In the world of video games, tribalism is something that we’ve all encountered at one point or another. Whether it’s the endless console “warsâ€, favoured control schemes or even characters within online games, it seems that, increasingly, the world of gaming is a place where opinions are seen as facts, more often than not.
Until recently, if you wanted to be a “real gamerâ€, you had to be playing on one of the four major platforms offered by Microsoft (with both desktops and Xbox), Sony and Nintendo. They were where all the serious AAA titles were, and offered power far above what other platforms could hope to match.
At least, that’s what you’d hear if you played games primarily on smartphones and tablets.
(Guide) Why Smartphones Are Now Credible Gaming Platforms
Today, however, the situation is completely different. In 2018, mobile games generated a total of $70.3 billion in revenue, enough to make up 51% of the global market. Clearly, smartphones are now a hugely credible gaming platform, but how did they reach this stage? Join us as we share three huge reasons.
Massive Power Gains –
Mobile chipsets have grown more powerful year on year for well over a decade now, to the point where – today – the most powerful smartphones are capable of powering external monitors and running multiple simultaneous applications without fuss.
Both CPU and GPU power levels have climbed dramatically in recent years, alongside memory speed, enabling a level of mobile graphical quality and AI which ensures that smartphone gaming isn’t merely limited to short-form, simplistic experiences anymore.
The draw of a play-anywhere console that has sufficient power to produce incredible experiences is a large part of why 33% of developers are actively interested in developing for smartphones and tablets.
Big Game Releases –
Ultimately, platforms live and die by the games available on them. Modern smartphones are blessed with a huge number of big games, which have helped establish them as real, credible alternatives to home console systems.
The likes of Fortnite and PUBG have made the leap from immensely popular games on consoles to immensely popular smartphone titles with few compromises. Meanwhile, smartphones have found themselves home to genres like MOBAs. These games traditionally found the most success on PCs, but millions of fans of the genre have been flooding to smartphones for fast, intuitive play.
Unique Advantages –
For developers, smartphones have a number of inherent advantages which simply aren’t found elsewhere. Crucially, this includes adoption rate, which sits at 76% in advanced economies and 45% in emerging economies.
It’s not just the sheer volume of devices out there that works to smartphones’ advantage as a gaming platform either. Advanced connectivity is a basic requirement for smartphones, making truly wireless gaming a reality for each and every player. It enables instant ‘LAN-party’ style gaming, where friends and strangers can play together locally without requiring additional hardware or even the same smartphones.
It’s something that, in an age of walled-garden gaming platforms, is an advantage that’s unique to smartphones. Along the way, it has resulted in truly innovative gaming experiences which, in turn, have helped redefine the smartphone as a credible gaming platform.
Are you a smartphone gamer? Let us know in the comments below!
