Eric Seufert: more studios to focus on Android-first development in 2022

Media strategist Eric Seufert has shared five trends of the mobile games market for 2022. Among other things, he believes that companies will start creating Android-first strategies for their titles in the wake of the ATT implementation on iOS.

As Seufert pointed out in a blog post, Google will continue to build new tools “scoped specifically to benefit from the difficulties imposed on app advertising on iOS.” It will, in fact, highlight a marketing gap between the two platforms to make more companies shift towards Android.

Of course, Google is now also getting ready to introduce new privacy rules, which might affect marketing on Android. However, Seufert calls them “ATT Lite” because he thinks that these changes will be not as heavy-handed as Apple has already done.

The bottom line is that aggregating an audience on iOS has become much more expensive and difficult compared to a year ago. Android, on the other hand, has a chance to become a place where this process will get more efficient over time.

“Whereas an iOS-first development approach was previously commonplace to see for game developers — meaning core features, gameplay design, hardware operability, and live operations content were optimized for iOS devices — my suspicion is that many developers begin to prioritize Android as their focus platform,” Seufert wrote.

The other thing that might make companies shift their strategies towards Android is that this platform is dominant in developing markets like Brazil, India, and Nigeria. 

The full article, where Seufert also touches on trends like portfolio management and cross-promotion, as well as platform holders’ unwillingness to allow play-to-earn games on their stores, can be read here.