4 Reasons Why Mobile Games Don’t Get Better

The Challenges of Improving Mobile Games

Mobile games have become a huge industry, with millions of users worldwide spending hours on games on their smartphones every day. Nevertheless, even with so much money made off of mobile games, it still seems like a recurring question on what makes mobile games get any better. In this blog post, we are diving into some of the reasons behind that trend.

Limited Hardware and Processing Power

One of the major reasons creating a barrier to better mobile experiences is the limited hardware and processing power of the smartphone itself. Smartphone technology is growing faster and faster, but it still has some ways to go before it can match the capabilities of gaming consoles and PCs. This, in turn, implies that there are limitations that can be imposed on what developers can achieve in terms of graphics, gameplay, and the richness & depth of games.

In addition, another handicap to mobile games is the small size of the screens on our smartphones, which has tremendously impacted the quality of the experience in the entertaining virtual world. Although a few games have been successful in mitigating this disadvantage through innovative controls or AR, most games fail to hold the gamers’ attention to the same levels as other console or PC games.

Monetization & Business Models

Yet another aspect that has hampered the growth of quality mobile games is how the monetization and business models have been structured by the developers. Most mobile games are free to download and play and are based on in-app purchases or advertising. This often results in cutting corners and focusing too much on making money because innovation and game development cost too much work. Developers will spend more money on advertising new ways to take your money than they will pay for game polish. This can lead to a cycle where gameplay becomes repetitive, graphics are less than functional, and the overall quality of games suffers. On the other hand, it makes everyone hurry up to make a new game or update without cleaning the nitty-gritty of the bugs first.

Fragmentation Issues

This is much different than the state of affairs on Android, where the operating system that powers a majority of smartphones is riddled with fragmentation issues. This implies tons of devices running different versions of the OS, with their own bag of compatibility woes. This fragmentation helps developers in no way as it is very difficult for developers to get their game to perform well on every device, thus no consistency in performance nor experience.

This incompatibility further results from the heterogeneous hardware environment of smartphones. Developers frequently have to compromise to get their games to run on as many devices as possible, degrading the overall quality and experience of their game.

Market Demand and Player Preferences

Finally, the demand and player preferences in the mobile gaming market also contribute to the stagnant quality of mobile games.

An awful lot of players want small, casual gaming experiences they can play a little bit at a time. These smaller games with basic gameplay and low time commitment requirements may not support the complexity and level of immersion that game developers would like to achieve. Also, the mobile gaming market is so vast and competitive that thousands of new game developers and marketers are flooding it every day. This over-saturation has made it tough for developers to separate themselves and put money into long-term game development and future fixes.

In Conclusion

Mobile gaming is largely mainstream now, but hardware constraints, monetization models, compatibility issues, and the demanding nature of the market have all become contributing factors that have led to the very diluted improvement in mobile games. But there are plenty of excellent mobile games that still break new ground and offer satisfying experiences. It is possible that with further advancements in technology, we may see better mobile games being released, but for the most part, it seems as though we have yet to see the full possibilities of mobile gaming come out.