Develop 2012: iPhone changed the game, but now's the time for content to cross borders says Matmi

Despite a quick quip about the fragmentation issues that plague Android to this day, Matmi founder Jeff Coghlan used his talk at Develop 2012 in Brighton to detail why he isn't in any rush to abandon Google's platform.

Indeed, Matmi which begun life 12 years ago as a Flash developer doesn't want to shun any format whatsoever.

According to Coghlan, now is the time for the multiplatform revolution.

Jumping from Java

Things have certainly changed, however. When Java was king, Coghlan explained both Matmi and scores of other developers were "scared" of mobile, purely because issues with fragmentation were commonplace.

The launch of the App Store for iPhone, however, changed the game.

Describing Flash as an "unfriendly" platform to write for, Coghlan said initial concerns about iOS's

incompatibility with Adobe's standard soon faded away.

"No Flash on Apple was a problem, but maybe that was a solution," said Coghlan, suggesting Matmi was all too keen to change focus.

Content is king

But the landscape is shifting again. Content, Coghlan claimed, is no longer tied to specific platforms, but rather it belongs to users, whatever device they happen to be playing on.

"With Unity3D we can now make games that can be ported to multiple devices," said Coghlan.

"TV, consoles, tablets -they're all becoming the same thing. For instance, smart TV games are shocking at the moment, but you know they're going to get better."

Indeed, Coghlan said Matmi's next release Rollabear is set to put this stance to the test, launching on "more devices than anyone has ever released."

"Mobiles are almost becoming consoles," concluded Coghlan, suggesting the future of gaming whatever the platform now lies within the cloud. "Content can follow the user. Everyone is now a gamer."