For a long time I've been looking at how mobile gaming has "evolved" and it seems that instead of getting better, mobile gaming has gotten worse.
The common argument is that you can't do proper controls with mobile and that's mostly true. I believe if bluetooth controllers and controllers like PhoneJoy were made and became popular in 2009 where mobile gaming started to become a thing, more devs would have actually been willing to make proper full games that required a controller to play. Sony also failed with their early ericsson xperia gaming phone because it was expensive and had shitty specs and sony did little to nothing to promote it or encourage devs to make games for it over the PSP or upcoming Vita.
That being said, even if many tiny controllers and actual gaming phone exists, the market for them is very niche. Why? Parents and the lack of console and PC gamers interested in mobile games. Mobile gamers are mostly kids or older people age 30 and above. Older people are casuals or are casual okatus that play gacha games to get their waifus/husbandos, after all they just came home from a long day of work and just want to relax. Parents might have played a console as a kid, but they haven't touched anything gaming-related for a decade or two. While back in the 80s and 90s kids got their Nintendos or Playstations at Christmas, kids are now getting their "game phones/fortnite phones" because that shuts them up. They're cheap and have many "free" games and their parents never buy them good mobile games. Why should they? Tommy should play that free cubecraft game and not the one that costs 5 dollars named Minecraft if they're the same. In their mind this is so much better than spending $400 on a console and buy 2~3 games.
This has been going on for around a decade now. A decade that changed the mobile market for the worse. "Hardcore" gamers that actually buy and support full games on mobile are demographically nothing compared to the masses of children, young teens, and parents (and old okatus) that play and over the years have gotten used to only play F2P games full of P2W mechanics and gacha as well as using terrible controls. They've gotten so used to terrible games that they prefer them and outrage at premium games or games that allow you to play free until a certain point. Capcom, SEGA and Nintendo tried to promote premium and full games on mobile and got promptly shut down in their attempts. Even making their games cost only $5 - $10 was a big no no in the mobile gaming market. Just like casino frequenters, mobile gacha gamers actually defend predatory monetization practices and their addiction, telling people who complain that they've nothing to complain about because the games are free and the developers should get paid (even if the individual overworked developer usually gets nothing out of good sales, but the higher ups and publishers do, but shhh) and find any sort of excuse for their addiction and behavior. Companies and big publishers quickly caught on and now the mobile market is pretty much just F2P games with premium currencies and F2P gacha games with no way to get good without paying or constantly playing all day. Even Nintendo went full P2W predatory gacha with Fire Emblem Heroes and despite the power creep being very obvious, people still defend the game like crazy. Completely hooked and delusional...
>>> To be continued in a reply to a reply
Zachary Price
TL;DR LOL
Samuel Roberts
Suck my dick I'm not reading that shit lmao
Dominic Powell
>>> cont 2
Sounds bad, but what can be done? Nothing. Mobile games will continue to be mediocre at best, even if countries all over the world (except Japan, obviously) decide to regulate or ban loot boxes and other forms of gambling in mobile and online games.
Mobile gaming has no "saving grace", that's why "Mobile gaming is the future" has stopped being a phrase that's being said over and over again. Did you notice? I certainly did. Developers and publishers realized that mobile gamers are not the same as console and pc gamers and there's no middle ground, you can't please both, their game will fail if they try. Companies are now fully embracing that fact and create mobile games that will only please mobile gamers, they're not even trying to convince console and pc gamers to play their games, except Blizzard, who quickly saw what a dumb idea that was.
There are console and pc gamers that sometimes try mobile games, but only a few actually continue playing them or end up liking them. In the end they just download emulators to get their mobile gaming fill like that when they're not at home. The gaming industry is realizing this, which is why they're pushing streaming right now, but it won't succeed because only the richest countries with very good mobile internet access can actually make use of it.
All in all, I don't have high hopes that mobile gaming will get better, the Switch's success is proof since all full mobile games are getting ported to it. It's best to accept that mobile games won't appeal to a pc and console gamer like me and console and pc games won't appeal to a mobile gamer except the few that switch to console and pc in their late teens.
...
idk what I wanted to say with this, I lost my train of thought. I'm just drunk. But I wanted to share my drunken thoughts and analysis, I guess.
Thanks for reading, user.
James Price
Tldr: mobilekids are even worse than handheldkids. They consider physical buttons as a hassle.
