Look at any announcement of an established gaming franchise going mobile and you’ll see scores of Western gamers crying foul. Look a little deeper, however, and you’ll see players in regions like India asking not why, but when.
But that’s not it at all. Games likeDiablo Immortalare making a case for the mobile experience with quality gameplay for free, anywhere and at any time. Players only need to look outside of their usual gaming bubble to understand why mega publishers like EA are taking their franchises mobile.
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“Do you guys not have phones?”
Apparently, I was the only one excited by the idea ofDiablogoing mobile.
While the Blizzcon attendees made their disgust apparent during thenow infamous reveal— envisioning only microtransactions that weren’t even mentioned — I saw engrossing gameplay. It looked like a mobile ARPG with more combat heft than any previous entry in the franchise.
And after playing it, I’m happy to report that my initial intrigue was well-founded. Even in its alpha state, it’s a quality Diablo title that’s leaps and bounds more engrossing thanDiablo 3was at launch. Its uncluttered UI is easy to understand, the brief tutorial gets straight to the addictive and weighty combat loop, and randomized dungeons have seemingly been swapped out for short four-player gauntlets with fun and varied boss battles around every corner. It’s the core Diablo experience squashed into a tiny screen, condensed to suit bite-sized play sessions for those who need them, while still being deep enough for your battery to drain before you’re ready to call it a night.
As for whether it will find an audience, players are deeply misunderstanding the mobile market if they think it’ll be anything but a major success for Activision Blizzard. In the blink of an eye, mobile gaming has gone from simple 2D titles and addictive puzzle games to 3D adventures that often rival those on modern machines. The success ofGenshin Impact— a title that drew comparisons to Nintendo Switch titleThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild— has helped to show just how powerful today’s smart devices are to those who’ve ignored their growing gaming prowess in recent years.
Mobile sea change
Though Western, hardcore audiences aren’t rapidly warming up to the mobile experience, the computational evolution of the platform and the success of similar games has changed publishers’ tune. They’re beginning to realize the potential of putting their blockbuster titles onto the devices we all whip out of our pockets two dozen times an hour.
Even Nintendo — a company typically entrenched in its own hardware — has seen pretty consistent results by leveraging its popular franchises for mobile-only titles likeFire Emblem: Heroes,Pokemon Masters, andAnimal Crossing: Pocket Camp. In fact,Mario Kart Tour– -a game critics were verbally disappointed with at launch — raked in$200 million in just 18 monthson the back of its free-to-play format. And it’s far from the best-performing core franchise mobile title around.
Mobile gaming is big business.PUBG Mobile —the portable version of the game that lit the spark for the battle royale genre — reportedly passed the $5 billion revenue mark after just three years on the market. That’s not including its chart-topping Chinese counterpartPeacekeeper Elite. Its upcoming sequel has already amassed10 million pre-orderson Android alone in about a month. Similarly,Genshin Impactamassed $1 billionin its first six months, racing to the top of the worldwide charts, with consistent updates likely to help it hold its position for some time to come.
Big-money tournaments across Asia make rock stars out of those who stay glued to their smartphones, with Western players often competing under the radar of the rest of the gaming world to claim big-money prizes rivaling those of mainstream titles likeDota 2andCounter-Strike.PUBG Mobilealone held a tournament with a $100,000 prize pool in Brazil last weekend, with another taking place elsewhere in the world in just a few days, andLeague of Legends-likeArena of Valor/Honor of Kingsis no stranger to six-figure payouts for its top teams.
If the recent revelation thatnearly 40% ofMinecraft Dungeonsplayersrun through the multiplatform game on their smartphones is any indication, big-name publishers may be in the right to start leveraging mobile-savvy companies likeTencentand Netease to adapt their biggest franchises for handheld play.League of Legendsis in the process of releasing a mobile-specific version,Call of Duty: Mobilecontinues to print money for Activision Blizzard already, and EA has used the worldwide appeal ofApex Legendsand the hype surrounding its next bigBattlefieldtitle to announce that mobile versions of both are in the works.
While platform manufacturers like Microsoft are attempting to tap into the mobile market with streaming services, publishers are turning to purpose-built versions of their main competitive titles to ensure issues like slow internet speeds around the world don’t hold players back from getting sucked in.
Mobile isn’t coming to steal your pastime, but it’s here to offer it to the masses, and you’re invited along for the ride.
