It might feel as if 2019 has gone by in the blink of an eye, but gamers who take a minute to reflect will soon realize how big a year it has been for the industry. Google Stadia has arrived to try and change the way people game from the ground up, Sony and Microsoft have revealed when the next generation of their console war will begin, and different developers stewed over whether to listen to angry customers before those loud few even had a chance to sample their product.
The corner of the gaming world that has experienced the biggest evolution in 2019 is the mobile platform. What many avid gamers often fail to realize is how much bigger the mobile gaming market is compared to console and PC combined. Within days of Nintendo releasing Mario Kart Tour, it had already been played by more people than have ever played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch.
Time To Subscribe
The tail end of mobile gaming in 2019 has signaled a move away from the microtransaction-riddled model used by Nintendo in Tour, though. Or at least we're hoping it has. Apple and Google released mobile gaming subscription services within days of each other, Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass, in the hope that this will be the way forward when it comes to mobile gaming. Subscription services are the in-thing when it comes to every other form of media, so why not video games too?
Chances are Apple and Google will push their respective services to the moon in 2020 in a hope that they will truly take off. Not just that, but inspire others to follow suit. Gamers already have a third, much cheaper mobile game subscription service option in the form of Playond. Playond celebrates indie developers of the mobile gaming industry and costs just $0.99 per month. By the end of 2020, we could have a mobile game subscription industry as saturated as the TV and movie equivalent.
Into The Fold
The last big change to mobile games was ushered in by the popularization of the touch screen. All mobile developers have to use it now, but 2019 signaled what might be the next step in mobile screen technology. Some new models now feature folding screens, and it's only a matter of time before developers are forced to incorporate that tech into their games. Chances are the very first games to make use of folding screens will land sometime in the next 12 months.
Same Old Junk
Subscription services and folding screens all sound very exciting and innovative, but there is the very real chance that 2020 is home to the same old things we assumed mobile gamers are getting tired of — microtransactions and the dreaded freemium model. We say that because those methods still remain fruitful for developers. Tour, Fortnite, Call of Duty are all making a killing on iOS and Android for their respective developers. Chances are the likes of Epic and Nintendo will be fighting a more widespread acceptance of subscription services on mobile as hard as they can.
The Year Of The Port
Speaking of CoD, should subscription services become the norm for mobile gaming, developers would do well to port more of their console and PC games to the platform. Phones have tremendous processing power nowadays and can run some console and PC games just as well as the platform on which they were intended to be played. Perhaps 2020 will be the year that a console or PC game also coming to mobile is the norm rather than the exception.
Judging by the 2019 mobile gaming has had, we're expecting 2020 to usher in a lot more changes. It feels as if the groundwork has been set in place for a big future. It would be a real shame if the norms that the platform is constantly criticized for manage to ride out the storm and are still in place this time next year. Make giving Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass a go one of your New Year's Resolutions, even if it's just for a week. You never know, you might like it.