13 ms·
Nobody _wants_ to play games on mobile devices, not even kids
by myko 6y ago
Nobody _wants_ to play games on mobile devices, not even kids
- aroman 6y agoI'm pretty sure you're being sarcastic, but if not, this is wrong. If you were swayed by the article's point that Fortnite made "only" $700M on iOS, consider that revenue from mobile gaming accounts for half of the revenue for the entire video game industry, across all platforms — console and PC combined. Source: https://www.statista.com/topics/1906/mobile-gaming/ https://www.statista.com/topics/1906/mobile-gaming/ edit: fixed source
- TenJack 6y agoJust to clarify, are you saying Fortnite made as much as half the total of the e tire gaming industry on iOS?
- aroman 6y agoNo. This is what I'm pointing out: the entire video game industry generated about $175 billion in revenue last year. Of that, about half (43%) came from mobile gaming. Here is a more direct quote from statistia: " In 2020, smartphone games generated approximately 74.9 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenue, accounting for 43 percent of the global gaming market during the measured period. Console games were ranked second with 51.2 billion U.S. dollars in global revenue."
- elefanten 6y agoOP is implying that people are playing on phones because they have them, not because it’s a good experience. This could be especially true of a core (not casual) game like a shooter.
- rightbyte 6y agoMaybe kids are doing purchases on the phone but playing on a computer, inflating the phone "market share"?
- Hammershaft 6y agoGood god is that depressing. The fact that the cheap, shallow, and manipulative tripe that fills the App Store & Play Store to the brim are pulling so many players and so many dollars is genuinely depressing.
- astrange 6y agoThe top games (Among Us, Roblox) aren't AAA but they aren't that. The most popular gacha games I know of (Granblue, FGO) are actually extremely over-detailed if anything.
- myko 6y agoI get the impression that money spent on mobile games is from scamming parents in children's games with dark patterns that lead young children to making in app purchases. I think looking at the number of folks playing Fortnite on each platform and comparing that gives a better idea of where gamers prefer to play games.
- monocasa 6y agoMy understanding is that whales are generally adults that have been taken in by the extremely addictive mechanics of the games. Like an old lady that dumps her pension into penny slots every day.
- aroman 6y agoIf you have a source for that impression, I'd be very interested to see it. > gamers prefer to play games most of the money being made in mobile gaming is coming from people who would not self-identify as "gamers". If you're just considered about where "gamers" want to game, then sure. But that's excluding a massive (and the fastest-growing) segment of the video games industry.
- havernator 6y agoConsider: visual novels, even when entirely linear, probably count as “games” for mobile sales. They’re damn popular, are often episodic or series or have DLC to drive more sales, et c. And that’s just one kind of non-“gamer” game that’s huge on mobile.
- sinistro25 6y agoVisual novels are classified as a game on every store I've seen, be it mobile, pc or console.
- AlfeG 6y agoMost of the donateshitgames are targeted for adults with money actually. There is built-in socialized competition on donates. In every guild/group/party without donating You will be outsider and a person that pull whole team down.
- numpad0 6y agoAre you sure those revenues are coming from competitive games like Fortnite and not from playing cards worth of App Store gift cards that gacha addicts are stacking up
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago“Game” is an overloaded term that encompasses too many types of experiences. Relatively few people want to play games like Fortnite on their phones. A great many people want to play crossword puzzles.
- aroman 6y agoI agree with the point about game being overloaded, but the statement that relatively few people want to play games like fortnite on their phones is clearly false. PubG alone has tens of millions of people who play it exclusively on mobile, and it is very much a game like fortnite.
- addicted 6y agoAlso, a lot of what passes for games on mobile phones are little more than addictions that strip you off your money. The consoles would never allow them and even if they did, people don’t mindlessly get addicted to crap when playing on a console like they do on their phones.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- temp5565_65 6y agoLots of mobile "games" are basically a casino, but the currency is time and you don't ever win anything. This is to the point that when I open older (pre-microtransaction) games on my PC, I'm momentarily disoriented because those mechanics are missing and I've gotten so used to them because they are so ubiquitous.
- AlexandrB 6y ago> The consoles would never allow them They allow Fortnite[1], don't they? Or more recently Genshin Impact, which is a pure "gatcha" game - as "mobile" as it gets - and is probably doing very well[2] on PS4/5. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHPNgIihR0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHPNgIihR0 [2] https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/genshin-impact-mobile-revenue-report/ https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/genshin-impact-mobile-reve... Edit: Oh, I totally forgot about the original console "strip you of your money" game: Fifa[3]. [3] https://screenrant.com/fifa-ultimate-team-ea-total-revenue-6-billion/ https://screenrant.com/fifa-ultimate-team-ea-total-revenue-6...
