Nobody _wants_ to play games on mobile devices, not even kids
I know this won’t be a popular comment but I used to come here because it was open to new ideas. Increasingly, popular comments here are reaffirmations of the community’s biases.
I would really hate if HN turned into yet another Reddit-like echochamber
I do agree though that people should be careful about creating echo chambers. Not every opinion needs to be weighted the same, but it's important to be open to differences between people.
https://www.reuters.com/article/esports-business-gaming-reve...
To summarize:
> Nobody _wants_ to play games on mobile devices, not even kids
Was responded to with a factual statement on the size of that business that "no one wants to take part of", suggesting that perhaps there might be some correlation between a 77B revenue market, and some desire for it to exist by the consumers.
To which you argued that one should make a distinction on the type of games. Which brings us full circle to my point, that, no. The original did not make such a distinction, so neither should the refutation of it require such considerations. Whether or not that is the best approach for the sake of convincing anyone is a separate matter.
Source: https://www.statista.com/topics/1906/mobile-gaming/
edit: fixed source
Here is a more direct quote from statistia:
" In 2020, smartphone games generated approximately 74.9 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenue, accounting for 43 percent of the global gaming market during the measured period. Console games were ranked second with 51.2 billion U.S. dollars in global revenue."
This could be especially true of a core (not casual) game like a shooter.
The fact that the cheap, shallow, and manipulative tripe that fills the App Store & Play Store to the brim are pulling so many players and so many dollars is genuinely depressing.
I think looking at the number of folks playing Fortnite on each platform and comparing that gives a better idea of where gamers prefer to play games.
> gamers prefer to play games
most of the money being made in mobile gaming is coming from people who would not self-identify as "gamers". If you're just considered about where "gamers" want to game, then sure. But that's excluding a massive (and the fastest-growing) segment of the video games industry.
Anyone who plays a game is a gamer, that's fair - so let me clarify my assumptions:
- I think more folks play games for longer on consoles/PCs compared to mobile devices
- I think mobile games punch above their weight in sales due to dark patterns and scammy business practices
I could be wrong
Relatively few people want to play games like Fortnite on their phones. A great many people want to play crossword puzzles.
The consoles would never allow them and even if they did, people don’t mindlessly get addicted to crap when playing on a console like they do on their phones.
They allow Fortnite[1], don't they? Or more recently Genshin Impact, which is a pure "gatcha" game - as "mobile" as it gets - and is probably doing very well[2] on PS4/5.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHPNgIihR0
[2] https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/genshin-impact-mobile-reve...
Edit: Oh, I totally forgot about the original console "strip you of your money" game: Fifa[3].
[3] https://screenrant.com/fifa-ultimate-team-ea-total-revenue-6...
More importantly, though, the average console game is 50 bucks, while the average mobile game is free.
I bought GTX 970 and Ryzen 7 1700 for 240$, but it was 2 years ago
Or you can just walk into a shop and leave with a new phone.
>A phone can be had for comparatively cheaply, in comparison.
Some phones definitely can, same with some computers, the thing is whether you're comfortable with trade-offs.
Computer unlike smartphone can be relatively easily built with used parts.
You can get a PS3 for next to nothing, and games also cost hardly anything. No online subscription required either.
Go down to PS2 and PS1, and you can get all of it essentially for free.
Just want to point out although I was once dismissive of mobile gaming, there is a whole mostly-untapped market for genuinely great video games on mobile despite the current market being flooded with low-effort/exploitative options.
At first it was, but this didnt work well on mobile because the players themselves were mobile and did not have dedicated time to deal with this game mechanic. But by fixing it for mobile with backgrounding and automatic state saving, it breaks the core incentive of the game.
Just my two cents.
In my opinion, not being forced to complete an in-game day in one sitting, but rather at your own leisure, matches perfectly the chill and leisurely gameplay of Stardew Valley.
“Is game same in a fundamentally way, yes/no.” No more, no less.
Do you go crystal farm, or do you go into town and form a relationship, or routine watering of your farm, or …
It's going to take a big player having the fortitude sustain the marketing (and potential losses) to sell an app that doesn't fit in this paradigm.
