The mobile gaming market will only grow. Everything is on its side, including government support and technology such as 5G. When something grows, it gets transformed, and mobile gaming is no different. With an entire new year ahead of us, it is a good moment to talk about emerging trends and those that are already shaping this industry. While you can argue that there are plenty of trends undergoing transformation, we’re going to single out only the most relevant ones. Let’s start.
Artificial Intelligence
Developers, tech providers, and game aggregators like Hub88 already include AI in most of their processes to improve game development and integration. The artificial intelligence at our disposal today can reduce production work, giving creators more time to share in creative areas and allowing AI to accelerate game development in the prototype phase.
Yes, you can argue that AI, in many of its uses today, is still in the experimental phase, but in the future, as early as 2025, it will have an increasing impact on the mobile gaming industry, providing users with more games in less time and making every part of the game creation process cost-effective.
Games That Redefine Genres
When mobile gaming was young, both games and developers focused on unique gameplay, making the games ordinary and belonging to a specific genre. Mixing genres was an idea that was always there to be implemented with more and less success, depending on the game. Today, the industry is recording massive growth, and creating genre experiments is a part of its growth. With the number of games released for mobile devices, we now experience an age of genre-mixing on a level never seen before.
The experts divide these games into two trends – light-core games and hybrid casual ones. These trends were created because developers wanted to provide players with more complex mechanics, getting more engagement from players while giving the game more than a few meta layers. With the retention and playtime the mixed-genre games are receiving, you can expect more of them in the future.
Brand Development
The mobile gaming industry is all about performance marketing. Everything needs to be measurable and cost-effective. While it remains essential, performance marketing is just not enough in the cutthroat business of mobile gaming. Those developers who want to continue performing in the over-saturated market must work on their brand marketing. Players need to be aware of the end product and who brought it to the table. As has always been the case, advertising is the best way to reach an audience. These days, it can be done the old-fashioned way with TV commercials, billboards, and social media platforms.
Most companies in this industry work on targeting their audience long before the game has even launched. It is all about boosting engagement and enhancing monetization, which can even be done through in-game collaborations. Of course, during these testing times, the best route might be through popular transmedia sources such as video clips. Developers need to utilize all the tools we’ve mentioned unless they want failure. And in words fo one famous rapper – failure is not an option.
Building Franchises
Today, we have access to technologies that can aid us in building games that can last for more than a few decades. The best way to do this is to create strong franchises with universes of their own rather than stand-alone games. Just look at the MCU, Star Wars, or Witcher Series. Because many people in the industry share our opinion, we have a growing presence of GaaS (game as a service). For an industry that goes from hand to hand via mobile device, and we all have one of those, being a good service is not only valuable for players, but also worth through revenues by developers.
To achieve success through franchising, one needs to evolve all of the existing projects to a new level, sprout new content, create events, and monitor the audience that’s already engaged and the one you plan on targeting. By doing this, you can soon have a satisfied audience and a well-managed community. If you adopt an approach like this, games will become more interesting, and you will not have to worry about gamers not playing them. Trust us when we say it; this practice exists because it works. What works will always be adopted, transformed, led through the process of evolvement, and finally put back in a new shape.
Cross-Platform Presence
Modern times require modern solutions and it’s good we have plenty of those. Most of us have multiple devices, don’t we? Due to this, we’re also present on various platforms. Mobile gaming industry understands this, and has already taken actions due to that knowledge. Because of this, most modern games provide players with access to both the game and the IP, so that they can play it anywhere and anytime. For players, this type of accessibility is quite important.
A good gaming brand needs to be available on all available platforms that have a strategic meaning for both the developer and the players. When this is done the player engagement is enhanced. It allows current players to enjoy the game while simultaneously expanding its access to a broader audience. This not only expands the marketing channels but also maximizes the revenue potential. When you look at mobile gaming as a business these points matter a lot, and it’s no wonder they’re being addressed.
Summary
Mobile gaming is one of the fastest growing industries out there. With the way our society moves forward it’s the one that’s here to stay. While trends related to it come and go, the ones we’ve listed above will persist despite the imminent changes that will take on the mobile gaming industry in coming months and years. The way things stand now, the chances are that none of the points from our list will persist, but plenty of new ones might be added.