Why I don’t like smartphone gaming? (At least, for now.)
Ever since smartphones have been created, gaming has been an essential activity on them. Smartphones have gradually become more powerful with time. Apple’s iPad Pro (2021), which is also a mobile device, is powered by M1 chip. Which is same hardware as their MacBook Air, which is a full fledged computer and is considered one of the best processor right now. So hardware of smartphones is more than capable for gaming. So, you might ask “Why?”, after reading the title of this article. We are going to be discussing that very thing in this article! And I will also be discussing an innovation which might change my opinion about smartphone gaming.
Business model of games on smartphones
This is the biggest factor in destroying smartphone gaming experience, according to me. The business model games has changed a lot since last few years. Earlier, either games are paid or free. One just had to pay some price for the game, and simply download it. Or, just download the free game available. Now, most of the games are free to download. But, most of them have baked in ads or in-app purchases for various things. Whether it be for buying in-game currency to make progress, or it may be to unlock some exclusive content. Games like PUBG, Call of Duty and Fortnite have been offering season passes, which offer some exclusive content like player skins. These season passes expire after certain period, so players are tempted to buy them because the content these passes offer, are not available after these passes expire.
It is very simple to understand why game developers are doing it. When they offer game free to download, the chance of attaining new user increases. They’ve designed games in such a way that, the user is tempted and in some games is forced to make some in-app purchase to either progress further in game, to unlock some exclusive content that might not be available for free, or to buy some in-game currency to again progress in the game. And this cycle never ends. When user invests any money in the game, they feel the need to invest even more to progress further. And, in the end developer gets more profits. Developer might only have got one transaction from one user for buying the game, if the game was paid. But now, developer has entangled the user in a series of in-app purchases from one user. These purchases might seem small at the moment, but in total amounts to much more.
This in-game transaction issue has been criticised in some games available for consoles and pc. But, this issue is present in almost all games on smartphones. That’s why I don’t like to invest time in smartphone gaming. Because at some point I know, that game will demand me real money to progress any further in the game.
Smartphone games themselves
The games themselves are not engaging for me personally. The quality of games have depleted in many ways. Just look at racing games. The developers don’t trust you with driving your car on your own. Racing games have pre-programmed controls, which takes away the fun of driving and controlling your car on your own. Not in only racing, but this is happening across many games. Games like PUBG, Call of Duty and Fortnite are some exceptions. But most of the games are becoming too easy. Developers are trying to cater most games for wider audience, rather than listening to core audience who want a completely different experience. That’s why developers are introducing simpler controls in game, which sometimes spoils the game altogther. And sometimes even making game progression too easy, so that game is addictive and has attention of user.
So, one might ask why developers do this? It’s very simple. Simpler is the game. This benefits developers as if the game caters to larger audience, more people will play it. There will be higher revenue from micro-transcations in the game. Plus, game developers now-a-days are trying to compete with social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., and streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, for the screen-time of any user. Every developer wants user to use their service or game for longer. All of them are trying to compete for attention of user. Higher screen time is better for all the apps and games in different ways. Apps like TikTok have made attention span of users to all time low, since apps like these don’t want user to do anything, rather these apps are designed to give user everything with software. That’s why it has become so difficult for game developers to compete for screen-time of user.
Now, let’s talk about Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade was released in September, 2019. It’s aim was to give users great quality games under one subscription for iOS devices. Later, this was introduced for MacOS devices as well. Apple Arcade solves one big problem that I have mentioned in this article, which is problem of micro-transaction. This gets solved since now one only has to pay subscription of the service. Apple has even offered this as a bundle with Apple News and other services by Apple. Games here don’t have ads and also their experience is not affected or influenced by profit motives of the developer.
But, as the name suggests, Apple Arcade usually only offers Arcade style of games. The categories are usually limited to puzzle, adventure and education. These games are great, but are not close to big titles like GTA, NFS, PUBG or Fortnite who offer much more. I think Apple can offer games of other categories as well and which offer much more. I hope Apple adds some big titles like mentioned above to it’s collection of almost 150 games. Apple Arcade improves the situation in terms of micro-transaction, but it is nowhere close to mobile gaming experience that many people wish for, and personally how I wish for.
One solution: Cloud Gaming
Cloud Gaming has the ability to revolutionise smartphone gaming for ever! Basically, with the help of cloud gaming, we can run PC/console level games with the same level of graphics and performance on your smartphones. So, one would ask how this will work? We all know, smartphone hardware has come a long way since its interaction in 2007 with iPhone. And smartphones are more than capable of running decent level games. But, for sure smartphones still can’t run high-demanding games like GTA-5, FIFA, Forza Horizon etc. So, for this cloud gaming exists. That’s why all big players like Amazon (with Luna), Google (with Stadia), Microsoft/Xbox (with XCloud) and Sony/PlayStation (with PlayStation Now) are battling for cloud gaming supremacy. Cloud gaming battle is so intense that it forced Microsoft and Sony, two arch rivals in console gaming to be partners.
In cloud gaming, we would basically stream our games. We won’t directly load them into our smartphones (which save storage on phones) and would run on a sever somewhere around the world, which will high level of hardware on it. This will give supreme quality performance and we will also get our favourite PC/console games on our smartphones. Not only smartphones, but this will also allow you to stream games even on your PC (useful if your PC doesn’t have capable hardware to run the game). One will not require to invest in PC hardware or gaming console to run those games. In Xbox gameplay, you can actually stream the game from your Xbox console to your smartphone directly. Which means, the Xbox will handle all the processing and you can simply enjoy your games on your phone or your PC! All these will come under a subscription. It depends on the service if games will also be included in the subscription.
This solves many issues. Because now we are getting games at console/pc level quality, in which developers devote years in enhancing the overall experience. But also, generally the games on consoles/pc have much less micro-transactions in comparison to mobile games.
The only drawback of this would be constant requirement of high speed internet. But, with the advancement in 5G technology, this issue will not be a so much of a problem in the future.
Conclusion: What future holds for smartphone gaming?
So, all the points that I’ve covered here in this article reflect my personal opinion about smartphone gaming. It may happen that you are completely fine with it. As far as my mentions about micro-transcations and games becoming too easy go, these things unfortunately won’t end anytime soon. Actually, these things might increase in coming future. One thing is for sure, smartphone hardware won’t be a limiting factor, like it is not even today. The technology in these gadgets is only going to improve. To give us even better performing smartphones. But, it will the will of these game developers to earn more profits, that will hamper the gaming experience on smartphones.
With help of 5G, I think cloud gaming would the next big thing in smartphone gaming. Apart from it, I think Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality can also play a key role in revolutionising the overall gaming experience on our future smartphones.