- ekianjo 6y agoException: Lichess
- airstrike 6y agoI really do _want_ to play Vainglory on my mobile devices, but unfortunately SEMC decided to spend all their money creating an esports scene for the game out of thin air and nearly went bankrupt in the process, which in turn led them to sort of abandon the game in a half-broken state and go for the Hail Mary play with Catalyst Black </rant>
- freebuju 6y agoTo date MOBA has never recovered from this dumpster fire. All the alternatives that have since cropped up feel inferior to what SEMC had accomplished with Vainglory.
- croon 6y agoLoL: Wild Rift is surprisingly competent, and matches last around 15 minutes, speaking as a (former) dota player who hasn't played the regular LoL.
- airstrike 6y agoSadly, the absence of tap controls makes it a non-starter on mobile... Virtual joysticks lack the fine controls that allow for higher (skill) levels of playing
- croon 6y agoI don't disagree, but it's a separate game with equal footing for everyone, and better than I expected it could be. It would of course never work cross-platform.
- samatman 6y agoI do most of my gaming on... my watch. Yes, my watch. I have 2048, an Arkanoid clone, Pong, and a fun little strategy game called Tiny Armies. Now, to be clear, I do very little gaming. Don't own a desktop or console, the only games I play on my laptop are occasional web-based games (usually when something shows up on HN and I'm bored). I had a phase of playing games on my tablet but I just kinda fell out of the habit, and for whatever reason, the only phone game I've played in the last five years is Monument Valley. I did game on my phone more often in the early Teens: Doodle Jump, something called Bit Trip Beat, Osmos, and yes, Flappy Bird. Just kinda stopped doing it. So when I'm standing in line, or watching video and kind of bored with it but not so bored I'll stop watching, I do some casual gaming on my watch.
- syntheticnature 6y agoI'd argue that mobile-first games can work well. That said, I've yet to truly enjoy playing a port of a console or PC game on mobile. The control compromises, if nothing else, are just too large.
- johnnyanmac 6y agoIt's fine if they include controller support, then it's just an alternative screen for playing a game. But very few did, until very recently (in the grand sceheme of things. It didn't help that native controller support for Android took until a few years back).
- simonw 6y agoI guess I'm the rounding error here then: I like games which I can dip into for twenty minutes and that live in my pocket.
- floatingatoll 6y agoI want to play mobile games on mobile. Frenzic is a gold star example of a game that plays best on a handheld touchscreen. (It's also been out of print for years, sadly.)
- fitzroy 6y agoA sequel is coming to Apple Arcade: https://blog.iconfactory.com/2021/04/frenzic-overtime-coming-soon-to-apple-arcade/ https://blog.iconfactory.com/2021/04/frenzic-overtime-coming...
- asiachick 6y agoI see kids constantly playing games on their phones or tablets. Minecraft is/was huge on mobile.
- myko 6y agoGood point - I've seen that too, but most of those kids moved on to playing Minecraft on Xbox and only use mobile devices if they have to (ie, aren't home)
- lasagnaphil 6y agoYeah, but if the kids’ parents don’t let them buy a Playstation, then they have to make do with what they have. Gaming on a clunky mobile device is still better then no gaming at all.
- arthur_sav 6y agoLol no.
- bryanrasmussen 6y agoMy 11 year old wants to play Roblox on my phone - but only when we're out and she doesn't have the computer available.
- otabdeveloper4 6y agoSpeaking from experience: absolutely not true. Many kids (like my own) prefer the mobile form factor and mobile controls. That said, they're not playing Fortnite and likely don't even know what Fortnite is.
- selfhoster11 6y agoKids have much smaller fingers, and so can use the touchscreen as a higher-precision input method than touchscreen. For those with adult-sized fingers, the precision sucks.
- sethammons 6y agoEh. Kids have dexterity issues, depending on where we define the kid age range.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y agoThere's still the feedback issue though. How can anyone tolerate the poor control feedback of a touchscreen pretending to be a real controller?
- ziml77 6y agoThe lack of buttons for additional fingers also seems like an issue. Unless you use the awkward claw grip that I know some people did for certain PSP games, you're limited to just your thumbs for input. There's actually more controllers now than ever before that have even more buttons accessible to non-thumb fingers. A phone just seems like a poor choice for a game like Fortnite.
- otabdeveloper4 6y agoMy kid doesn't mind, he says he doesn't need feedback. On the other hand, mobile screens have multitouch and drag/swipe actions, and that's a real complaint when he's using a controller with physical buttons.
- gambiting 6y agoI mean, I'd love this to be true, but the mobile market is currently larger than the entire consoles +PC market combined together. Clearly there must be people out there who really enjoy playing games on their phones.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoIt's about availability as well; a lot of people don't have a console or a TV for said console, or the space for those. Another lot of people share it within a family.
