With the upcoming release of iPad and the recent glut of iPhone gaming releases, I thought the topic of mobile gaming needs to be discussed. The mobile gaming market is enormous today; DS, PSP, and a buffet of secondary gaming devices such as cell phones, smartphones, BlackBerries, PDAs, and even some MP3 players are all platforms for games. The amount of money spent on mobile games has increased 30-40% over the last two years alone. With this surge of spending, we will see many new players enter the market. This brings with it both innovation and a greater quantity of games, but it also brings in "quick buck" design firms and a variety of gimmicks. Companies will announce "breakthrough" technologies or interfacing suites. There will be talk of wonderful immersion and revolutionary gaming experiences. Some of this may be true, but the majority will be red herrings brought forth through hype to cover up the main problem with the entire mobile gaming format... It is an offshoot, a subcategory of gaming that was never meant to be as large as it is today. It was meant to be a small diversion to get the gamer through trips and lulls, much like a good book. However, it has developed into an industry of itself. What will come of this and what are the implications? Let's take a look.
In The Beginning Things Were Good
Purpose built mobile gaming devices have been around for decades. As a child I remember getting my first green screen Gameboy. I thought I was in heaven! Now, Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda could follow me to the grocery story, to grandmas house, and even, with great subtlety, get me through a Sunday service. It is great for a gamer to be able to bring their games anywhere they want and to be able to fill the boring voids throughout the day with a little harmless entertainment. These dedicated devices were a great idea brought on by the insatiable demand for gaming innovations and a price reduction of small microprocessors. They were a way for Nintendo to stamp more of their tried and true IPs on a cartridge. The games were small, easy to develop, and cheap to sell. They provided a bit of side income for Nintendo so they could buffer the time between major console releases with some extra cash. It was a pet project that did very, very well.
They continued to do well since the games were practically an impulse buy at 20 bucks a pop and their effects were starting to show. The market was growing larger and larger. What started as a child's-toy-system-so-they-will-shut-up-and-behave-on-a-long-trip turned into a must have item for every person born in that era. I just graduated college, but I still own a portable gaming device, a DS lite. Most of the people I knew in college had a PSP or DS. Some brought it to class. Which brings me to my next point.
The Era of Shovelware
These things are becoming so common place that more people own a mobile gaming device than a proper gaming system. What was a way to provide quick dev games to boost profits has now started to become parallel to the standard gaming giant. This is where things get ugly. When a market becomes this large with a userbase of 250 million people in the US (the number of active cellphone subscribers), it doesn't take long for businesses to flood in to take their share. What happens when the userbase is that large, that diverse, that "casual?" Do we get good games? No. We get what happened with the Wii, but worse.
We get the rise of what is known as shovelware. Design houses come up with a single gaming engine. They then pump games out with only weeks of development time and flood the market with junk. What makes this potentially worse with mobile games than with the Wii is that these developers have no expectations set upon them and the barrier to entry is much less monetarily than for console or computer games. Nintendo isn't breathing down their neck; they don't have to pay royalties to a gaming console. No, they make a crap game, throw it up on Apple's App store, or Verizon's program service, then a retard looks it over and if it runs, it gets put up for sale.
What was a unique, fun experience to pass the time while we are out has now become a search for a decent game. Imagine scrolling down a list of thousands of games that all look the same. Instead of filling the time with entertainment and fun, we now spend the time wading through the endless list for a game that is playable. What happened to the unique experience?
Further Implications
If that isn't enough, let us look further into the future. Now the mobile genre is huge. Tons of games, tons of systems, and practically every one from moms to hardcore gamers have a way to get a hold of these games anywhere, anytime. How can videogame developers ignore this market? Sadly, we may see major design houses turn their attention and their assets toward marketing and making mobile games instead of the large epics we get on our stationary gaming systems. How about a Kotor iPhone game instead of Kotor3? Mass Effect 4 on Xbox Portable instead of 720? Ouch. What has started to become an accepted form of art is now turned over to the accountants and number crunchers.It is easier, arguably more profitable, and safer to make cheaper games in larger numbers than a huge big budget game that may or may not be successful. Spreading the risk is a business 101 strategy. Let's hope this mindset doesn't start to become ingrained in the marketplace.
Your Turn
So what do you guys think? Do you see a bright future in the mobile market or do you see it flooded with shovelware? Do you believe handheld games could be a primary form of entertainment or are they still for when a stationary console can't be had? Let me know what you think!