Ask HN: How do you view the mobile gaming market? Over nearly the last decade, as both AAA and indie game developers have focused more and more effort creating mobile games, I've seen a lot of people within my circle of friends show disdain for a variety of reasons, some of which are listed below: - Manipulative/annoying money-making strategies, i.e. lootboxes, gacha systems, stanima systems, ads, etc. - Perceived "wasted effort" making mobile games based on IPs that haven't had a non-mobile game in quite some time (Diablo Immortal and Commander Keen, for example) - The overall low quality of a majority of apps found in the mobile market, with supposedly little action from the platform maintainers to moderate content properly. Yet the mobile market has been a financial success for a number companies. Mobile games that are free-to-play seem to have the greatest succes, accumulating tens to hundreds of thousands of downloads regardless of genre or whether they fall within any of the previously listed categories. So I'd like to extend the question outside my own little circle to the various hackers here with their own experiences: how would you describe the current state of the mobile game market? Do you think it's fine the way it is, or can it be improved upon (and how)? |