- gambiting 6y agoYeah I'm thinking about it now and there's probably a lot of kids out there who only have a phone, so being able to play fortnite with their friends on it is great. When I was a kid we didn't have any games consoles, but I had a PSP - I remember the ability to play games like Battlefront 2 or GTA was absolutely mindblowing, yeah in hindsight the PSP was not the best platform to play either of those games, but to a 14 year old me that was the craziest stuff ever.
- johnnyanmac 6y agoYup. ESPECIALLY once you start considering the 3rd world. That's the entire reason Andorid started to surpass IOS in marketshare years back; because android had very low cost of entry devices into its ecosystem. For that kind of environment, they may treat their 4" phone the same way my family treated the AOL-age family computer (including arguments over visiting a website vs. needing to make a call. good times).
- swiley 6y agoPeople would if they had physical buttons The Gameboy and switch show that mobile gaming could be popular.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- puranjay 6y agoIt wouldn’t be HN without a hilariously out of touch yet confident statement. I know this won’t be a popular comment but I used to come here because it was open to new ideas. Increasingly, popular comments here are reaffirmations of the community’s biases. I would really hate if HN turned into yet another Reddit-like echochamber
- YinglingLight 6y agoIf you don't believe HN isn't already an echochamber, all of your beliefs have conveniently fallen in line with that of the basic HN'er for years now.
- ziml77 6y agoSaying that you have an unpopular opinion for something that is almost certainly a popular one is exactly the kind of comment you'd find on Reddit. I do agree though that people should be careful about creating echo chambers. Not every opinion needs to be weighted the same, but it's important to be open to differences between people.
- hattar 6y agoIt’s not just unpopular, it’s clearly false. The mobile gaming industry is the fastest growing segment and represents $77.2B in revenue. https://www.reuters.com/article/esports-business-gaming-revenues-idUSFLM8jkJMl https://www.reuters.com/article/esports-business-gaming-reve...
- CountDrewku 6y agoMostly from old women playing candy crush and casino games.
- ziml77 6y agoWe do need to differentiate between the types of games though. Games like Candy Crush and Fortnite are very different. Candy Crush is a game that lends itself well to playing on a phone while Fortnite plays better with a larger screen and physical controls.
- johnchristopher 6y agoI loved Tomb Raider Go on Android, superbrother sword and sorcery, that Reigns game and a normal lost phone. And Father and son https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.tuomuseo.fatherandson https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.tuomuseo.fa... I am not claiming it's the best format for these games but playing it on my phone was easy and great. There's also a solo card game, the name escapes me, I spent hours on it (edit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinytouchtales.cardcrawl&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinytoucht...). My phone is the most available device and games are cheaper than Switch games if easy-to-pick-up is a criteria. Anyway, it depends on what you like :). (I didn't like an old man's tale at all, I thought it was ripoff). edit: if some people on HN get my preferences from this post I am all ears for mobile game suggestions :).
- palsecam 6y ago> There's also a solo card game, the name escapes me, I spent hours on it. Solitaire maybe? The classic Solitaire (Klondike Solitaire) is quite playable on phones, even in portrait mode. Self-plug: you can enjoy it in this mobile-first PWA (progressive web app) of mine: https://FreeSolitaire.win/ https://FreeSolitaire.win/
- johnchristopher 6y agoFound it https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinytouchtales.cardcrawl&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinytoucht... Card game wasn't a good choice of words.
- palsecam 6y agoThanks for the reference! That looks like a great game indeed. > Card game wasn't a good choice of words. Well yes, it was: “Card Crawl is a solitaire-style dungeon crawler game played with a modified deck of standard cards.” Funnily, it’s even advertised as a solitaire game ^^
- 6y ago
- ezconnect 6y agoMobile phones are the most affordable console on earth. It's like game and watch of the 80s
- ols 6y ago40 years old kid here. iPad Pro is a perfect machine to run a casual shooter like Fortnite, I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing it this way.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y agoMy mental image of playing a (3rd? 1st?) person shooter on a table is like, is horrible. How do the controls work? Do you just pair some controller and prop up your iPad on a surface in front of you? Or is the controller attachable like a Switch?
- ols 6y agoWhy the table? Just place the tablet on your laps and use both hands (vigoriously ;). There are many techniques - the advanced players use most of their fingers constantly. Touch controls could be very elaborate and precise.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago> Why the table? Just place the tablet on your laps and use both hands Because that seems incredibly awkward and uncomfortable?
- ols 6y agoLook at this 6-finger claw technique: https://youtu.be/0SUCmew8BQE https://youtu.be/0SUCmew8BQE
- Taylor_OD 6y agoKids play games on the platforms that are available to them. I used to play playstation on a tiny screen that mounted onto the back of a playstation because it was the only option to play in the car and when my parents dragged me along to boring events. I didnt love the tiny screen but given the option between no playstation and playstation I was going to play on the tiny screen.