By far the largest market for gaming is the mobile market and it is no secret why; nearly everyone owns a smartphone. It is simply the most accessible and easiest way to play games. Modern smartphones are also no slouch when it comes to performance, particularly on the high end. Apple’s A17 Pro chip and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 are very capable chips and can play older console level games at lower settings without a cooling fan.
It is as easy as connecting a controller around a smartphone and it instantly turns into a gaming handheld with better performance, battery life, and screen than a Switch. In theory, it should be the best way to play games too but in reality, it is actually by far the worst way to play games currently. Let’s look at three main reasons why.
1. Microtransactions
The number one reason why the mobile gaming landscape is so bad is because of in-app purchases known as micro-transactions. Instead of buying the game outright for a set amount of money, instead you pay as you play. This can be done in many ways, from locking certain parts of the game behind a paywall, paying to get more lives or special items that help you play, or a traditional DLC type experience.
This type of system is far worse than the traditional “pay once, play forever” experience because it ends up being significantly more expensive in the long run for most games. And worse yet, with certain game designs, it means that you will never really own the game and will just keep paying to play. In fact, the others on this list are related to this problem.
2. Games are often designed in a predatory way
This one needs a little further detail, so let me explain. Because mobile games usually do not have an upfront cost and instead rely on micro-transactions for profit, developers need to find a way to encourage users to buy these micro-transactions. This usually comes in one of two predatory forms, and I’m honestly not sure which is worse.
The first is that the game is extremely easy at first and entirely free. Then the game gets harder and harder until it is nearly impossible (and is designed to be so) to play without paying money for items that make it easier. At this point, the player has a lot of time invested into the game and they don’t want to quit. So therefore, they put some money in which is usually a very small amount ($0.99) at first and they justify it to themselves by saying “I play this game a lot so spending a little money isn’t bad”. This gradually builds until it is extremely expensive to continue and the items get more and more expensive and do less and less for you.
The second comes in the form of games that have a very compelling storyline or are entirely story driven (such as the “choose your own path” games) and paywall the story with increasingly expensive paths to continue it. Imagine reading an ebook and you make it halfway through and are very interested and then you have to pay $5 or $10 to continue the book. Or you are watching a TV series and every episode is more expensive than the last until at some point you are paying the price of an entire movie just to make it through the episode.
There are other variations to this and probably even worse schemes but the premise is the same – it is predatory behavior. They are playing off your natural human curiosity and satisfaction for completion. #1 is exactly why the popular Candy Crush hit 1 billion dollars in revenue in 2023.
Games have to be “free” to succeed
This one is almost a continuation of the last item. Games have to be “free” to succeed on the App Store because at some point the precedent was set that all mobile games should be free. These original free games had their revenue driven by ads, which is still the model for some free games today. Over time these ads became more intrusive to the point that many are almost unplayable because of the amount of non-skippable interruptions to the gameplay.
This “games should be free” philosophy is a problem because games are not free to create, they are actually quite expensive. This means that many games that do not want to support this awful model of business by either stuffing their games with ads or building a predatory game revenue model, do not make enough money to pay the bills.
Not all mobile games are this way
As with any generalization, it is not true of every mobile game. Some games, such as Stardew Valley mobile, are not this way. They support the traditional business practice that a game is created and then sold for the price that is reasonable to make a profit for the developer and fund their future creations. However, this is not the norm and by and large most mobile games follow the previously stated practices.
What can be done?
The only real way to fight back against this business model is by simply not downloading or playing these games. Unfortunately you often discover this business model when it is too late so the best advice is to simply avoid games that are free and don’t simply have one in app purchase that says “Unlock full game” as those are basically a way of providing a free trial and are not really like the above mentioned games.
It is unfortunate that these games were not simply banned by Apple and Google but are instead promoted as being great experiences. In fact, on the Apple App Store, you cannot even filter out free games if you wanted to just search for paid games. This is not surprising as they take a healthy 30% fee of all these micro-transactions and have a stake in keeping the mobile gaming landscape like this.
Apple also has the Apple Arcade that is simply a subscription to be able to play games that are forced out of following this business model as micro-transactions are not allowed. While this is arguably better, my stance is that it is still not a solution as you do not own a copy of those games.
To put it plainly, the best we can do to combat this atrocious business model that has taken over mobile gaming is to not buy into it. Support games that cost a reasonable amount of money instead and read the reviews!
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