who have a lot of money, even if they have worked for it and wish they spent their life doing better things.  I totally agree with them, and think Nintendo can stick it.   

[GoodBytes]

43 minutes ago, Cool Guy said:

Knowing how Nintendo's legal department has been acting, I think the Cyanogen team would have good reason to hate Nintendo.  Nintendo also probably has a very strict and very difficult work policy, pushing people to limits they cannot even reach. Unfortunately, that is the case with many big companies, as there is so many proxies all the way down the chain, many managers will have different ways of managing people, and more often than not they will push the employees far too hard.  This is from my own experience. 

 

I highly respect people who value life, happiness and fulfillment over straight money.  While some people who have a lot of money will enjoy that lifestyle I know people who have a lot of money, even if they have worked for it and wish they spent their life doing better things.  I totally agree with them, and think Nintendo can stick it.   

Actually, that is not true at all. Nintendo has good environment for Japan compared to other companies, and has a good work environment for the North America office. That is why you have a huge amount of people applying at Nintendo (same for big tech companies like: Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, etc.), and yes, as a result, it is very difficult to get in, as competition in ones candidature is high.

 

Overworked employees always shows in their work. Nintendo games (well, the big ones) are renown to have the at most attention to detail, and these things are not done in a rush. They are done playing the game, passing the game through analysis to see what can be done, and done with joy. You also notice that bugs are difficult to find in Nintendo games. I am not saying their isn't.. but it's some Assassin Creed Unity buggy, or the new Mass Effect game. This is also helped with the fact that Nintendo advantage is that they can afford to move dates, and delay games. They are not afraid of selling their AAA games at any time. Big publishers are, and there is no flexibility in moving any dates. So you have a lot of sleepless nights, and you have a a very over worked environment.

 

On top of that Nintendo has crazy retention rates of employees that it is very difficult to go up the later. People who have a job, keeps it until they retire. This is also something you can argue that hurts the company, as in Japanese culture, the more senior you are, the more you have a say, and the more it is valued. The Switch and this new Zelda game, is the exception, where Nintendo decided to allow the young people take decisions. But, yes, that is why Nintendo still acts like we are in the 90's, following old ways, and following with the old 's mentality which is wrong: "Why change what works", and "we need to control, control, control", etc.

[KuJoe]

I always thought that CyanogenMod was made by a bunch of volunteer hobbyists, this news that it's an actual company with actual employees is the most interesting part of the story for me.  Doing a search for that Kirt guy though makes it look like he was trying everything he could to run the company into the ground, I feel bad for the other co-founder.

 

EDIT: I should have kept reading, looks like the company closed up shop last December.

Edited March 23, 2017 by KuJoe
Didn't realize the company closed down.