Hardcore Mobile Gamer Dilemma

2005 was a big year for mobile gaming. $600 million big, or $1.5 billion if you want to talk globally. So where are all the mobile gamers? A quick visit around the busiest, most-trafficked gaming forums shows a mild interest in the mobile platform at best, and disdain for the medium at worst. It’s a given that the mobile platform will never generate the excitement and online chatter of the console or PC mediums, but why do hardcore gamers take such an apathetic stance towards mobile? 

Mobile gamemakers are also partially to blame. The fact is there are a lot of really bad mobile titles out there. Since a big chunk of that $600 million pie comes from casual consumers looking to spend a few bucks on a time-killer, mobile companies have been able to get away with putting out really poor products for far too long. While casual gamers may enable this lack of quality, the hardcore community doesn’t. They avoid and ignore this shovelware.

So what’s the solution? How can mobile developers and publishers create a group of people who are genuinely excited and enthusiastic about upcoming mobile releases (IE hardcore mobile gamers)? The biggest step is to move out of the console market’s shadow and allow the mobile medium to stand on its own two feet, with its own strengths and weaknesses. Cell phones aren’t just underpowered gaming platforms. They also have inherent advantages not found anywhere else in gaming. Continue