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How Mobile Gaming Became a True Gaming Platform

To the Moon

Mobile gaming has developed a bad reputation over the years thanks to pure money-maker titles like Candy Crush Saga. These games have tarnished the idea of mobile gaming, but that shouldn’t put you off, because mobile is a true gaming platform in its own right now, with a long list of quality games to try.

Let’s take a look at why that is.

The Rise of Quality Games

Final Fantasy VII

In 2019, major games like Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and even recent trends like Fortnite now have their own mobile versions.

These are all AAA titles that have a huge following and are considered to be “true” games, unlike the Candy Crush Sagas of this world.

Indeed, we can already see that there has been a huge shift in the mobile gaming industry. Bigger and better games are coming out on the platform, offering a more console-like experience. For example, some of the greatest RPGs ever released (like Chrono Trigger) are now appearing on mobile. We’ve also seen quality productions in niche areas like gambling. Games like live blackjack, live roulette and video slots are becoming slicker and faster and are all accessible from the many new slot sites online, helping to build a core audience.

Slowly but surely, the idea of a mobile gaming market dominated by casual games is falling away and in its place, we are seeing mobile as the arena of quality.

The Dominance of Major Development Companies 

This change in the tide of games released on the mobile platform also means that the developers who create games for mobile are changing. Whilst there is still a huge number of independent developers building games for you to play on your phone, now the big guys are moving in too.

So we have the likes of Square Enix, EA and Epic Games developing for mobile. In fact, the long-running developer behind the likes of Silent Hill, Konami, has even stated that mobile gaming is going to become one of their main focuses for the future.

This shows a very strong shift in the size and power of the companies that are now developing games for mobile devices.

Because of this shift, the independent developers are likely to get pushed further down the rankings of “suggested games”. The likes of Square Enix will likely put a huge amount of budget behind paid promotion for their games, bringing them onto the radar of far more players.

This will be good for the mobile industry as it means that you will start to find far more top quality games created by well-known developers, though of course it also means that we may end up getting “just another gaming platform”.

Yet as the creativity of developers becomes far rarer, and repetitive game design becomes the norm, it is the independent video game developers who create the most unique titles.

If you were to look at other platforms such as Steam or the Switch you would find some truly wonderful independent games like To The Moon and the upcoming Bloodstained. The developers behind these have a much smaller budget than developers like EA so they are unable to compete to achieve visibility on the Google Play or Apple App Stores.

In short, this means that mobile gaming is moving towards becoming a “true” gaming platform, both in terms of better quality games and the dominance of the big development companies.

A New Dawn for Mobile Gaming

In conclusion, the idea of mobile gaming being limited to the likes of Candy Crush Saga and other casual games that are designed to be Pay to Win is coming to an end. The big boys of the gaming industry are moving in to take a piece of the pie, carving up the Mobile gaming scene between them in the same way they have done with PC and console gaming.

This brings with it the rise of bigger, and generally better games, that can almost rival that of portable gaming on Nintendo DS or the PlayStation Vita. At the same time phones are becoming more powerful so can support enhanced graphical capabilities and gameplay which means higher production values.

And whilst this does mean that there is potential for independent games to become lost in a sea of AAA titles, just as they have on Steam or consoles, it also means that we are all starting to take mobile gaming seriously.

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