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The mobile gaming industry is changing. As the entire gaming industry undergoes seismic shifts in technology, strategy, and expansion, mobile games and mobile game development are affected by emerging trends and new frontiers in the mobile gaming market. The technology behind mobile games and the ways players access them is changing rapidly.
Discerning critical areas of development in the mobile gaming industry is paramount to ongoing success for any mobile game development studio. As the mobile gaming market changes, being forward-thinking and adaptable has never been more important.
A major advancement in the mobile gaming industry has been implementing and refining cloud streaming services, such as GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Such technologies allow mobile gaming to become more than games created within the confines of relatively underpowered mobile devices and grow into a legitimate choice for players to experience their favorite games across the board. Cloud gaming helps close technological borders and makes games more accessible on mobile devices without being concerned with hardware constraints.
Cloud gaming technology coupled with rapidly progressing networking technologies, such as 5G, provides players a quick, responsive platform to not only play their favorite games but also engage in multiplayer with less latency and faster speeds. High-quality real-time multiplayer is more feasible than ever on mobile gaming platforms, and it’s almost certainly going to steadily improve in the future, making cloud and multiplayer gaming viable options for gamers seeking convenient gaming sessions on their mobile devices.
The mobile gaming industry consistently expands in the traditional sense of reaching people all over the world, but it has also experienced exponential growth in areas usually reserved for PC and console gaming. Mobile e-sports have gained popularity and legitimacy in recent years, with games like PUBG Mobile hosting international tournaments showcasing the passion and skill of dedicated gamers. Mobile Legends is another example of a mobile game taking the e-sports phenomenon by storm, featuring several leagues and tournaments.
The mobile gaming market’s expansion has seen it become more integrated with the console and PC gaming communities as well. This blending of communities can be attributed to the success of cross-platform titles such as Among Us, Roblox, and Minecraft. As more games become playable across different platforms including mobile devices, the gaming community becomes more tightly knit and the mobile gaming industry benefits from its games being considered on equal footing to console and PC releases. This is something that more development studios will almost certainly look to take advantage of further into the future to foster strong communities and significant mobile releases.
With the advancement of the mobile gaming industry has come a diverse range of options for players acquiring games. Perhaps more so than console and PC game counterparts, mobile gamers are afforded a range of options including free-to-play games, single-purchase games, in-app microtransactions, reward video ads, and more. This presents development studios with several possible monetization strategies and avenues for continued player engagement with in-app store sales, fresh content updates, season systems offering limited-time events and rewards, and more.
Mobile titles like Pokemon Go and Old School Runescape celebrate major holidays with limited-time events, featuring free content, paid content, and novel holiday-themed gameplay. This is advantageous for development studios in producing further revenue and helping player retention, but also a novel way for players to engage with the game in a rewarding capacity.
Magic Media is a veteran services provider for gaming on all platforms including mobile, entertainment, and tech projects. We offer expert full-cycle game development, real-time VFX, and game porting among many other services. Contact Magic Media today, and let’s create magic!
