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Exaud Insights

The History of Mobile Video Games: Part III

Posted on February 17, 2020 at 4:42 pm by
Posted on February 17, 2020 at 4:42 pm by

It’s time to wrap up our journey across the history of mobile gaming: from Nokia’s flops to Pokémon Go!,  joins us while we explore the ups and downs of the industry in this last chapter.

Chapter 3
(Don’t forget to check Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 first)

Mobile games were set: developers had the tools to develop, they had a platform which was ready but still evolving and now they also had the market to sell to. In the year 2000, 97 million people were subscribed to a cell phone plan in the US and in 2003, that number went up to 148 million. In the same time period, 44% of households with mobile phones in the UK quickly grew to 76%.

Brands like Nokia, Motorola, Siemens and Sony Ericsson, had their comfortable market share in the mobile phones business, but Nokia decided to branch out and expand itself to compete outside of this market, becoming a direct competitor to portable games, after all, they already had a platform for games on the move.The N-Gage felt like the obvious step forward, a console that can make phone calls or a cell phone with AAA games sounds great and it was…well, in theory, it was. In practice, the N-Gage was not a good looking or very practical cell phone, its price was unable to compete with the Game Boy Advance, even with all its extra features, and the nail in the coffin would be the announcement of both PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS, less than a year after launch, both with better 3D visuals, a recognized video-game brand and a lower price-tag, by 50 and 150 US dollars, respectively. The N-Gage and its successor, the N-Gage QD, would not be trend-setters. It failed because its technology was ahead of its time, but it showed the world that having AAA 3D games run on a mobile phone was possible.The next big step in the mobile games market would come in 2007, Apple, at this point in time, was very successful, with their computers as the main commercial competitor to Microsoft’s Windows and their iPod brand being the biggest MP4 brand in the market, yet it was a fraction of what it is today. The iPhone was described then by Steve Jobs as “an iPod, a Phone and an internet communicator”, it was “not a smartphone” because those are “complicated to use” and the iPhone was meant for everyone, making it perfect for mobile games.

Not long after the release of the iPhone, Google would release their response, the Android was developed by the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of firms from different fields mostly related to mobile phones, with its biggest contributor being Google. It was the open source version of what Apple was doing with the iPhone, the Linux to their OS X.

During 2008, both these Operating Systems would release their own stores, App Store and Google Play, on the iPhone and on Android, respectively. This would prove to be the most groundbreaking moment in mobile games history, the point that would turn the mobile games industry from the ugly duckling of the games market to its most profitable part. The constant connectivity meant that mobile game developers could profit off of advertising, finally they had a way to distribute their games free of charge to the consumer and still make them profitable for them, and this was important because, the fact that it was free would allow people to try a game about killing pigs by throwing frowning birds at them, a game about making fruit salad using a ninja sword, a game about running, avoiding obstacles and picking up coins in a subway and another one in the ruins of a temple, but even games destined to succeed, whether for being inspired by recognized and successful mechanics, like Candy Crush, or based on renown franchises, like Pokémon Go, would benefit massively from this system. For comparison, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, released in November 2014, plus Pokémon Sun and Moon, released in November 2016, sold, together, nearly 30.5 million copies worldwide throughout the following years. Pokémon Go, released in July 2016, managed to get 45 million players….in one day! It reached 500 million downloads within the first 3 months of release. The range of users, the ease of use of the store and the free-to-play systems would be the foundation on which mobile games would thrive more than ever and even now they are not even close to their full potential.

The close future seems to be console games on mobile phones through cloud services, but only time will tell whether pure mobile games will keep thriving and evolving or they will be out played by games made for consoles. Mobile gaming has had a rich history of constant evolution, missteps, creativity and, in the end, success, regardless of what the future means, I’m glad I played Snake all those years ago and I’m glad I have a device able to effortlessly run Crazy Taxi in the palm of my hand.

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Exaud Insights

The History of Mobile Video Games: Part II

Posted on February 11, 2020 at 4:51 pm by
Posted on February 11, 2020 at 4:51 pm by

We’re back for the second part of our mobile games history journey, this time headed for the Java Era and we’re going fast (you’ll get the reference)!