For a good 80+%, it's a simple time waster to play for an hour between the day. Not a gambling simulator, not a hardcore grinding MMO-lite. And if they think something is a ripoff, they have literal thousands of other games they can try in minutes.
Probably one of the most ridiculous things I read ever. For starter there aren’t even any game worth called a RTS on mobile. Screen size and lack of keyboard means that any real RTS experience is impossible. How playable Wargames: Red Dragon or Age of Empire II would be on mobile? They won’t be at all, and that one of the reasons they aren’t available on smartphones.
https://www.phonearena.com/news/10-best-real-time-strategy-r...
Don't like them? I don't care.
I am not claiming it's the best format for these games but playing it on my phone was easy and great.
There's also a solo card game, the name escapes me, I spent hours on it (edit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinytoucht...).
My phone is the most available device and games are cheaper than Switch games if easy-to-pick-up is a criteria.
Anyway, it depends on what you like :).
(I didn't like an old man's tale at all, I thought it was ripoff).
edit: if some people on HN get my preferences from this post I am all ears for mobile game suggestions :).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-played_mobile_gam...
Solitaire maybe? The classic Solitaire (Klondike Solitaire) is quite playable on phones, even in portrait mode. Self-plug: you can enjoy it in this mobile-first PWA (progressive web app) of mine: https://FreeSolitaire.win/
Card game wasn't a good choice of words.
> Card game wasn't a good choice of words.
Well yes, it was: “Card Crawl is a solitaire-style dungeon crawler game played with a modified deck of standard cards.”
Funnily, it’s even advertised as a solitaire game ^^
I'm also a fan of Slay the Spire, mostly playing it on PC and Switch. But I triple dipped for the Android version, which has a little bit of clunkiness with the UI but the underlying game is there.
Great games, all of them.
And Monument Valley which has similar game mechanics (you twist the environment around rather than make your way through it).
Regarding the ambiance: no idea :/.
But in the same vein, not on Android there is : Invisible Inc. https://store.steampowered.com/app/243970/Invisible_Inc/ and another game with a little girl and her invisible friend or something and it's turn based and tiled based and there's a back-in-time mechanic. Eh. I am useless.
Edit: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1433530/Bilal_Go/ Found out about that one. It even has Tomb Raider Go's tiles :).
Many kids (like my own) prefer the mobile form factor and mobile controls.
That said, they're not playing Fortnite and likely don't even know what Fortnite is.
There's actually more controllers now than ever before that have even more buttons accessible to non-thumb fingers. A phone just seems like a poor choice for a game like Fortnite.
On the other hand, mobile screens have multitouch and drag/swipe actions, and that's a real complaint when he's using a controller with physical buttons.
That said, I've yet to truly enjoy playing a port of a console or PC game on mobile. The control compromises, if nothing else, are just too large.
But very few did, until very recently (in the grand sceheme of things. It didn't help that native controller support for Android took until a few years back).
Because that seems incredibly awkward and uncomfortable?
Playing on the table is one way - but it hurt my neck too much. I preferred the "claw grip" on my phone while laying on the couch - though I could only comfortably do 3 fingers. Some of the best mobile players do 6!
https://blog.iconfactory.com/2021/04/frenzic-overtime-coming...
</rant>
Yes, my watch. I have 2048, an Arkanoid clone, Pong, and a fun little strategy game called Tiny Armies.
Now, to be clear, I do very little gaming. Don't own a desktop or console, the only games I play on my laptop are occasional web-based games (usually when something shows up on HN and I'm bored). I had a phase of playing games on my tablet but I just kinda fell out of the habit, and for whatever reason, the only phone game I've played in the last five years is Monument Valley.
I did game on my phone more often in the early Teens: Doodle Jump, something called Bit Trip Beat, Osmos, and yes, Flappy Bird. Just kinda stopped doing it.
So when I'm standing in line, or watching video and kind of bored with it but not so bored I'll stop watching, I do some casual gaming on my watch.
I didnt love the tiny screen but given the option between no playstation and playstation I was going to play on the tiny screen.