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MOBILE GAMING: THE INDUSTRY'S DIRTY SIBLING - by Mr Biffo

19/2/2016

9 Comments

 
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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. 

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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.

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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. 

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
IT PEGGLES THE MIND BY MR BIFFO
REVIEW: ANGRY BIRDS 2 (IOS/ANDROID)
THE APP TREE: THE BEST NEW APPS FOR YOUR PHONE
​

9 Comments
Bluecup
19/2/2016 01:27:43 pm

There is a little bit of all micro-transactions being tarred with the same brush going on here. We have to wait and see exactly how it works with Miitmomo of course, but on the website the only mention of paying money is for "coins" which are used to buy extra clothing. And the coins can be earned by playing the game. This doesn't sound like that most hateful type of micro-transaction that holds the actual game play to ransom.

You also are forgetting that Nintendo has already released "free-to-play/start" games with micro-transactions on the 3DS and Wii U. They have already sucked at that teat I'm afraid,

I'm hoping Nintendo just keeps to their statement that these mobile games are a way to connect with new customers and as a way to advertise their wares. I personally think it would be quite cool doing Nintendo-y things while waiting on the wife in the shops. But the fear that their head will get turned by the money is there for sure.

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Euphemia
19/2/2016 04:57:45 pm

It's interesting that they're not resorting to shitting out "classics" and remasters for mobile platforms and raking in some easy monies for that, although I'm sure there's a lot of us holding out for yet another copy of Super Mario Bros 3. But this whole industry of micro-transactions is what's made me stop buying anything that Ubisoft have forced out their dark trumpet recently. AC: Unity made me very, very angry considering the cost of the game and overall shittiness of the launch product. Trying to yoink more pennies out of my pockets for new hats and swords was a right kick in the udders after that.

The cunts.

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JiveTyrant!
19/2/2016 08:25:08 pm

I trust Nintendo to make this work, but I'm very distrustful of microtransactions in general. Having recently gotten a half-decent smartphone, I decided to give Plants VS Zombies 2 a go. I loved the original, but I uninstalled the sequel after it quickly became clear just how keen Popcap were to gouge the player. The sad thing is, I would have happily stumped up £30 for a full, complete, game. But I'm not prepared to keep pumping in an undisclosed, seemingly uncapped quantity of cash in order to find out if a game is playable or not.

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Consequently, link
19/2/2016 09:04:36 pm

Consequently,

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Dirty Barry
20/2/2016 12:49:12 am

It was only when I purchased Sonic 2 on android that I discovered what a load of rancid old bag lady's period mobile "gaming" is.

It is like playing a game drunk, with numb hands on a broken, lagging nokia n-gage with no buttons. There is no way I could play even a simple platformer properly, using touch screen controls.

Yes, you can sort of get used to it. Some amputees can write with the pen in their mouths, this doesn't make it a good idea.

Proper consoles with proper buttons all the way!!

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ThatsNoMoon
20/2/2016 04:04:50 am

Shareholders. Shareholders never changes.

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Damon link
20/2/2016 09:01:30 am

Aren't micro-transactions a replacement for the coin-guzzling unfairness of the old arcade machines? Think about it. You pay 25¢ for one game, then if you want to continue that's another quarter.

You download the app for free (or 99¢) then you have to pay another $1.04 (because of merchant fees) to keep going but like the arcade game there is no real end. It just cycles the same patterns but maybe faster. This differs from DLC-based micro-transactions where you may pay a few dollars once for virtual outfit or something. The idea is to keep the players pumping coins into the machine forever not to sell them content every so often.

(Adjust the prices and currency to your locale.)

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Chris
21/2/2016 12:07:45 am

I can't really be bothered with mobile games. Partly I know it's because the game will pretend to be free, and then attempt to bleed me dry (which I never fall for; I'm very strong willed when it comes to parting with cash unnecessarily), and partly because most mobile games are shit (often due to limited controls alluded to by an earlier commenter).

I would rather spend £30 on a game on a decent gaming platform and know that - even if I don't enjoy it - it at least has some quality threshold, and isn't going to ask for real money to buy a new hat or sword or whatever to enable me to progress past level one.

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GhettoFett
24/2/2016 01:34:04 pm

"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"

Where did you get those figures from? I don't think they're accurate. I'm not normally a tedious number cruncher but in the case of talking about the "industry" and using big numbers, and using such data as an intro to talk about worrying industry trends can you at least cite a source?

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