Welcome to the World of Mobile Gaming

Today’s guest post was written by Simon Drew.

Until today, I had never considered that one would be allowed to label themselves a gamer if they had never picked up a console controller, or clicked a mouse. It’s reminiscent of the way in which old school gamers consider games consoles to be an inferior form of entertainment, averring that all the best games – that would be first person shooters and adventure games, then – are released on PC. Of course, we all know this is a load of tosh (I write, one eye on my PS3) but mobile gaming? As far as I was aware, mobile games were simply for people waiting at bus stops, riding on buses, or walking home from the bus. In fact, it didn’t occur to me that people ever played mobile games without there being some kind of bus involved.

But apparently, they do. And what’s more, mobile gaming is huge – and it’s only going to get bigger. A recent survey by the NPD Group confirmed that 23% of app gamers only play games on their phones, and around half of them are playing more games than they did a year ago. Moreover, 30% of gamers said that they spent money on the in-game extras that can be purchased. Let’s be honest: You don’t buy the in-game extras if you’re only going to be playing it while killing time at the bus stop.

There are a few obvious reasons to account for the rise of smartphone gaming as an actual platform, as opposed to a time-killer.

One: They’re free. You have to be a gamer to spend money on games, but you don’t have to be a gamer to think ‘Huh, why not?’ or at the very least entertain the idea that ‘OMG it’s free – I must have it!’ for a few seconds. I still remember the first time I had a phone on Three that let me browse their photo/news/games catalogue without paying. I wasn’t allowed to play the games or download the photos, but boy, did I browse that catalogue.

Two: They’re addictive. You download a game that’s free with the intention of playing it while you’re waiting for the number 24 bus into town. Then you keep playing it when the bus arrives. You turn it off when you finally get home, and the darkness and emptiness just seems to seep into your soul. You load the game up again, tap away, and everything’s all better. Funny, that.

Three: They’re becoming more and more complex. Nobody is going to sit at home playing Snake or Solitaire for hours and hours, but these days you can actually buy proper RPGs and racing games on your phone. Why waste £40 on the latest Final Fantasy when you can get Witches ‘n’ Wenches on your Android for free?

Speaking with people who work in the game development industry, there seems to be a general consensus that more and more money is coming from the mobile gaming sector. We’ve even seen proper, established console games launching spin-offs for mobile platforms. All this, and I haven’t even mentioned OUYA yet. OUYA is going to be the brand new Android games console; it’ll hook up to your TV and download games, just the way you do with Google Play. Only, y’know, you play them on your TV, with a controller.

In a sense, smartphones now serve as the marijuana of gaming. The gateway drug: get ’em started on simple Zinga games, let ’em move up to free mobile RPGs, and they’ll be spending a fortune on Xbox and PS3 games in no time. Of course, this is perhaps just my own game snobbery coming into play; what we mustn’t forget is that mobile phones are becoming a gaming platform in their very own right. The latest quad-core handsets are more powerful than a Nintendo DS, and boast even bigger displays – if a DS is a ‘proper’ console, then why isn’t a Samsung Galaxy S3?

My guess is that we’re about to see a new generation of gamers. Gone are the days when gamers could be written off as spotty teenage boys with vitamin D deficiencies. Today, gamers are those people you see on the bus; the ones who read books on the Tube; the ones who drink coffee in Starbucks. Mobile gaming is going global, and it’s not just for geeks – it’s for everyone. Finally, the videogame industry has hit on the magic method of getting everyone hooked on games: make them free and convenient. Get them gaming, get them hooked and the revenue streams will take care of themselves.

Simon writes for the UK phone comparison website Best Mobile Contracts