(Newswire.net — June 29, 2016) — If, ten years ago, you had told people that in just a decade’s time they would be carrying round a device that couldn’t just make phone calls and send texts but could also do anything from help them navigate round a city to count the calories they’d burned it may have been met with some scepticism.
But now, in 2016 most of us do carry a smartphone – and it’s predicted that by 2018 there will be over 46 million of them in the UK alone.
Alongside the growing popularity of the smartphone there has been a corresponding explosion of apps providing ever more practical and innovative uses of the device.
Among the many sectors who have been concentrating their efforts on developing software and games to exploit this fast-growing potential customer base are gaming companies who previously were dedicating their efforts on producing console games.
In fact, very soon the it’s predicted that mobiles will become the world’s leading games platform knocking consoles like the Xbox and Sony’s PS4 into second place and leaving other hand held devices including tablets and Nintendo’s in their wake.
There are thought to be a number of reasons for this explosion in the number of people starting to play games on their smartphones and the first is all about numbers. Up until recently the typical gamer has been male aged between 10, which is the age when most parents buy their children their first console, up to 40 when life’s many other demands start to leave less and less time for gaming.
But now, when so many millions are carrying devices capable of playing even quite complex games, the potential audience is huge. Gaming companies have been very quick to latch onto this fact and, for quite a while have focused a large proportion of their development budgets on producing the sorts of games that are quick to learn and easy to play. A typical example would be the universally popular Angry Birds and its many spin-offs.
For the player, mobile games have an obvious appeal. They’re the perfect way to while away some time in the day, whether it’s on a bus or train journey or just to take a break from the working routine. And while many of us expect the apps we download to be free the relatively low prices charged for mobile games seem very reasonable for the hours of enjoyment they can provide. This is especially true when they are compared with the high cost of, admittedly more complex, console games.
One sector that has been especially active in the development of their mobile gaming offering have been the online casinos. Not only do many casino games lend themselves very well to the mobile format, they give the player an important extra incentive to play – namely the chance to win money.
Looking to the future, the emerging technology of virtual reality, with some phone makers producing VR goggles to accompany their newest phone launches, this may be the next leap forward in mobile gaming producing even more immersive experiences.
So while it’s very unlikely that UK gamers will abandon their consoles completely there’s a good chance that more and more will be abandoned to gradually gather dust in the corner.