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All the technology is in place for great games on every platform—and it’s going to be awful.

With Tokyo Game Show buzz still in the air and the new iPhone among us, a lot of people are justifiably excited about where games are, and where they’re going. Projects like Super Evil Megacorp’s Vainglory have come into the spotlight thanks to the the iPhone 6. Touted as a core gaming experience, on a phone or tablet, it looks the part of a PC game. This serves as reminder that core gaming certainly will be, if it isn’t already, “mobile first.”

Earlier this month, EA executive Frank Gibeau was quick to express his excitement over some mobile platforms already achieving parity with next-gen consoles, something he described as “moving perfectly into [EA’s] strike zone.”

(See: How Super Evil Megacorp plans to conquer Asia)

Before we celebrate, it’s important to note that there are a lot of issues that will now be confronted head on because of this change, and a lot of other less-than-positive trends that will probably be accelerated as a result.

The same shit, everywhere

Just because you can port to Windows Phone doesn't mean anyone ever needs to.
Just because you can port to Windows Phone doesn't mean anyone ever needs to.

Just because you can port to Windows Phone doesn’t mean anyone ever needs to.

With game budgets already exceeding those of Hollywood films, there is enormous pressure to make back those costs. With only rare exceptions, for a third-party studio to do this it must put the game on as many platforms as possible, or at least move as many copies as possible. Ditto if you’re making a mobile game, because at a certain point you’ve got to try to get it on iOS, Android and any other platform with a sliver of market share, if you can make back the porting costs.

Successful mobile games are often repackaged for console and PC releases. Some work, some don’t, but increasingly there’s going to be even less thought put into the decision to port. It’s going to be a no brainer. It’s already happening, and from a purely rational economic perspective, it’s going to be imperative.

Controls: phoning it in

image-11-700x466
image-11-700x466

The first, most obvious, and perhaps most surmountable hurdle is controls. Sony is already recommending just using a Dualshock 4 controller to remote play games on its phones. My guess is this won’t be the ultimate answer, because it limits the audience too much. Why target only the person who’s willing to use a controller with their phone, when you can just include everyone with a properly designed game?

Some very solid games can get away with being on literally everything with a screen. You could probably enjoy The Walking Dead on your microwave if you were so inclined. The same can be said for Flappy Bird and its ilk as well. Simple control schemes are going to win out, and maybe that’s a good thing overall, but it certainly will lead to less variety. I don’t think it will reach a point where we’re looking at something like The Onion’s Macbook Wheel, the revolutionary laptop with no keyboard, but then again I failed to see Flappy Bird coming as well.

While now, we have Minecraft and Minecraft: Pocket Edition, it wouldn’t surprise me if most companies start aiming straight for the mobile-friendly version for every game concept. Why wouldn’t they? When fishing for success, why not cast the widest possible net? While we know that Pocket Edition was great, it’s hard to believe it would it have created the same kind of phenomenon.

Avoiding the golden abyss

“An ancient amulet. I bet I can play Swing Copters on this thing!”

For anyone who owns a Playstation Vita, you’ll know that even if you have controls sorted, there are other factors to consider. While I wasn’t particularly a fan of its insistence to include controller, touch screen, rear touchpad, and accelerometer input, the handheld Uncharted: Golden Abyss fell victim to a much more subjective shortcoming: it was a game too “core” for handheld/mobile, and and too “mobile” to have any chance of being ported. I bought it with my Japanese Vita in 2011, and only finished the game midway through 2013.

While this particular example may have just had other flaws, as it wasn’t developed by acclaimed studio Naughty Dog, it highlights how a game formula that seems to be can’t-miss for one platform, will fall flat on another. Uncharted hasn’t been the only Vita game to suffer this fate, and whenever I have purchased console games for my iPad, I usually regret the decision for the same reasons. It’s just not what I want to play there. Those games end up like documentaries in my Netflix queue, waiting for that someday when I feel like more than a quick dopamine rush on the go.

