Lunchtime Discussion: Mobile
Is mobile the future?Published: 12:00, 21/07/2010 by Kris [Halbpro].
44I’m not sure how, but it looks like lunchtime discussions have yet to cover mobile gaming. Even if we did cover it and it’s been lost to the mists of time now would seem a good time to revisit. As I said in yesterday’s discussion, this week’s topics are sparked off by a panel I attended at last week’s Develop Conference. The panel featured Ben Hebb, the Art Director at Zoe Mode, John Nash, the Studio Design Director at Blitz, and Neil Thompson, the Studio Art Director at Bizarre Creations, and the discussions kicked off by talking about social gaming, which almost immediately turned into a discussion of mobile gaming.
One of the most interesting comment came from Thompson, when he said that older developers are actually suited to developing for mobile devices. How so I hear you cry? Well he said a lot of the game play mechanics and development techniques reminded him of developing for the Amiga, so developers who cut their teeth on the Amiga are now just dusting off their old skills and using them to make huge piles of money.
Thompson was in fact full of wisdom on the topic, as he also made a comment about the cycle of gaming and how he perceives that cycle now moving into gaming on phones and says that these games and platforms may be the real next generation of gaming. With developers more able to take risks and having more flexibility, as well as much shorter development cycles, it does seem likely that building games for these devices will tempt more and more major players, particularly as the hardware continues to improve and grow in popularity.
Talking of development Ben Hebb echoed Tim Schafer in espousing the benefits of smaller dev teams being able to work on these title. In particular he noted that having a team with just one programmer, one designer and one developer is a great way of building confidence and getting the best out of your staff. It gives the team members, who may have been responsible for just a very small part of the game otherwise, room to grow and show just what they’re capable of.
Of course it’s not all rainbows and lollipops in the land of mobile phones. With such a huge volume of titles being released onto mobile gaming app stores, Nash said it can be very hard to get noticed or stand out against the ocean of competing games. You have to come up with new ways of marketing your games and in particular social networks have been very successful at selling these games.
So how do you feel about all of this? Will mobile games start to follow a more generational cycle? Would you consider them the ‘real’ next generation? Personally I think they could be, if only because there seems to be more scope for innovation over traditional consoles. Will more and more mainstreams developers put resources into the area? Let us know.
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21/07/2010 at 12:10
Member since: Aug 2008
Much as I am not a fan of Mobile Gaming, there is no denying that it is becoming more and more popular each day. I think the release of the Wii along side Facebook apps such as Farmville got ‘Joe-average’ into casual gaming so Mobile Gaming was bound to take off.
21/07/2010 at 12:18
Member since: Aug 2008
Mobiles are always with you and yet you normally only want a ‘dip in and out’ experience while you wait for your girlfriend to try on some clothes or during a bus ride.
Also, small devices can not, and should not, have many buttons located the way a gamepad does. My Nexus One is, like most phones now, smaller than a DualShock so casual games that only need finger touches, tilting or a couple of buttons work best.
I have Snesoid (an android SNES emulator) but actually find that even SNES games need too many buttons to be really fun to play on a phone. The games I play most are things like Air Control, Let’s Golf, Raging Thunder 2 and Crytallite Defense which have little more than touching and tilting controls.
21/07/2010 at 12:18
Member since: Jan 2010
I’m not remotely interested in mobile gaming, I want big screen (well TV at least) gaming, surround sound and joypads. I have the 2 free minis that came with PSN+ and I hate the zombie game.
But thats just me, I’m not the masses, and the masses seem to want this kind of entertainment.
21/07/2010 at 12:29
Member since: Feb 2009
It will grow and get bigger, but it will NEVER replace home consoles. Sure, they themselves will change massively over time, but will not be replaced by mobile devices. People want to sit on the sofa, big screen, surround sound, full immersion. Mobile gaming cannot offer that. These days people like to be occupied constantly, and that’s where mobile gaming comes in. 15 minute waits for trains and such pass by much faster when you occupy your mind with something, and as such that’s where mobile games have their main place in the market, short sharp snappy titles that you can have a quick play of.
21/07/2010 at 12:54
Member since: Forever
Never replace home consoles? Do you know how many iPhones there are out there?
21/07/2010 at 13:23
Member since: Jan 2010
iPhones that work or dont work?
