Mobile game development-a bubble about to burst?

“Mobile games are not real games” is the common refrain heard on online gaming forums such as GameFAQs and IGN. Yet these threads are by no means marked by unanimity. Many threads debating mobile gaming often run into tens of pages. The critics of iOS and Android games proudly proclaim their “purity” and “hardcore nature” as gamers, while their opponents claim that such narrow-minded arrogance ignores the immense progress made in mobile gaming in the recent past.

Even the former category finds it hard to dismiss the facts on display. In 2016, mobile gaming surpassed console and PC revenues for the first time. The number of game development companies across the globe is increasing at an unprecedented rate of over 40%. Legendary PC and console titles, such as GTA: Vice City, Transistor and Final Fantasy VII are currently available for smartphone users.
Even standalone mobile games are transcending barriers which the “hardcore” gamers thought was the exclusive preserve of console and PC gaming; Infinity Blade, for instance, sports incredible graphics which no one could ever associate with run-of-the-mill block smashers and Angry Birds clones. It even has significant role-playing elements which allows for maximum immersiveness for adrenaline junkies. Injustice: Gods Among Us is an exciting action game based on a collectible-card based action system which provides gamers with hours of enjoyment.

Thus, it is highly probable that the mobile games of the future will be high on content. Better graphics, more customization options and above all, deeper and more immersive storylines are likely to await iOS and Android users in a decade from now.
And this may actually lead to mobile gaming’s decline.

Wait, how is that possible? Isn’t improved storytelling more enticing for gamers? On paper, it should be. Did you know that the cult Candy Crush Saga actually involves helping a young girl named Tifi and her friends from Candy land? Yet even those who have spent several hours per day playing it Candy Crush involves nothing other than creating rows and columns containing 3 identical pieces of candy each.

And therein lies the problem with game development companies in attempting to make mobile games imitate their PC and console counterparts in the depth and richness of storylines; often storylines feel very out of place. Regarding storylines, mobile games can be divided into 2 categories-the pure “consumers of time”, which are meant merely to make the endless wait for buses less dreary, or the ones with functional storylines backed by excellent graphics, such as the aforementioned Injustice. About 90% of all successful mobile games fall into the former category. But sometimes, buoyed by the increasing revenue of iOS and Android games,  developers often end up attempting to give their products the extra zing. (Put another example here).

Do you know what the worst thing about this trend is? These grand projects completely ignore the very first rule about all ventures: know your market. Currently, over 95% of all games are in the “freemium” category, which means that downloading them is free of cost, with only in-app purchases pertaining to upgrades costing money. “Freemium” has become a dirty word among game developers, and yet they seem to ignore fact that most people prefer playing mobile games while waiting for their buses. Furthermore, app stores rarely have means of segregating the huge, successful titles from the small fry. As a result, game development companies seeking to make a killing out of creating smartphone-only games have to expend ever higher sums upon marketing. And what happens when none of this pays off and mobile users are focused, ever more resolutely, upon casual titles?

Numerous industry experts are raising concerns about a “mobile gaming” crash. They fear that the lack of profitability might become endemic, and that new titles will find it harder and harder to capture a larger share of the market. Within a few years, there might be nothing to separate The Room 8 from Epic Beard 2.
And that may very well lead Fireproof Studios into bankruptcy.
Is mobile gaming’s success illusory? Is investing heavily in storyline for mobile-only games a folly? Game development companies continue to hotly debate over the directions which they should take. We know which direction your phone should take though-out of your pocket, into your hand, with Twitter opened as you let us know your views on the upcoming mobile gaming crisis at #eclipseindia or Eclipsetech12.