The answer for this one isn’t evident, but it seems likely it will be figured out by analyzing data, consumer behavior, and good old fashioned trial and error. The results may well eventually be fantastic, but for now we’re the test subjects. Expect to see a lot of games fall into the error camp.

Disconnect

Smartphones have definitely made going out better.
Smartphones have definitely made going out better.

Smartphones have definitely made going out better.

Until mobile internet everywhere catches up to wired broadband and the like, online multiplayer may very well remain the last bastion of the old order of gaming. Or maybe, just like we isolate ourselves at parties and social gatherings with smart devices, we’ll increasingly do the same with games.

The unreliability and relative shortcomings of mobile data, not to mention horrific quotas large parts of the world are forced to endure may make connected gaming on mobile a niche thing, reserved for simpler, asynchronous games.

World of Nowcraft

bravia
bravia

While we tend to think of MMORPGs when it comes to subscriptions in gaming, at present the model feels somewhat outdated, as free-to-play games consistently outperform most non-World of Warcraft games that attempt this model. That’s going to change.

With connected devices the norm, and the ability to stream games across all devices in the near future, subscription services like Playstation Now and Square Enix’s DiveIn will likely become more commonplace. For what it’s worth, I’ve always maintained that Nintendo should consider a Netflix like service for its Wii U and 3DS library of games.

(See: Your phone can play Final Fantasy XIII thanks to Square Enix DiveIn)

If these become silos of huge developers, smaller operations may be forced to find a Spotify-like solution. Games are much more demanding than music, however, for both devices and wireless networks, so we may several years away from a climate that supports this, and with the rate at which hardware is improving, this may do little more than save you storage on your devices.

The race to zero

Screen Shot 2014-09-22 at 6.26.49 PM
Screen Shot 2014-09-22 at 6.26.49 PM

No, that’s not an endless runner I’ve been cooking up in Stencyl. It’s the result of modern markets, the rising expectation of free goods and services, and the decreasing amount which the average consumer is willing to pay for those games. Unless actually paying people to play becomes a thing, the lowest price a game can reach is actually $0, and that’s where most new games are pricing themselves out of the gates.

This isn’t inherently a good or bad thing, though you can find passionate arguments for either perspective. But if you want to make money at this crazy thing called game development, increasingly making a good game isn’t enough. You’ve got to make a good game, that you can monetize without hurting the player’s experience.

The goal has always been to make money, but when the option of asking people to pay money upfront is no longer there, games are going to start looking more and more alike, and a lot of visions that would be better served through other pricing models might be abandoned. Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s famous quote had better be wrong: “It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Humble Gluttony

Bioshock-IOS
Bioshock-IOS

Bioshock was fantastic in 2007. It’s not exactly setting the mobile bar in 2014. My guess is most of the people who bought this for iOS wanted the console or PC experience. A lot of them I wager already had played it on the other platforms.

I’ve not even got to those extra games you picked up in the Humble Bundle to support your hoarding habit—did I say that? I meant “charity.” I own a lot of games I’ve never wanted, never installed, and will never play, simply because they came packed in with a game I wanted. When all games are available on every platform, this is going to exacerbate things.

What starts out as a little unwanted fat, quickly escalates to the point that you’ve not left your room for two years, you no longer fits through your own front door, and you can’t even be transported to the hospital without a helicopter.

All this, because the iPhone’s guts got a little more powerful, and it’s display got a little bigger.

What do you think? Am I misguided, or do you feel like the growing pains brought on by bigger, more advanced mobile devices are just getting started for the games industry?


How the console wars are shaping up in China:
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microsoft-sony-china-console-war

Microsoft's blunders in launching the Xbox One in China are playing right into Sony's hands.

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The post All the technology is in place for great games on every platform—and it’s going to be awful. appeared first on Games in Asia.


The post All the technology is in place for great games on every platform—and it’s going to be awful. appeared first on Games in Asia.