Mobile games are under huge transformation. With the advent of latest technologies like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and growing performance enhancement of smartphones, a mobile app development company have to remain on its toes to develop engaging and entertaining games. It has to keep track of the latest trends emerging in mobile games. Let’s look at top trends in mobile games development in 2018.
Table of Contents
1. The emergence of console-quality mobile games
There has been a keen aspiration of mobile gamers to have console-quality experience. With popular games like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG) allowing mobile players to play across platforms, there is huge excitement in the gaming community. It is a major industry shift as mobile gamers are getting accustomed to much longer gaming sessions.
Smartphones are now much powerful enough so that console-quality graphics are quite possible which allows the game developers to create an interactive and unified experience across platforms. There is a major shift toward high-quality mobile games to appear in coming years.
Mobile games have become quite difficult for any mobile development company to develop because touch controls essentially require much more thought than merely porting over a particular gamepad control scheme. As hardcore gaming on smartphones takes off, we will witness a resurgence of various gaming accessories like battery banks and gamepads to keep the gamers juiced up.
2. Cleaning of the gaming community
Toxicity in the gaming community isn’t a recent phenomenon, and it remains to be a constant headache for mobile game developers to control and police. Cyberbullying has remained to plague the gaming communities across console, PC and mobile. Anonymity, as well as competitive gameplay, have certainly created toxic communities where there is a huge discussion among mobile gamers regarding it on various forums.
3. AR and VR getting into the mainstream
Both AR and VR are still quite alive in the gaming industry. However, they certainly face various challenges when it comes to mass adoption. Augmented Reality remains to be comparatively popular than Virtual Reality due to lower hardware requirements. It is also supported by the release of ARKit and ARCore which makes it easier for the developers to create Augmented Reality experience for mobile.
However, the Virtual reality remains to be the platform for enthusiasts with various innovative games emerging in recent time. Mobile games now allow the players to accomplish various tasks like raising virtual pets or interacting with them in the real work. Also, eCommerce apps are now allowing buyers to virtually place any product in their homes to assist them in making a purchase decision right from the comfort of their home. To tap into growing potential of AR and VR games, hire a game developer who can introduce these technologies in the mobile games.
4. Growing challenge of Game Discovery
Any mobile application development company, whether it is small or big, has to face a tough time in order to get its mobile games discovered. It is a well-established fact that even big gaming studios often face difficulties in getting their games discovered in app stores. The gaming app market is overly crowded as well as highly competitive which makes it harder for companies to get their games noticed.
The mobile game market is heading towards saturation, and it has become quite important for any mobile development company to have a solid and detailed user acquisition strategy. Combined with various organic growth vectors such as SEO, App Store Optimization or ASO, Word of Mouth etc. mobile game developers have to craft an effective user acquisition strategy to get more users. In recent years, even large studios have lost their market to smaller game developers who enacted on better UA strategy.
5. Next-billion mobile gamers market
With most of the developed markets getting saturated, mobile game developers are currently looking at the opportunity to attract the next billion gamers especially in countries like India and China which has hundreds of millions of smartphone users. The importance of the right localization along with understanding the unique things about this market is crucial for the game development industry.
Countries like India have skipped over the console and PC revolution and have jumped straight to mobile gaming. Due to this, game developers need to consider the entire difficulty curve for the beginners or first-time players in these countries who don’t have decades of experience with PC and console game mechanics. Mobile developers need to work closely with local publishers to get their games properly promoted and localized. Also, ASO strategies and tools which work in the developed market might not work in these developing markets due to fragmentation in the app store market. Since these markets are dominated by Android, there will be difficulties faced by developers to break into these regions.
Conclusion
The message is clear for mobile game developers. Mobile gaming will continue to grow and evolve across the world, and they have to be ready to adapt according to these changes quickly. Smartphones are getting more powerful such that console-like gameplay is now becoming possible that will certainly change user behavior. Innovative AR and VR experiences can be introduced on mobile games.
AR remains to be at the forefront while VR remains to be an enthusiast’s platform owing to its high cost as well as clunky hardware. Mobile gaming is rapidly becoming global, and a mobile application development company has to find out how exactly to bring their games to various specific regions across the world instead of simply relying on global versions which certainly fails to appeal to these specific audiences. The challenges are huge but not insurmountable, and they certainly require better strategies.
