Hey Eggheads Juan Carlos Bagnell here for Newegg studios, and I have a confession to
make.
I am a mobile gamer.
No really.
I play a lot of games on my phone.
Especially these days, where our living room is now an office for my wife and school for
my daughter.
I take my gaming where and when I can get it.
Mobile gaming has a deservedly TERRIBLE reputation, thanks to a number of factors.
It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that there are some truly great games to play on
phones and tablets.
From older console and PC ports to unique experiences just for phones, it’s my unpopular
opinion that The Games aren’t really the problem with mobile gaming.
How would we fix mobile gaming?
I’m glad you asked!
Here are our top three ways to rehabilitate the reputation for gaming on your phone!
Number 3: Better Friends Lists and Match Making Tools!
Your phone is probably your primary communication gadget, so why are social gaming tools such
garbage?
Google Play Games recently made it a little easier to create a list of pals, see what
games they’re playing, and rank scores on a generic leaderboard.
And that’s about it.
It’s up to every individual game developer to make their own solution for pairing players.
There’s no first party option for invites.
There are no Google tools for Teamspeak or chat.
You can staple something together with Twitch, Slobs, Discord, or YouTube, but nothin available
out of the box.
One of the most exciting things about gaming is how sophisticated the ecosystem has become
for co-op and competitive play, and how accessible the tools are for sharing game play.
Gaming is extremely social.
Mobile gaming is not.
Number 2: Clear Certifications for Controllers and Gaming Accessories
If you’ve ever tried to take mobile seriously as a gaming option, this has probably happened
to you.
You try out a game.
It has some promise.
You think “this would be better with a controller”.
You connect a controller.
Nothing happens.
You uninstall the game and move on with your life.
This is partly on developers for not including better hardware support, but this would be
improved significantly if app stores included some simple icons showing controller or accessory
support.
A premium phone is surprisingly capable.
It’s easy and inexpensive to connect a phone to a laptop hub with ethernet, HDMI output,
a controller, and a USB gaming headset.
If your phone or tablet has USB3, the “computer-y” stuff is probably ready to go.
It’s frustrating not knowing what games might support a setup like that.
It’s no fun just randomly trying games hoping they might use the hardware that every other
gaming platform takes for granted.
And the number 1 issue with mobile gaming: Better disclosure for what In-App Purchases a player will face
I’d like you to consider two different scenarios for paying a game developer.
Situation 1:
You install a free game.
You play it for a while.
You enjoy it, but it has ads or locked content.
You look in the settings and see that a one-time purchase will unlock the full game and disable ads
Done. Nothing could be easier
Situation 2:
You install a free game.
You are immediately thrust into a resource management nightmare and your game play is
constantly interrupted by cool down clocks and RNG mechanics.
You could grind for months to accrue in-game currency and materials, or you could short
cut that grind by paying hundreds of dollars on stuff that will just get chewed up in a
digital slot machine with no promise of a payout.
According to Apple and Google, these are the same thing.
They are both “in-app purchases”.
We know that’s crap.
Apple and Google get a cut of every transaction that takes place on their respective platforms,
so they don’t have much incentive to clean up their acts.
With no pressure or disclosure, greedy game developers face little opposition for employing
terrible monetization mechanics.
Worse, it’s easier for a more honorable game developer to get lost in the wasteland
of awful titles.
It shouldn’t be this difficult to shop for a premium app which has a single “unlock
the game” IAP.
How are we supposed to vote with our wallets, if we don’t know what we are voting for.
There’s no reason why consumers shouldn’t be able to filter titles based on a genre,
rating, and monetization.
The number one practice harming mobile gaming comes directly from the shopkeepers running
the mobile gaming stores.
So there you have it.
OUR top 3 recommendations for fixing mobile gaming.
What do YOU think would improve the experience for gamers on phones and tablets?
Tons of drama on the mobile gaming front, with Apple pulling contracts for developers
on Apple arcade, and Epic suing apple and Google over anti-trust polices in their app
stores.
Can mobile gaming be revived as a platform for serious gamers, or will game streaming
services like GamePass and Stadia take over?
Drop us some comments down below.
As always, thanks so much for watching, sharing, and subscribing.
For Newegg Studios, I’m Juan Carlos Bagnell, and I’ll catch you all on the next video.