A game-changing experience
Demand for mobile apps driving developers to invest in touchscreen platform
Mobile gaming has come a long way from the early hand-held systems of the 1990s with their small screens, limited storage and static, blurry images.
Today, dedicated 3D graphics processors that allow built-in storage and battery savings, along with the new crop of ultra-sized smartphones, have overcome many of the barriers that removed mobile gaming from the mainstream.
Some gamers say current mobile apps can nearly match the console/ PC experience — although many still prefer controller attachments to manage complex offerings with more precision than touchscreen commands allow.
Developers offer games across the range of platforms, but Wedbush Securities video-game analyst Michael Pachter still sees a slow death for the gaming console amid the prevalence of mobile devices and the allure of mobile gaming to children, teens and increasingly female players.
“My parents thought I was a degenerate because I went to the bowling alley to play games,” Pachter said at a gaming-industry event in September. “Now everybody plays. Ultimately, we’ll have five billion people playing games.”
Explosive growth in the mobile-gaming segment has already propelled privately held developers such as Palo Alto, Calif.-based Machine Zone Inc. to heady valuations, with model Kate Upton pitching the firm’s Game of War: Fire Age in TV ads that have helped attract 3.2 million daily active users to the app.
Along with more than $40 million (U.S.) in promotional spending, features including a built-in language translator helped the company top $600 million (U.S.) in annual revenue last year, according to the Ve-ntureSource database.
The popularity of mobile gaming has also prompted console pioneer Nintendo to announce its first smartphone game, dubbed Miitomo — a free-to-play title to be launched next March.
And it was behind the move last week by computer game giant Activision Blizzard, which produces World of Warcraftand Call of Duty, to acquire King Digital Entertainment, the creator of Candy Crush Saga in a deal valued at $5.9 billion (U.S.).
Activision said the buyout would make it a global leader in interactive entertainment across mobile, console and PC platforms, saying the combined entity would have more than half a billion monthly active users.
The Call of Duty series is one of the bestselling console games, while Candy Crush Saga is among the most popular games on mobile devices.
Industry analysts say the emergence of mobile has altered the nature of gaming, with mobile games now offered as a “daily service” so that new twists await users as they open their games apps each day.
The level of engagement supports the ad-supported, free-to-play mobile revenue model where users pay only for incremental game updates, such as additional lives, to fortify the experience.
“We feel it’s the right time to enter mobile marketing in a meaningful way,” Activision CEO Robert Kotick said on a conference call to discuss the King acquisition.
He cited growth in mobile gaming engagement but said the segment is fragmented across main players and small independent game producers, suggesting that Activision Blizzard can lend its IP pipeline and crossplatform promotion might to drive mobile sales.
Barclays analyst Chris Merwin said the mobile segment has not achieved the consistent monetization and engagement of consoles, PCs and other home systems, but Kotick said the company plans to bring more “great content” to mobile to underpin reliable sales.