Apple announced the iPhone 6 Tuesday. The eighth iteration of the popular device comes in two sizes, with new features, more storage and better specs – including better graphic capabilities.
To show off what the new device can do, an upcoming massive online battle arena (MOBA) game called Vainglory was used.
Mobile gaming began to grow exponentially once the advent of smart phones and touch screens came along. Where once there was only Snake and Tetris, now users are offered numerous options.
As of July, the total number of games in the Apple App Store is a little more than 303,000 games. Of those, a little less than 66,000 are “dead apps,” meaning they are abandoned and no longer updated. This leaves users with more than 237,000 games to choose from.
On top of this, Apple has sold approximately 551 million iPhones since 2007, giving it the biggest user base in mobile gaming by a long shot.
The Nintendo Gameboy line of handheld devices sold 200.2 million units worldwide during its l9-year lifespan, the Nintendo DS and 3DS have sold a total of approximately 196.7 million combined. The Sony Playstation Portable and Vita have sold a combined total of approximately 84 million.
That means that the iPhone has taken a stranglehold on the mobile gaming market margin of 70 million units over the most popular handheld game consoles combined since 1989.
Granted, not everyone uses their phone to play games, but the majority have at least one game they play regularly. Whether it is a highly graphical game like the newly released iOS port of the triple-A blockbuster Bioshock, a social game like Words with Friends or a casual game like Candy Crush Saga.
In fact, when King Digital Entertainment, the company behind Candy Crush, started begin publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in March, it was valued at $7 billion. Last year, the company generated approximately $1.5 billion in revenue.
But having such a diluted market isn”t necessarily a good thing. When given more choices, the consumer becomes overwhelmed and sticks to what they know – limiting the industry”s ability to evolve. It also opens the door for clones of less popular games by businesses with more financial backing – something that King has been accused of numerous times.
An argument can also be made that a small independent developer can make enough money to retire early, given they have a solid design that is marketed correctly. An example of this can be seen in the success of Temple Run, which was created by a team of less than 10 people and has gone on to be downloaded over 1 billion times.
But those cases are rare and, more often than not, unexpected. That is why the percentage of dead apps on the App Store floats around 21 percent. Each of those is a failed business or a broken dream.
Despite this, I can”t argue that gaming on mobile devices such as phones and tablets is a bad thing. The more exposure to games, the more likely the medium can catch up with movies, television and music in terms of influence. Right now, video games are stuck in a rut of being viewed as an immature pastime, holding no value. And that simply isn”t the case.
As I have said before, games can be time-killers, but they also have the ability to enlighten, motivate and move. The more people playing games, hopefully means a quicker evolution for the artform.
Contact J. W. Burch, IV at 900-2022.
