Is Mobile Gaming The Future?

Ten years ago, no serious gamer would ever have imagined that they would choose to play their favorite game on a mobile phone. Sure we had the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, but they were dedicated handheld gaming consoles and to be honest most of us had a proper console at home too. But with smartphone technology proving that anything is capable on your handheld device, could mobile gaming be the future?

The stats

Let’s first take a look at some stats. Incredibly, there are about 2.1 billion mobile gamers in the world. Yes, that’s over a quarter of the world’s population regularly playing games on their smartphones. And with such huge figures comes huge revenues. The global mobile gaming industry has doubled in value over the last four years and is now worth a staggering $50 billion. And with the overall gaming industry worth $115 billion, mobile gaming has taken a fairly large chunk of the pie. In fact, experts predict that it will increase to $72 billion within the next two years, so yes, you could say that it’s the future in some respects.

Will it take over from traditional gaming

There are quite a few niches that have enjoyed major success with mobile versions of their PC games or platforms, but perhaps the most successful is the online poker and casino industry. Industry heavyweights such as PokerStars offer their players a seamless experience in their app, and it's proven to be an enormous success. But this success is by no means a foregone conclusion. Gaming companies offering app versions of their platforms or games spend a lot on game development, ensuring that - like PokerStars - their players can easily move from mobile to desktop or console without feeling one is better than the other.

Of course, this only occurs when there is a demand for a mobile version of a game, but judging by those stats we mentioned earlier it seems that more and more gamers want the convenience of playing on their smartphone. However, this does not mean that traditional gaming on consoles or desktops will become old-fashioned in the way arcade machines did back in the 80s. Anything but.

With eSports going mainstream and events becoming more popular by the year, there are calls for video gaming contests to be introduced to the Olympics in Paris 2024. Somehow though, we don’t think that Candy Crush Saga will make it to Paris. While mobile gaming is and always will be popular, it will always be the titles that have console/desktop versions that will gain the most traction with true diehard gamers.

Popularity at an all-time high

The truth, however, is that gaming is becoming more popular everywhere. Large corporations are now turning to gamification for their in-house training and recruitment drives, while other businesses are encouraging their employees to take short gaming breaks at the office as it increases productivity. Add to that the fact that even doctors think that gaming has health benefits and you can see why it’s suddenly a mainstream pastime.

With all of this positivity surrounding the gaming industry of late, it’s hard to argue against the fact that mobile gaming is the future. However, we’ll go one step further and say that it’s not just mobile gaming that is the future but gaming in general. Look at it this way; that ‘waste of time’ pastime of your youth could now land you a job or better yet, a gold medal at the Olympics.