Small screen, combined with poor/touch screen controls, and wanting to make money no matter what by pushing ads everywhere because no one wants to pay $10+ for a mobile software.
The only time I consider a mobile a game is when there is an ad-free option available.
There are some great mobile games out there. A few of my favorites include Dawncaster and Slice & Dice. Personally when I’m looking for a new game I use www.darkpattern.games to check if they are exploitive.
I feel like the best time for mobile games was back around 2009/2010 when touchscreen just became good and most stuff was either free or paid and without intrusive ads and monetization or other predatory bullcrap.
I recently tried Angry Birds 2, and I was baffled it would only take a few levels before I had to buy my way to more “ammunition” to keep playing. The original used to be good, I even wouldn’t have minded if there was like an ad between games, or if it was just buy-to-play, but even that isn’t an alternative option anymore. And they also pulled the original from the stores, I thought they had re-released it before, but couldn’t find it either. And also when I first opened the game there was so much shit on screen that it was even difficult to navigate to just even find the actual game, it’s absolutely fucking ridiculous.
Agreed. There was a fantastic time for mobile games before things went downhill.
I have a strong memory of being in an apple store, finding a display iPad, and becoming enraptured by Plants vs Zombies. I would eventually get my own and put dozens and dozens of hours into the game.
If I remember right, mobile games did tried to somewhat tried make console experience work on mobile phone but of course phones was way underpowered and not to mention that majority of mobile games have touch controls which compare to controller are just really naff. Only few people would maybe get an Bluetooth controller. That’s why more simplex game just works better on mobile and then it just riddle with clones and shovelware
Only if people are willing to pay for them.
There’s no reason a mobile game would be cheaper to develop than a PC game.
And there’s also no one paying $50 for a mobile game.
The market has decided.
what shocks me is that nintendo never made some new pokemon games in their old GBA or DS style. it would be perfectly suited to phone limitations and expectations and there is a huge potential market for that style of game.
There used to be thousands of good developers making respectable games. Most of them failed financially, and many of the survivors sold out later anyway.
Mobile games are designed like junk-food: take it out, eat some junk, then put it away to go do something else, throw away the bag or seal it for a quick snack later. Normal games are designed like a full meal: sit down somewhere with good atmosphere, nutritious, good conversation, get full and go home with plenty of leftovers and good memories
If you own an iPhone just get Apple Arcade through Apple One, it’s really worth it if you game on your phone. No predatory monetisation, regular self-contained games, plenty of high quality titles.
They’re trash because they’re free.
Traditional games need to be good, so people buy them.
You don’t need to buy mobile games. But developers need to eat. So the money needs to be extracted from the people while they play.
So you need to implement microtransactions and design the entire game around making them necessary for success.
But most people stop playing a game at some point when they’ve beaten it, or are getting bored ot it.
So you need to make your game addictive instead.
The same principle applies to so many things (for example news).
If you don’t pay for it up front, the entire thing will be designed around extracting money from you during use.
Which means it needs to be designed to draw you in and keep you addicted. Delivering quality content is literally worthless.
Most mobile game developers just want to attract whales. People who spend thousands of dollars in their app. They don’t care about everyone else because they don’t make any money off anyone else.
I use MiniReview (minireview.io) to have better sorting options for games on Google’s Play Store, you can specifically sort for screen orientation, monetisation (or lack of), genre, ads or not, etc
Users who expect low prices - This partly because of the history of mobile games being smaller and/or ad-funded but also because the vast majority of people playing games on their phone are looking for a low barrier to entry, time waster, not specifically a game.
Lack of regulation or enforcement - other gambling heavy fields tend to be at least somewhat regulated, but mobile games are very light on regulation, and even lighter on enforcement. This allows them to falsely advertise their games and how they function (both in terms of misleading ads, and lying about chance based events and purchases in-game).
Monopolistic middlemen - On other platforms, theres more direct competition (IE, Sony and Microsoft’s generally more direct competition) or companies that prioritize long-term growth and stability (IE Steam or Itch.io). Apple and Google, on the other hand, largely compete on brand perception and hardware specs. These means that their app stores, where they make most of their money, have zero competitors. Seeing as they have no reason to make the stores better, they can instead promote whatever makes them the most money; that being exactly these manipulate, sketchy, virtual slot machines.
Shoutout to Slay the Spire, Balatro, and Slice & Dice. They all cost a bit (around 10€) but are excellent ports of the originals and among the best mobile games. Slice & Dice even started out as a mobile game and was ported to PC later.
Wild Rift is my poor man’s League (although the skins are way more expensive than on PC). Don’t have a PC to play League on and WR is a good, chill alternative. Plus, I can play with my SO
Mobile games are the equivalent of those "100 great games pack"-type CDROMS you'd find in the electronics section of stores in the late 90s/early 2000s. Not many invest serious money and time into gaming on a tablet or phone like they do on a console or PC, because games on phones and tablets are more like an afterthought. Something to do in between group chats and work emails.
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