How do you play games?
From my research, different people prefer different ways of gaming, but today, I’m going to tackle mostly on a single platform, which will be Mobile Gaming.
Premise 1 : People like Free Portable Games
Premise 2 : Competitive Games on Mobile
People like FREE Portable Games
Gaming is all fun but what’s best when you can bring your own games on the road and play whenever you are and wherever you want. WELL, mobile game is definitely you ultimate choice other than owning an expensive portable console which requires you to purchase titles (unless you like an empty shell that does nothing).
People starting to venture into the mobile gaming scene when phones have simple pass time games like Snakes and Tetris. But as time goes on, technology improves and so does standards improved. So people craved for better games and which coloured games are announced for the new coloured phones but by then digital monetization is already happening, best example are games from the company Gameloft. This type of gaming has triumph for 5 years until 2007 Apple.Inc introduced the first iPhone with touch screen functionality worldwide. This made a mark for the history as developers changed their direction from direct premium monetization to Freemium because of the new IOS Store announcement.
As the years pass by and smartphone become more common, popular games start to pop out for smartphone users, great examples are Doodle Jump, Angry birds and Words with friends. The market shifts from actually charging people to enjoy their products to letting them play for free, and by this, the gaming community for the mobile platform had grown significantly.
Based on this chart that I found,
Mobile gaming has shown a significant jump ever since 2016.
So, why are people choosing to play on this platform? There are several reason that comes to mind :
- Portability
- Console quality titles
- Cheap and free
- Fun
This 4 reasons are the cores of why people play on the mobile phone.
Portability
With only the device small enough to fit one hand, you can bring it everywhere you want and all you need is a pair of hands to play it! You don’t need no mouse and keyboard, it is all in the phone!
Console Quality Titles
Mobile gaming has step up their quality throughout the years and now capable of releasing more heavier graphic titles like Hitman GO and Minecraft available for most of the devices out there! There are also free titles like MapleStory M and PES 2018
Cheap and Free
Games like Temple Run, Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga are free and you can spend a very minimum amount to get great games like Final Fantasy games, GTA series which are used to be console only titles!
Fun!
Mobile platform has such humongous library that it can cater more players than a PC do from the size that is needed to be download to how easily can the player try games out with the ease of the help of Play Store and IOS Store’s advertising space for them.
With the recent jump in mobile phone specification, players can also broadcast their gameplay worldwide by using their phone making it even more worth for their money rather than choosing to play on PC.
Next,
Competitive Games on Mobile
Competitive gaming or so called E-sports has been a hit since 1997 on the PC platform, it was the core on how gaming is spread towards the word, positively and negatively.
And when the prize pool got bigger, people begin to get more into it. It spread from First Person shooter to Multiplayer Online Battle Arena to Battle Royale.
Esports never stop their growth, which also in contrast means that developers will not stop growing as well. Many fans have been hook to it and finally, it came to the Mobile platform.
With the release of one of the most hot title back then “Turbo Racing League”, mobile esports game got a huge head-start with a bagging 1M prize pool for grabs!
It comes to a point of why people are attracted to this? I would say it’s quite similar to why people choose this platform to game :
- It is a counterpart of a PC game
- It can be played anywhere
- It is free
Counterpart of a PC game
Games that are Competitive on the PC are now on the Mobile platform just with another re-skin and minor redesign of the game. Examples are Arena of Valor and Mobile Legends : Bang Bang. Not just that, even mainstream company have sign deals to port their game to the mobile platform like PUBG and Fortnite.
Can be played anywhere
This is a problem for PC gamers where they can’t simply gather around and play, but with mobile, they can practice whenever and wherever they are.
It is free
Nearly all of the Competitive games that can found in the stores are all Free to Play and only charges for cosmetics or fast progression unlocks.
As a Conclusion, I would say people enjoy playing mobile games because it is very accessible, fun and yet competitive.
How does this affects the business cycle?
Based on what is reported in Newzoo, because the focus shift had gone from PC and console to Mobile, a huge amount of revenue and market to be aimed.
As the platform grows, developers are easily popping out prefer to develop their games on a mobile platform simply because it can reach a worldwide range of people and at the same time getting paid with the way Freemium games are paid nowadays, including download counts, in game content and advertisement.
Investors will also not be interested in spending money on a limited platform when there are a huge reason to choose mobile as a main platform for their advertisements purposes.
Sources
https://esc.watch/blog/post/mobile-esports-2018
https://www.gamesradar.com/why-mobile-games-are-so-popular/
https://esportsobserver.com/breakdown-of-the-mobile-esports-scene/
https://yield.com/blog/look-tremendous-rise-mobile-gaming-industry/
https://www.valuewalk.com/2018/02/mobile-gaming-rapid-growth/
Zebuft 