How long until mobile gaming becomes a serious threat?

[winb83]

the Japanese developers are already flocking to it.
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/07/20/star-ocean-material-trader-is-social-card-based-rpg/
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/02/capcom-announces-breath-of-fire-6-amid-slew-of-online-games/
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/26/layton-7-announced-by-level-5-for-ios-android-and-3ds/
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/16/mega-man-social-game-sees-universes-xover/

so there we have Japanese franchises like Star Ocean, Mega Man, Breath of Fire, and Professor Layton all transformed into mobile "social" cell phone games.

when the bubble burst on these Call of Duty style games and other annual titles like Assassin's Creed is that what we're in store for next from western developers? i mean at some point the Call of Duty and Assassin's Creeds will likely end up like their predecessors Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk that were released and released until people burned out on them.

the problem is many of these games and series are either staying stagnant in sales or decreasing while game development budgets are increasing it just isn't feasible for them to continue to develop these games that sell the same amount but cost more to make. the solution is make a mobile game that's cheap to develop and makes profits.

it'll likely either be mobile games or "free to play" aka "pay to win" type games.

 

[Camammal]

its already a threat and a problem imo.

 

[Data-Hawk]

Not really a threat......I wish I could pull up the talk where John Carmack talks about this. Basically it was something along the lines of the type of crowd that plays AAA games will continue to do so. Mobile may look like a *threat* because you have a lot more casual gamers. but most people who play mobile games tend to do it in intervals of 5 - 15 minutes( while on the train, on a lunch break etc..etc )

To better put it, your Grandmother was never going to buy Battlefield 4 to begin with and the people who are waiting for Battlefield 4 don't want to play it on a 7inch screen..

 

[Liquid]

Not really a threat......I wish I could pull up the talk where John Carmack talks about this. Basically it was something along the lines of the type of crowd that plays AAA games will continue to do so. Mobile may look like a *threat* because you have a lot more casual gamers. but most people who play mobile games tend to do it in intervals of 5 - 15 minutes( while on the train, on a lunch break etc..etc )

To better put it, your Grandmother was never going to buy Battlefield 4 to begin with and the people who are waiting for Battlefield 4 don't want to play it on a 7inch screen..

Phones and tablets are starting to be powerful enough to connect to your TV to play games that are approaching AAA level.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Mobile gaming while a nice "break" from pc/console gaming, is never gonna be on the level of pc and console due to:

1) screen size
2) Control

 

[CELL]

Mobile gaming while a nice "break" from pc/console gaming, is never gonna be on the level of pc and console due to:

1) screen size
2) Control

We went from Snake to GTA Vice City in a decade breh.

This shyt is serious

 

[Data-Hawk]

Phones and tablets are starting to be powerful enough to connect to your TV to play games that are approaching AAA level.

Both of them of them are slowing down because of heating issues( fitting that much power in such a small space ). Plus you have to ask, do you want to start installing 1 - 2GB games on your 16gb - 32gb phone? add the price points, Apple started off with 99cent apps, that's the norm. a lot of developers want to price their apps higher ( esp since apple takes a 30% cut of each sale ) but know people won't buy it because they expect It to be 99cent or $1.99 at best.

Now lets talk about support issues, yeah devices are getting faster, but as a developer you can't target the latest and greatest in the mobile space because people are stuck on 2 year contracts, So you try to target the last 3 yrs back ( say Iphone 4, 4s and 5 ). Now lets say you spend 4 yrs making your game( 4 different version of the iphone have come out since then, so you can't properly target a platform ). John Carmack stated something similar, you can't spend as much time developing a game for Mobile because the target keeps moving.

So Mobile is great for Indie companies, but not for people doing AAA games. If you seen a game on the app store for $19.99, it would stick out like I don't know what and people would complain( they do now on Touch Arcade ). Id software spent a little over 500k to develop Rage for the iPhones, they sold the game for $6.99. Imagine a company with a budget of 10 million, it's not going for 99cent...lol

If you look back at all the popular games for mobile, they were popular because they were simple and fun , plus took advantage of the mobile interface( Temple run, fruit ninja etc) First Person shooters suck on a cell phone( hence me stopping my first person shooter game, I couldn't get pass the controls ).

128GB phones would have to become the standard if AAA games became the standard.


Won't even touch on the issue of Android and it's fragmentation

 

[Data-Hawk]

Candy Crush is a good example of why mobile gaming is overrated. An AAA game wouldn't steal to many of those *gamers*....different crowd.

 

[Kartel13]

What's a good adventure game in the mobile world? Something like a Castlevania Lords of Shadow or anything action oriented?

 

[chemicalsword]

energy is a bottle neck. only so much you can do with mobile batteries.......

 

[Wild self]

its already a threat and a problem imo.

Yup. When the PS4/ WiiU/ X-One gen gets into full speed, you gonna see how mobile gaming will dominate the $$$$.

 

[Data-Hawk]

I have to double check the iOS SDK 7. I'm sure they added some stuff for Game Controllers.

 

[Ninjaz In Paris]

Outside of games like Ruzzle or Candy Crush or simple games like that I highly doubt it... the controls are too trash IMO...

 

[Responsible Allen Iverson]

Wasn't handheld gaming already bigger than console gaming in Japan? So games for "core gamers" moving to mobile isn't as farfetched as it would be in America right now.

 

[Ninjaz In Paris]

Wasn't handheld gaming already bigger than console gaming in Japan? So games for "core gamers" moving to mobile isn't as farfetched as it would be in America right now.

The highest selling artist in Japan was also a hologram... I wouldn't hold them to the same standards as Americans...