Muse.On-The.Net

Statistically, few (some say 3%) people with mobile phones play mobile phone games regularly.  Some, like Michel Guillemot, the head of mobile game publisher Gameloft, predict that mobile games are improving five times faster than standard video games and will soon rival console game quality.  But view the comments in the same article and hard core gamers still laugh at mobile phone games - they just are not designed to appeal to those who demand the ultimate technology-driven rush received by console games.  But Gameloft is making hundreds of millions selling mobile phone games.  So, who really plays mobile phone games?

I don’t believe mobile phone games will be of much interest to hard core (think first-person shooter) gamers until such time as the immersive experience rivals or surpasses what can be experienced elsewhere.  This is not different that saying that hard core gamers today scoff at those who still play PS2 or XBox games now that the PS3 and XBox 360 consoles are available.  These gamers demand the very latest technology available and anything else is lame.  Does this mean they didn’t love their PS2 or XBox at the time?  No, it just means technology has moved on and so have they.  It doesn’t matter to these people how quickly mobile phones are improving as game machines.  What matters is that they are not the best platforms to play games and therefore are considered irrelevant.

At the other extreme we have people who are bored silly and play solitaire on their work PC as a last resort from complete mental shutdown.  Games can be played as a last resort; a way to waste time when passing the time is agony and any distraction will do.  Mobile phones, being ubiquitous, are the ideal game platform in this case.

Is there an in-between?  Looking at game statistics from MobileRated we find that a variety fo game genres are downloaded.  Furthermore, we find a large variation in perceived game quality, with better games dominating game plays.  Finally, we find that people are returning to the site to download new games, suggesting the experience was rewarding.

Given choices, people will always flock to the better product, and mobile games seldom compete with console games.  Exceptions exist for certain products, like Sudoku, which in this author’s opinion is better played on a mobile phone - more convenient, more accessible, and better controls! Many casual mobile games are not better on consoles.  How does 3D graphics or 5.1 sound make chess a better game?  Like the Wii, finding the right entertainment value can be more important than using the fastest graphic processors.

While casual games do well, so do conventional console products like arcade games, which do suffer from poor controls, limited sound, and all the usual issues associated with mobile phone games.  I think this segment will continue to grow as mobile phones improve, but the key here is the proper comparison.  Given a mobile and a console, these games are best on the console.  That these games are played at all tells me some people don’t have a console but like games or have both but can’t always access the console.  This is the traditional argument for mobile games - accessibility - and it still makes sense.  If I want to play a game it certainly pays off that the platform is always with me.  It is here that perhaps the argument can be made that the games are currently “good enough” to merit play but continuous improvement is required to be a top game.  Looking at the stats, this does seem to be the case.  The top arcade games are the ones that push the limits and do the most.

In the end, we have casual gamers who have an ideal platform and game lovers who take the best they can currently get in a ubiquitous platform.  There is value in serving both camps.