What happened to mobile gaming? Well, on paper... nothing happened.
We're repeatedly told that mobile is - by market share - the largest games platform in the world. Last year, in terms of the digital market, PC had a $36.3 billion share, mobile games made $24.7 billion, and consoles took home just $3.6 billion. Indeed, so lucrative is mobile gaming that Nintendo's next big release is a mobile app - Miitomo, due out next month.
Not a game as such, Miitomo is a social app, that: "brings out a side of you your friends have never seen before! How? By making a Mii of yourself that's your personal go-between! Ever wonder what fun details make you...YOU? Your Mii will find out by asking you questions about yourself!
"Want your friends to know all about these little insights into your likes, dislikes, or just what you're thinking lately? Your Mii will go visit your friends' Mii characters and tell them! Then your Mii will ask your friends for fun details about them...and tell YOU everything. Your friends' Mii characters will also visit you when you play!"
If that sounds like the sort of thing that appeals, you can pre-register for it now. But get this: Nintendo has confirmed that it'll be doing the dirtiest thing imaginable... and including microtransactions.
We're repeatedly told that mobile is - by market share - the largest games platform in the world. Last year, in terms of the digital market, PC had a $36.3 billion share, mobile games made $24.7 billion, and consoles took home just $3.6 billion. Indeed, so lucrative is mobile gaming that Nintendo's next big release is a mobile app - Miitomo, due out next month.
Not a game as such, Miitomo is a social app, that: "brings out a side of you your friends have never seen before! How? By making a Mii of yourself that's your personal go-between! Ever wonder what fun details make you...YOU? Your Mii will find out by asking you questions about yourself!
"Want your friends to know all about these little insights into your likes, dislikes, or just what you're thinking lately? Your Mii will go visit your friends' Mii characters and tell them! Then your Mii will ask your friends for fun details about them...and tell YOU everything. Your friends' Mii characters will also visit you when you play!"
If that sounds like the sort of thing that appeals, you can pre-register for it now. But get this: Nintendo has confirmed that it'll be doing the dirtiest thing imaginable... and including microtransactions.
BIT WHAT?
It's a more than bit sad to hear that Nintendo - a company that has always felt so accessible - should be going the microtransaction route, but it's also utterly inevitable when you look at the figures.
Games such as The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Clash of Clans, Papa Pear Saga, FarmVille, and Candy Crush have been cash cows. And by "cash cow", I mean a cow that oozes molten gold from its teats, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Please pause a moment to imagine that.
Thing is, a few years ago it felt like mobile gaming was something to be excited about. It was new. It felt like the future. Now it just seems confusing. There are so many games, yet only a few seem to push through to the top seller lists. And most of those, sadly, adopt the free-to-play model.
"Free", of course, meaning "download it for free, but we'll hold back most of the juicy features unless you give us some money... ha ha, you bunch of weak-willed losers".
Consequently, those are the games we're getting on mobile, and equally consequently, it feels to me like mobile gaming has become something ugly and unpleasant.
It's a more than bit sad to hear that Nintendo - a company that has always felt so accessible - should be going the microtransaction route, but it's also utterly inevitable when you look at the figures.
Games such as The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Clash of Clans, Papa Pear Saga, FarmVille, and Candy Crush have been cash cows. And by "cash cow", I mean a cow that oozes molten gold from its teats, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Please pause a moment to imagine that.
Thing is, a few years ago it felt like mobile gaming was something to be excited about. It was new. It felt like the future. Now it just seems confusing. There are so many games, yet only a few seem to push through to the top seller lists. And most of those, sadly, adopt the free-to-play model.
"Free", of course, meaning "download it for free, but we'll hold back most of the juicy features unless you give us some money... ha ha, you bunch of weak-willed losers".
Consequently, those are the games we're getting on mobile, and equally consequently, it feels to me like mobile gaming has become something ugly and unpleasant.
CHEAPO
That's not to say there aren't still great mobile games - Lara Croft Go, Monument Valley, 80 Days, Power Hover - but these are the exception, rather than the rule.
There's so much choice out there that it's bewildering, and so much of it either feels a bit cheap and cheerful, or cynically designed to drain as much money as possible from its players' bank accounts.
At one point it felt as if mobile gaming was going to be the next big handheld format, replacing Nintendo's Game Boy and 3DS. But to find that Nintendo itself is venturing into mobile gaming with a free-to-play microtransaction social app speaks volumes for how the market is skewed.
I've never understood why Apple includes a "Top Grossing" chart on its app store, but it does at least allow you to see the games that make the real money: pretty much anything Candy Crush, Game of War: Fire Age, Mobile Strike, Boom Beach and Clash of Clans.
The original Angry Birds - and its spin-offs - felt like an act of grand generosity. Updates would deliver a ton of new stages, for no cost. It, like the sequel to Plants Vs Zombies, and Peggle Blast, were similarly throttled by the decision to adopt that microtransaction model.
Consequently, they may be more profitable than their predecessors, but they leave a bad taste in their mouth. See also Dungeon Keeper and Theme Park - games that, when they were full-price PC games, we could play indefinitely, without feeling like a bad uncle had their hand in our pocket.
Console gamers have roundly rejected attempts to force micro transactions upon AAA games, and rightly so. Unfortunately, given the disparate, more casual nature of mobile gaming, it doesn't feel like there's a unified voice criticising the same over there.
Consequently, mobile gaming has reached a stage where it feels less like a sibling of the handheld gaming of yore, and more a greedy spin-off of the fruit machine market, peddled by wide-boy spivs.
"Oi, geezer - never mind how much money you're shoving in the machine. Look - it's got Noel Edmond's face on it, and a load of flashing lights."
It's genuinely heartbreaking to see that Nintendo feels forced to follow this grubby trend.
That's not to say there aren't still great mobile games - Lara Croft Go, Monument Valley, 80 Days, Power Hover - but these are the exception, rather than the rule.
There's so much choice out there that it's bewildering, and so much of it either feels a bit cheap and cheerful, or cynically designed to drain as much money as possible from its players' bank accounts.
At one point it felt as if mobile gaming was going to be the next big handheld format, replacing Nintendo's Game Boy and 3DS. But to find that Nintendo itself is venturing into mobile gaming with a free-to-play microtransaction social app speaks volumes for how the market is skewed.
I've never understood why Apple includes a "Top Grossing" chart on its app store, but it does at least allow you to see the games that make the real money: pretty much anything Candy Crush, Game of War: Fire Age, Mobile Strike, Boom Beach and Clash of Clans.
The original Angry Birds - and its spin-offs - felt like an act of grand generosity. Updates would deliver a ton of new stages, for no cost. It, like the sequel to Plants Vs Zombies, and Peggle Blast, were similarly throttled by the decision to adopt that microtransaction model.
Consequently, they may be more profitable than their predecessors, but they leave a bad taste in their mouth. See also Dungeon Keeper and Theme Park - games that, when they were full-price PC games, we could play indefinitely, without feeling like a bad uncle had their hand in our pocket.
Console gamers have roundly rejected attempts to force micro transactions upon AAA games, and rightly so. Unfortunately, given the disparate, more casual nature of mobile gaming, it doesn't feel like there's a unified voice criticising the same over there.
Consequently, mobile gaming has reached a stage where it feels less like a sibling of the handheld gaming of yore, and more a greedy spin-off of the fruit machine market, peddled by wide-boy spivs.
"Oi, geezer - never mind how much money you're shoving in the machine. Look - it's got Noel Edmond's face on it, and a load of flashing lights."
It's genuinely heartbreaking to see that Nintendo feels forced to follow this grubby trend.
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