Why aren't you and your players tired of mobile games

According to Sergey Galenkin, one of the leading industrial bloggers of the Runet, everyone is tired of mobile games, it’s time to write that the market is “in the dark.” Is it so?

Yesterday, an entry appeared on Sergey’s blog “Why are you tired of mobile games (and your players too)“. In it, he described his vision of the current situation in the mobile games market.

The main theses of the article, which we recommend reading, are as follows: 

1. The joy of the game is in learning new things. 
2. Since the dominant principle of game development in the mobile industry is “we take the leader, we reset, we earn”, then there are almost no original projects. 
3. There are no new mechanics, which means that the player has nothing to learn, he is bored to play, he stops doing it. 
4. The exodus of old players is no longer compensated by the arrival of new ones (the growth in the number of new users is slowing down).
5. The slowdown in audience growth is one of the reasons for the increase in the cost of attracting a player.
6. A huge number of clones in the mobile industry burn out entire genres (after playing games of a certain genre, users will no longer want to return to them).
7. Modern mobile games get bored quickly because of the simplicity of the mechanics, so there have been no successful mobile sequels. 

We disagree with these theses and decided to write a detailed answer why.

1. The concept of a game

The Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga considered the topic of the game as a philosophical concept in detail. He extended this term to almost all human activities (language, relationships, fashion, sports, legal proceedings and even culture).

Johan HuizingaHuizinga singled out several main game conditions: the presence of established rules, freedom (a game in which they are forced to take part is no longer a game), the presence of a rigidly-established space for the game and the presence of a competitive moment.

It is clear that the work of Homo Ludens (“The man playing”) Huizinga wrote long before the advent of not only mobile games, but also the computer itself. But, as it seems to us, when it comes to terms, an appeal to the classics is mandatory. 

The study of the new Heising as a necessary property of the game did not include, although he said that learning can also be a game.

No one disputes that learning new things brings joy. However, it must be remembered that this applies not only to games (more precisely, the first stage – entering the game), but also to many other spheres of human life. It seems wrong to reduce all the joy of games to learning new things.

2. Dominants 

Trying to repeat someone’s success by doing the same with a minimum of changes is the lot of any business. Entrepreneurs, as a rule, tend to minimize their risks, for this reason they follow the beaten track. 

The number of clones of Clash of Clans cannot be countedIf we talk about the mobile gaming industry, the only reason why this pattern has become so obvious here is that the cost of producing hit products without marketing costs turned out to be significantly less than the money they earn.

This created the myth of the mobile El Dorado. 

If there is a myth that art-house games projects made in 2-3 months for PC earn millions of dollars a day – we will surely witness the appearance of a huge number of monotonous “a la indie” products. But will this be a reason to say that there is no place for original projects in this market anymore?

3. About the difference in audiences

If we are talking about the game as a finished product aimed at, conditionally, a hardcore audience, the statement about the dominance of the same mechanics is fair. But the audience of the mobile market is much wider. For many mobile gamers, a “snake” or some simple Match-3 is entertainment for a decade. Same with the farm: a number of users do not want to learn new rules for themselves, they want to collect carrots and get a beautiful achievement for it. 

A hardcore game can cause such a reactionHowever, for those who want to study, all is not lost either.

The most striking example of Clash of Clans, where the appearance of a new unit is the opening of several new strategies at once. 

4. And 6. About the number of mobile players

Mobile players will not leave the platform anymore. They may get bored with the genre, setting, or something else, but they are unlikely to give up using a smartphone and tablet as a gaming platform. But even the departure of some part of the audience will not be a big problem, because the number of mobile gamers in the world has come close to the 1 billion mark and continues to grow (along with the growth of mobile device sales).  

5. About the reasons for the increase in the cost of attracting players

Perhaps we don’t understand something, but we don’t see a connection between the slowdown in audience growth and the increase in the cost of attraction.

It is clear that there is a connection between the growth of the audience and the increase in the cost of attracting, although, as it seems to us, huge price jumps in traffic now, first of all, are a consequence of the price war between market leaders for places in the top, proceeding against the background of a glut of the market with offers. 

7. About successful mobile sequels

The entire Angry Birds series is based on sequels, the Cut the Rope series, the dilogy Room, the Dungeon Hunter series. The list can be continued for a very long time.

But that’s not the point at all. Modern mobile games, as, first of all, service-oriented, do not particularly strive for updating – their task is to become a part of the user’s life. There can be no room for continuations here

What do you think? Is Sergey right when he says that there is nothing interesting on mobile markets? Or, in your opinion, everything is exactly the opposite?