Chapter 2
(Don’t forget to check Chapter 1 first)

In 1999, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was introduced, which meant that cell phones were able to get very basic information from a wireless network. This was the technology that would kickstart mobile game as a business. Some names from renown game developers (like Activision and Ubisoft) started opening their own companies destined to develop WAP compatible games. However, game developers soon found out that profiting off of games like this was not easy, they could not agree with mobile network operators on a fair way to make the business profitable for both and so a lot of young companies ended up closing doors not long after.

(Image via Gameloft)

WAP games were also not particularly action packed, most were turn based, because transferring data with this technology was not fast, but installing games locally was not an exciting option either, cell phone memory was still in the “early kilobytes“. This changed when, in 2001, game developers at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco got to see a famous (not blue at the time) hedgehog move faster than anything they had seen until then (I am sorry for that joke). Although it was just a proof of concept, it showed that Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) was able to run fast action games on mobile unlike anything seen until then, it meant that a “revolution was coming”, according to Gameloft at the time.

And it really turned out to be, at this point mobile phones were just capable enough to have games installed locally by consumers reliably and a profitable system was agreed upon, games would be bought outside of the mobile data fee (originally, game developers were trying to profit off of Average Revenue per User but, Network Providers, never agreed with this approach). Everything was set, now it was time to enter the Java Games era.

(Image via Gameloft)

In the next couple of years Distinctive Developments would release a mobile version of Space Invaders and Gameloft would launch Siberian Strike, their first Java Game, Prince of Persia and a predecessor to their now famous franchise Asphalt would follow. Slowly, more and more games compatible with this new platform would be released. As mobile phones kept evolving, bigger screens, more memory and the introduction of color would make sure that game developers, for the following years, had tools for innovation and room for creativity.

End of Part II.
(Don’t forget to check Chapter 3 afterwards!)

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Exaud Insights

The History of Mobile Video Games: Part I

Posted on February 3, 2020 at 6:05 pm by
Posted on February 3, 2020 at 6:05 pm by

Welcome to a three part journey on the History of Mobile Gaming: from the good old Nokia Snake to addictive smart phone games, we’ll guide you through the creation of one of the most used features in mobile.

Chapter 1

Mobile Gaming describes the concept of playing Video-Games on a Mobile Phone. A given in the age of smartphones, but an impressive feat before the turn of the millennium. 

In 1993 Siemens managed to run “Klotz” (a version of Tetris) on the S1, however, there was a registered patent for games on mobile phones, and the company was not convinced it would be a positive investment, so the game was deleted…except it really wasn’t. Instead of deleting all the work they had put into running the game, the engineers decided to hide it in the phone, if you know the “correct technique” (and you own a 600-gram black and white phone released to the market in 1994) you can play it.

In the same year, in November, IBM showed the world the first smartphone, the Simon Personal Communicator (or IBM Simon) allowed the user to make phone calls, send emails, use a calculator, schedule appointments and more, all in one device. It also had a game called Scramble. It played like a 15-puzzle and would allow the player to choose from multiple backgrounds and play using the touchscreen pen. 

For some time, however, it was believed that the first mobile game to be commercially available was Tetris on the Hagenuk MT-2000. Launched in 1994 the MT-2000 was one of the first phones to have soft keys (keys which change functions depending on the UI context) but it was also the first to have a built-in antenna (it ran along the side of the phone instead of sticking out of the top). Sadly, mobile gaming was not the selling point that is today and the MT-2000 would not be successful and Hagenuk would eventually abandon the phones market and gaming would be abandoned on mobile for a while.

To be awoken in 1997 by a Finnish telecommunications company which you might have heard about. Nokia would release their 6110 model with a pre-installed game called Snake. Taking inspiration from Blockade and Nibbler, Snake was a simple game with short game time, perfect for mobile, it would prove to be a bigger success than its predecessors and Nokia would be a successful mobile company until today.

(image via MEL Magazine)

For a while games on mobile devices remained on this path, every year more and more phones would release with their own games, until, in the early 2000’s new technologies would emerge which would allow developers to create their own games and phone users to buy and play any games on their phones.

End of Part I.

(Don’t forget to check Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 afterwards!)

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