:P
21/07/2010 at 13:26
Member since: Dec 2008
Some of us like having games on 52″ screens rather than 2″ screens. Ive tried COD on my Ipod. It was crap. Ill stick to the shiny ps3 version thanks.
21/07/2010 at 13:37
Member since: Jul 2009
Replacement is null and void. Two separate markets that share the same industry. Only a tiny percentage might “replace” as such.
21/07/2010 at 13:38
Member since: Nov 2008
Granted, there are a lot of iOS devices out there but speaking in gaming terms, would anyone sell a home console for one?
Purely based on the gaming aspect though.
21/07/2010 at 14:04
Member since: Aug 2008
Nofi, the point is that no-one is going to look at an iPhone and think “hmm, well I don’t need my PS3/Xbox360 any more”. The things that people want in mobile gaming and in home console gaming are irreconcilably different and that will never change.
For a mobile to do what my home console can would mean changing the mobile into something I would no longer want anyway (too big, too many buttons etc)
21/07/2010 at 15:29
Member since: Feb 2009
But how many of those iphone owners also have a home console? How many of them only use their games on their iphone when they’re out and about, and use their home console when they’re at home? Of course we don’t know these answers, the are merely rhetorical questions. My point is that they will never replace home consoles, both have their own seperate slice of the market.
21/07/2010 at 22:02
Member since: May 2010
yeah apple keep releasing the same old sh*t
21/07/2010 at 12:30
Member since: Forever
Its definitely becoming a huge player. I mean sites like Apptilt for instance prove that gaming is taking a huge shift. I think this is the reason console publishers are having a huge chunk of their profits going missing.
That said console gaming will never ever go away, the ability to play a much larger scale game on a home console will always have its place.
I suppose the future is a Sony-esque “Remote Play” style gaming, where the portable device is physically linked to the console when at home and then digitally linked when on the move. Or even taking it a step further when the home console actually is the portable device, that a bit further off though.
21/07/2010 at 20:43
Member since: Oct 2009
will never replace my console.
21/07/2010 at 22:04
Member since: May 2010
you can take our phone but not our consoles and THIS IS SPARTA sorry couldn’t resist
21/07/2010 at 12:31
Member since: Apr 2009
I’m not sure how I’d get through my working day without Angry Birds, Flight Control and even the revamped Monkey Island series (which works a dream by the way) on my beloved iPhone. It’ll never replace gaming on the PS3 but it makes my day all the better, until I’m allowed to take the PS3 to work with me that is ;)
21/07/2010 at 12:31
Member since: Jul 2009
Mobile games really aren’t my thing – I’ve played on my kids PSP and don’t like it. I’m definitely not going to fork out £5.00 to play a newly released PS3/XBOX game on my iphone because it just doesn’t play very well.
I have got the odd 59 pence game on my phone (angry birds being one example), but it’s simply as a two minute distraction – I certainly don’t play them in the house – I go fire up the playstation.
21/07/2010 at 12:40
Member since: Jul 2009
Agreed. There are so few truly great games (in relative terms) on mobile phones but Angry Birds (and a few others) are true gems. Mobile/social gaming is the fastest growing sector and it may well introduce a new stepping stone into the video-gaming industry.
Look at Hello Games. Four lads created Joe Danger. Someone might want to invest or the ROI was high enough where they can afford to take more people on. Next thing you know, they have a well respected indie development team that starts churning out belters every year or so.
However, before Hello Games, perhaps the guys tried their hand at a few iPhone games just to see if they could make something of it.
Also, nothing has to replace anything. There’s room in this industry for it to grow however we fancy and the smoother the transition for people leaving university to get into mobile games, then PSN games, then full-blown BluRay titles, the better.
Sorry, dunc, not all the reply was aimed at you. :-)
Top article, Kris!
21/07/2010 at 12:45
Member since: Oct 2009
agree that mobiles won’t take over or replace consoles but, for a quick game of peggle, a mobile is perfect for that.
21/07/2010 at 12:48
Member since: Mar 2009
Any move to improve gaming experience whilst sat on the lavvi has got to be a good thing in my book
21/07/2010 at 12:51
Member since: Apr 2009
+1
21/07/2010 at 22:06
Member since: May 2010
have tried playing a game on a phone? if so then you will know how akward the controls can be
21/07/2010 at 13:00
Member since: Dec 2008
Id rather listen to music than play a game on my iPod.