Eric Coursin
In recent years, with new phone developments and upgrades releasing once, maybe even twice a year, mobile phones are able to do a lot more than they could even five years ago. With these vastly upgraded technologies, the mobile games industry has been able to skyrocket, and that growth doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Games are such an interesting enigma within the subject of economics, due to its ability to wiggle out quality products, even when the market is seemingly saturated. As long as there is an idea for something new, games will always be able to grow.
The growth of the mobile games industry isn’t as exponential as it had been back in 2014, but that doesn’t mean the growth is minimal. The growth most certainly comes from the fact that, in in U.S., at least 72.3% of mobile phone users are mobile gamers, in some way or another (IAB (Trends)). The graphic at right doesn’t predict past 2019, but it is estimated that just by the year 2021, two years from now, the mobile games industry could bring in annual revenues close to $100 billion (Finance Magnates).
Interestingly enough, the mobile games that bring in the highest revenues are the apps that are free to download. Sure, that’s not much of a shock by today’s standards, thanks to the widespread popularity of in-app purchases, but it is fascinating to see just how these companies are able to play the market in order to bring in the most money. Additionally, although to the dismay of many traditional console and PC gamers, other games companies have taken note of mobile games’ strategies and implemented similar in-game purchase models (Finance Magnates). Games companies that have adopted these types of business models haven’t done any worse financially, but their reputations as decent games companies have definitely been harmed thanks to their decisions.
So, how will the enormous growth of the mobile games market impact the rest of the games industry? It won’t. There are plenty of sources that have claimed the takeover by the mobile games market, that traditional games will die, but that just can’t be true. Sure, there are definitely way more people playing games on their phones now more than ever, but they’re tailored to a specific audience. There will always be gamers who would prefer to spend their money on a one-time purchase and enjoy a full gaming experience relaxing on their couch, rather than uncomfortably hold their phone for hours on end. Economically, the strategies of mobile games aren’t even acceptable to most traditional gamers, and companies like EA could be left behind while the competition actual listens to the demands of the market.
Overall, mobile games have their purpose in one’s life, as well as in the economics of video games. The increasing quality of mobile games will allow the industry to continue to grow in the coming years (Kooistra), and traditional video games will still remain strong in their own growth.
Works Cited
“2018 Video Game Industry Statistics, Trends & Data - The Ultimate List.” WePC.com, 10
Jan. 2019, www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/#mobile-gaming
3599. “Gaming Industry Sees Strong Growth Heading to 2019 | Finance Magnates.” Finance
Magnates | Financial and Business News, Finance Magnates, 17 Sept. 2018,
https://www.financemagnates.com/thought-leadership/gaming-industry-shows-impressive-grow
th-leading-up-to-2019/
Kooistra, Jelle. “4 Mobile Gaming Trends to Watch in 2019.” Applift, 14 Feb. 2019,
https://applift.com/blog/4-mobile-gaming-trends-to-watch-in-2019
I agree that games bring a tons of avenues to government and economy. Games play a huge role in today's world, games never made money during 90s and they were not even that famous because no one knew what they got benefited by playing games, one thing for sure that they definitely entertained people who were bored. But now almost everyone's playing or participating in games. This benefit some owners by the number of people playing it, if more people play the more money they will get. Whereas other apps like paid apps for sure make money because they have to be bought before played. But in the gaming industry the owner who publish their apps for free tend to gain more money than the owners who sell their apps. Because the selling apps usually do not satisfy customers because the only thing that they know about the app is in the description and once after they bought they usually feel regret because they didn't like the music, or the game. Whereas free apps just require your time and WiFi and you uninstall them when ever you want if you didn't like any aspect of it and it doesn't harm you in any way and you didn't even spend money to play this game.
ReplyDeleteI think that the increase in mobile gaming can be directly related to the increase in technology of phones. Phones nowadays have much better storage and speed, which allows for some mobile games to thrive. Mobile fortnite would not have been possible on phones a few years ago because the technology simply wasn't sufficient or capable for the multiplayer game to exist. While mobile gaming is increasing I don't think that it will ever take over console or pc because of the ease of having a controller or mouse as well as the storage and speed of the devices. Until phones develop to the point of pc's and consoles I don't think that they'll pose a huge threat in the gaming industry.
ReplyDeleteI guess I just couldn't help but comment on this blog post. I play a lot of traditional games on game consoles, and sometimes I play PC games, but my computer isn't that amazing so I avoid it if I can. I completely agree with you that mobile, or free to play games have become popular over the past decade, but I don't really think that's a good thing, basically for the same reasons you suggested. Most mobile games use strategies of using in game micro-transactions to make their money off of players that play their game. And normally that wouldn't be too bad if the game wasn't using immoral strategies to hook their player base. Mobile games reward players with small rewards for playing their game more, but in a matter of time the free rewards go away depending on how much you play. And without those rewards, it may be surprisingly difficult to progress through the game, either through a difficulty spike, or just by having to wait real hours to progress. So then how do you progress? You pay of course. The game rewards the player for paying money to progress, and each time you pay, you get a dopamine rush for being able to progress through the stages you are now able to pass for buying your way through. An example of this kind of system would be Candy Crush, which was really popular for it's addicting gameplay, and made a lot of money during it's popularity also. Mobile games aside, I'm not completely against the idea of paying for more content. In fact I love extending the playtime of my favorite games if it's done well. If the extra content is substantial enough, and worth the price, I would gladly play more of the game. This isn't normally the system mobile games go for though, so I guess I'm out of luck there.
ReplyDeleteIt does not come as a surprise that mobile games are on the rise, as today's generation is the most technologically advanced yet, leading to a technologically driven economy. I'm sure that the more and more popular these online gaming methods are becoming, the more demand is increasing for traditional board games that were once so popular. Just think, when is the last time you sat down with your family and just played a board game? Meanwhile, if you have a boy in your family between the age 10-16 I'm sure they have sat down and played some sort of online game within the last week. As boards games are decreasing in demand, the industry is slowly losing more and more revenue causing firms to shut down or change to different industries and/or products.
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