So yeah? What is the future of gaming? Listening to Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo doesn't help - they will all say that their way is the future. If you've been talking with me on a regular basis, you'll know that I'm placing my bets with Nintendo. I always have, and always will. Nintendo hasn't let me down yet.The only reason I bring this topic up is because of a recent job interview I had. I won't mention the company to save themselves from their own embarassment, but I'll say that they are a big player in the mobile phone gaming industry.
Anyway, during the interview they made a very bold statement. They said that mobile phones are the future of video gaming. They backed up this claim with sales numbers of both mobile phone sales and console sales. (Don't ask me why they were preaching business stuff during a job interview, I didn't get it either.) Finally, they claimed that mobile phone games will overtake and kill the console games industry in the near future.
So yeah, sales numbers... Hmm... Well, let's start off from the basics. Cell phones. Nearly everyone has them nowdays. These little phones, once luxury items, do quite a number of amazing things. You can take pictures with them, capture video clips, listen to music, watch tv, browse the web, play games, chat on Instant Messenger, PDA functionality, and some even let you talk to other people where ever you please. OMFG!
Mobile phone games are growing in sales, I'll admit that. Have you ever stopped to think why they're selling so well and why the game developers are making so much money off of them? Here's what I think. Mobile phones are very simple computers. Their main function, at least I would hope, is to allow the user to talk on the phone where ever they may be at the time. Secondary to this, would be the extra features that people pay so much money for. As such, raw processing power for gaming can be limiting at times (depending on the phone). This will mean that games will have to stay reletively simplistic in order to: (1) run smoothly on a given phone and (2) be able to fit in the phone's small amount of flash RAM. This fact makes cell phone games cheap to produce and with minimal staff. What corporation wouldn't love them?
These games go for an average of $5. Five dollars is a magic number to consumers. Kind of like what $20 means to a console game buyer. People would buy a game and not care at all how well the it plays or if it's fun at all. "This game sucks ass, but oh well it was only five bucks." This fact alongside the fact that these games are cheap as fuck to produce, is the reason that the mobile phone industry is making so much money.
I will never trade my console games and handheld console games for a mobile phone game. Never.
To me, cellular phones are just a means to talk to people and for those people to reach me whenever. All of those secondary features I mentioned above are crap on cell phones. Would you trade a digital camera for a cell phone camera? Would you trade Firefox to browse the web on your cell phone? Chatting on Instant Messenger is surely a lot easier, not to mention cheaper, on your PC. And unless you have a phone with PalmOS, the PDA functionality is piss poor. So why would you want trade your consoles to play games on a cell phone?
Mobile phone gaming exists purely as a time waster. I certainly wouldn't play a cell phone game for enjoyment. I can't even stand my cell phone's games. My cell phone's blackjack game lets the dealer win on pushes. I'd only touch that garbage when I'm waiting for my girlfriend to finish trying on new shoes. Even then, I'd rather watch her try on shoes than play a cell phone game.
Remeber the N-Gage? Gizmondo? Tapwave Zodiac? These all represent the mobile gaming industry. Where are they now?
So let's talk about the real future of gaming. I'm sad to say that I still don't like what the Xbox 360 has to offer. Well okay, I'm not sad at all. Burnout Revenge on the Xbox 360 looks nice, but I've had my 100 hours of gameplay on both the PS2 and Xbox. That console has been out for four months now and the best game is a port from the XBox. Sad, indeed.
Okay, now I'm really going to talk about the future of gaming. In a cool move, Sony announced that the PS3 is going to have region free gaming like the PSP. While MGS4: Guns of the Patriots looks freaking awesome, I'm really turned off by the rumors of the PS3's launch price. $500-800 does not sound like an optimal price to me.
I'm still very much looking forward to the Nintendo Revolution and what it'll offer for gaming. I just wish I knew more...
The Nintendo DS never ceases to amaze me. It's unbelieveable that I'm having so much fun with Tetris DS, especially its online modes. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass looks very cool.
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