The past few years have seen the rapid growth of mobile gaming across all demographics with the new primary audience being woman between the ages of 25 and 34. A huge shift from the typical image of the young teen males in gaming we’re used to seeing. There have been big changes in the types of games being played on mobile devices too – the recent demand for Battle Royale games has pushed titles such as Fortnite and Player Unknowns Battlegrounds to the top of the charts. On top of this, we continue to see the Asia gaming market flourish, as it is now the biggest in the world and far surpassing the North American market. These popular online casinos in Asia are seeing continued grow and further leading to a major surge in the overall popularity behind the gaming industry. During the ongoing pandemic the use of and gambling sites have also seen a huge surge in players, particularly as sports betting had been put on hold, and smaller puzzle games have remained as popular as ever too as the undisputed king of the mobile genre.
With next generation consoles releasing this holiday period and further tech advances though, the question is how will mobile gaming transform? What is the next frontier for mobile gaming and how will it reach a point where the gaming fans start reaching for their phone instead of their controller and capture yet a wider audience?
One answer that has been given is within virtual reality – the market has seen growth particularly on dedicated platforms in recent years as the consumer cost of accessing VR goes down and the supporting technology continues to improve. A growing number of games on the PC and Console platforms have been able to show off how far the titles have come and improvements to the headsets and hand controls have shown how it can be accessible to all audiences. There are some challenges about bringing it to mobile. The first is the ongoing crusade to remove as many ports from our devices as possible with Apple’s next release rumoured to have no charging point, a step forward from removing the headphone port. Similarly, to the dedicated platforms, costs also need to come down before it’s a viable option for many – paying hundreds of dollars just to access a title is exactly what pushed users to mobile devices in the first place, and so a more affordable and perhaps less cumbersome hardware option needs to be discovered.
Augmented reality should also be a consideration here if some more exciting uses can be discovered – AR had found a very strong foothold back in 2016 when Pokémon GO swept the world and had quickly become one of the most downloaded titles in the world. With a creative AR integration, it provided a gaming experience that hadn’t yet been had by many and had shown how a little creativity can go a long way. There are constraints here too – whilst the tech is very much in place and comes at no extra cost to the user, it does take a toll on battery life and a big performance hit in some cases which had been a deterrent for many. Similarly, the applications for using AR can be quite narrow and may only enhance the experience in very niche situations, not something that can be used on the wider band.
It is an exciting time in mobile gaming regardless of the next big tech shift. Hardware is moving extremely quickly following a time where things had largely stalled, PC gamers are welcoming the next generation of graphics hardware as it moves its way into the console market too. It won’t be long before this continues to trickle down and the high-fidelity triple A titles that are so coveted begin to make an appearance in a handheld device. And with 5G networking just around the corner for many of us too, there have also been plenty of suggestions that the introduction could change the face of online mobile gaming. This comes as growing numbers of players have access to faster and higher capacity internet allowing more options for what can be played. Many suggestions have hinted toward a future definitely being firmly planted in mobile gaming, the next thing to discover will be just when this shift may happen and how long it might take to get there, but from almost non-existent to one of the biggest markets in the world in just around a decade is impressive, and shows a positive trajectory.
Photograph by Justraveling