Personally/professionally interested in this as it relates to mobile device hardware and market outlooks (esp mobile processors e.g. Snapdragon).
The Games They are A-Changin’
Conventional wisdom a few years ago was that the more graphically intense a game was, the more fun it was. Gaming culture was built around fragging and frame rates, and great games were built around immersive experiences that required hours of continuous dedicated playtime.
But based on the types of games that are popular today, the general public appears to prefer simpler games, experienced in snack-size gaming sessions—a minute here, a minute there
This shift has been driven by a burgeoning category of games.
There will always be, "Core" gaming. But since the Wii and mobile phones Casual games have seen a surge in popularity. Casual games have been around forever, they just haven't been as accessible to the masses. Back in 2002 would anyone ever have thought millions of people would have portable devices with enough power to play games? Nope.
Oh and one parting thought. Is someone who only plays Angry Birds on their cell phone really a "gamer?"
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I am sure the tabletop guys think the video game guys are posers. Look at facebook games and all the money people like zynga are raking in. Someone finally tapped in to what is essentially a new market thanks to social networks and mobile devices.
I'm interested in following (or predicting the flow of) the money. Not sure direct investment in game companies (software or box) is the best way to profit. Thinking selling picks and shovels the miners might be the way to go (e.g. QCOM, Nvidia, backend services for multiplayer, etc).
Though do I hold some Activision stock -- based on their valuation and dividend.
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Nobody in the video game industry wants anything to do with Zynga if they can even slightly avoid it. I really need to remember to check this thread when I have time to tear into this article. It's essentially right for all the wrong reasons.
It boils down to new technology filling a previously unknown niche. People are playing the angry birds, because it's something to do while waiting in line, or in the bathroom, or one of a thousand other daily situations where you have five minutes with nothing to do. It's short term entertainment. The people that play these games are not gamers who gave up the xbox for the smartphone, either they're not "gamers" to begin with, or they are, and they do this for the same reasons why the nongamers play.
In short ~ the walkman didn't lead the audiophiles to give up their tube amps, and smartphones aren't turning gamers away from the xbox/playstation/pc.
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HTRN wrote:It boils down to new technology filling a previously unknown niche. People are playing the angry birds, because it's something to do while waiting in line, or in the bathroom, or one of a thousand other daily situations where you have five minutes with nothing to do. It's short term entertainment. The people that play these games are not gamers who gave up the xbox for the smartphone, either they're not "gamers" to begin with, or they are, and they do this for the same reasons why the nongamers play.
In short ~ the walkman didn't lead the audiophiles to give up their tube amps, and smartphones aren't turning gamers away from the xbox/playstation/pc.
Yup. And the reason it's important is that there are a LOT more people who'd want a Walkman than there are audiophiles, and there are a LOT more people with smartphones/tablets/Facebook accounts who want a little entertainment than there are hardcore gamers. It's finding and tapping a new, *much* larger potential market.
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...well, that was pretty much all I was gonna say already, condensed perfectly.
What I think is far more worthy of attention, when it comes to mobile gaming, isn't the casual stuff. Not even the mind-blowingly successful, like Angry Birds. It's great that casual time-fillers like Angry Birds and Triple Town are widely available like this, but a deluge of games that used to be tied to a specific platform like the various Game Boys, PSP, etc are now coming out for smart phones. Developers are making brand new games for phones that would've had to have been sold to a console publisher in the past, and they're distributed digitally rather than proprietary media. It's almost always cheaper by a huge margin for the consumer, too. Especially since these games don't require you to buy another platform other than your phone anymore.
This is huge.
As with all things like this, though, there's the hype (the article linked) and the reactionary crap (the one it's supposed to be responding to). A lot of gamers instinctively see the rise of "casual" games on phones to be a threat: In other words, developers will stop pumping money into new hardcore titles like Battlefield 3 and try and follow Rovio and Popcap to the bank.
It sounds ridiculous at first, given that we know these are separate markets. But casual games have far, far lower development costs, so when they take off like some have, they have a devilishly fat profit margin. In a lot of people's minds, this is all it will take to pull game companies off of the positively hellish and costly development cycle that a "hardcore" game has to follow.
Frankly, I think it's all a load of crap. Mobile devices will be able to handle the lightweight game market, from casuals to more intensive experiences, and PCs and consoles will always be there for the knock-down, drag out games that demand will never die for.
I'm also really skeptical of anyone who says that computing as we know it and therefore gaming are about to change radically. Simple ergonomics dictate that you can't spend a 9-to-5 in an office chair hunched over an iThing, no matter how powerful it gets. And various mechanical concerns necessitate stationary platforms having more power and flexibility than mobile ones.
I guess the TL;DR version of what I'm saying is "That's cool and all, but it isn't THAT cool."
