#MobileSpread - Rise of Mobile Gaming

 Thirty seven percent (37%) of mobile app users choose to play game if they have half an hour of free time. Ever since we were kids some of us got out first phones which can only be use to send message, call and play simple games such as snake. Snake uses a simple pixel in terms of display, then mobile gaming evolved into touchscreen such as ‘Angry Birds’, ‘Where’s My Water?’. Games with 3D game play took over before we reach the year where Virtual Reality can be implemented in mobile gaming. 

Almost everyone carries a phone to and from home, there are times where we have to wait for the train, bus to arrive or waiting for half an hour before our flights take off. The waiting time could last for a mere five minutes to half an hour. Yes, we could message one another but they are not always available so we turn to mobile gaming. Combining phone and games is more preferable since we can also read messages from other people while in game, record out game play and share them almost immediately on social platform. By using Twitch people can also do live streaming of their game play for others to learn about their personal tricks and tips. 

According to statistic from survey monkey sixty two percent (62%) of mobile users download a game within a week of ownership. The top five genre for monthly active user, revenue, most download and best mobile game by engagement are arcade, action, puzzle, simulation and adventure.   

Based on most downloaded: the number one is arcade, action, puzzle, simulation and adventure. 

Based on highest share of mobile download: arcade, action, puzzle, action and simulation. 

The top five based on number of download and highest share does not vary much but when it comes to revenue the order will change dramatically with strategy being the first followed by role playing, adventure, action and puzzle. The statistic based on genre can also be compared depending on what kind of phones players are using like the bar below:

                                                                             Data Source

If games only have one genre it might not be interesting so some games tried to combine different genre to make it more engaging such as the game that I previously review, it combines both puzzle and arcade to gain a unique selling point and it work really well to the point it opened four other servers; Chinese, Korean, Hong Kong and the North American server. Some developers and producers also tried to follow this step such as Gcrest the company behind the yume100 and akaseka. Both of them uses puzzle to battle the monster but there is also the ‘otome’ (simulation game) where a princess (the player) choose one of the two routes to decide the look of the prince obtained from summon or drop from a battle. The two routes will appear during a ‘conversation’ with the in-game character.

Interestingly some MMORPG games also ventures into mobile gaming market an example of this is Dragon Nest. The PC version was developed by Eyedentity games and published by Shanda along with other publishers like Naver, Nexon for server in different countries. It was released on march 2010 and in 2016 the game launches mobile version. There are only minor differences between the two versions one of them is the cash shop only sells accessories for the characters and not armor or weapons. The skills are the same but how to activate them is different in the PC version players press the number from one to nine and have to press enter to see the second set of skills they choose.

      Sample game play of the mobile version ( Chinese version) 

Other than Dragon Nest another PC game that went to mobile gaming is the side scrolling game called 'Grand Chase'. Grand chase is developed by Net Marble and published by KoG due to the game being unsuccessful in South East Asia and its declining revenue in South Korea causes the server to shut down. Unlike Dragon Nest the difference between PC version and mobile version is huge some of them that I found are it uses tap skill not combination of keys like the PC version, players have to make a team of one to five characters instead of one single character like in the PC version, characters are gained through summon not buying and completing a specific task.

All right readers that should cover pretty much the basic on the rise of mobile gaming. What are your thoughts on mobile gaming? or you still prefer PC and Nitendo and PS over mobile games? Drop your thoughts on the comment if you are bored. see you on the next post.