When we play the latest Triple A games on our PC, Xbox One, or PlayStation 4 it is easy to think that they are the dominant gaming platforms. There is a pretender to that title though, and it is mobile gaming.
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Making an impressive amount of money ($40.6 billion revenue in 2016) the big companies are starting to take notice. Nintendo for example, have finally bitten the bullet and have moved into the mobile gaming industry allowing Super Mario Run onto both iOS and Android devices. Pokémon Go was also the big sensation of last year, pulling the creature capture game into the world of augmented reality.
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Does this make mobile gaming the dominant gaming platform though? The answer to this is kind of. There will be a focus on making a profit from the monster that is mobile gaming, but the real publicity will always be on consoles and PC. That is because it is the more fashionable way to play, the most technologically impressive and in the eyes of the actual gamer the more popular.
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What mobile gaming does though, is to provide an income stream to make the Triple A games better. The freemium model has proven to work, allowing people to download games for free, then pay through in-game transactions, and it makes a lot of money. Any way the gaming industry can make a profit is a good thing for gamers in the end, it bolsters an industry that is always looking to the future.
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While we do tend to look to the consoles (and PC) as the gaming force, mobile devices are winning through with casual players because of the fact they are mobile. You can phone casino games, and games from many other genres and play on the go. You aren’t tied down to your couch or desk anytime you want to play.
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This mobility is being noticed by gaming companies too. Just look at the Nintendo Switch for that. A console that can be played on the big screen, then taken away as a tablet is focused on mobility, and shows just how powerful a tablet device is. The key is to having a choice how to play games, and that is why mobile devices sit well next to the consoles.
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With an Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or PC we can have the cutting-edge technology to push our games to the limit. We see this, especially on the PC, even consoles are now pushing into the world of 4K. Mobile devices do tend to have a faster turnaround than consoles for use of new technology, but of course the PC is the dominant force in innovation when it comes to upgradability.
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The numbers talk for themselves, mobile gaming is becoming a force in the market because it is a very profitable form of gaming. Even if it is seen as a more “casual” form of gaming, it is still a form that is making money, and that is the key. If something makes money, it tends to have an impact on the industry it is part of.
