The past few years have seen radical change affecting the products, prices and income of the video game industry. More specifically, the late 2000s and early 2010s can be regarded as the beginning of the incredible rise of the mobile game.
The first mobile games to be released were very simplistic and tricky to access, but the modern ones we now enjoy unparalleled levels of access to take full advantage of the sophisticated software our portable devices are making use of. They have thus managed to improve dramatically in terms of game graphics and game mechanics, and span many genres, targeting a broad audience. The fact is that just about anyone who has a smartphone, and very few people these days do not, has at one point or another played a mobile game, and new trends and changes to the marketplace ensure that they keep returning.
Mobile gaming has gone from being an almost non-existent market to one worth almost US$20 billion dollars back in 2013 –with this revenue expected to double by the end of this year. There are a number of factors that have made their contribution to this dramatic rise, and although changes to existing technology are 1 of these, there are more to be seen within the broader industry, including changing costs, altered sources of funding, redefined markets, and the stagnation of a number of larger developers.
The Emerging Mobility Earlier Devices Allowed
For those of us who enjoy games like the real money pokies NZ casinos offer, we have Snake to thank, according to the Entertainment Software Association, or ESA. This video game industry governing body sites Snake as the 1st-ever mobile game, and many of us will have fond memories of enjoying it on the earlier mobile phones back in the day.
Although it was a very simplistic game, this factor made it no less popular, but mobile games faced obstacles in terms of available technology, with graphing calculators being hellishly expensive. Although the technology took a course of steady improvement, games remained limited to particular portable systems, like the Playstation Portable or Nintendo Gameboy. It wasn’t until later in the 2000s that both the technology and the potential it had for entertainment began to be leveraged for the purposes of game development.
The Changing Face of Modern Mobile Technology
The 1990s had us enjoying incredible improvements in technology related to mobile phones, and mobile devices capable of handling more complicated games started emerging. The earliest models, however, like PDAs and Blackberries, were initially marketed as tools for business rather than tools for entertainment, and this saw them limited in terms of games.
The introduction of the iPhone by Apple in 2007 changed this perception, and the fact that this device was advertised as a tool that everyone could use, for any number of requirements, saw its rapid success ensured. The fact that its entertainment systems were highlighted along with its capability as a communication tool helped redefine the available tech in broader terms, and the iPhone enjoyed massive success. Within the space of 1 year it managed to move more than 6 million units, despite the fact that it was at that time available exclusively on the AT&T network.
