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Wireless Networking Entertainment Games Hardware

Opinions on The Future of Mobile 42

Posted by Zonk from the enjoying-the-connectivity dept.
Gamasutra's usual weekly Q&A has industry responses about the future of mobile gaming. From the article: "The interesting thing about the prospects for cell phone gaming is that we as an industry do not yet exist in the hearts and minds of the consumer. When asked about mobile games, the average person on the street does not yet know they can play games on their phone, and the ones that do confess to playing 'a few card games or something like that'. There have been early successes and anomalous successes in mobile, but hardly anyone has done anything of sustainable consequence to the consumer, or the marketplace. -John Szeder, Mofactor, Inc"
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Opinions on The Future of Mobile More

Opinions on The Future of Mobile

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  • Aware But Don't Care (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AcheronHades ( 837485 ) on Monday October 10, 2005 @06:40PM (#13760094)
    I know I may be the minority but I am very aware of they types of games that are available to me on my cell phone. I am just not interested. I am an avid gamer and have been for the past 15 years, but when I am at home I'd rather play my PS2 or XBox, and when I'm out, if I am by myself and bored, I'd sooner read a book or a newspaper than play a game on my cell phone. It may sound shallow but as a working professional, I think I'd actually be embaressed to whip out my Gameboy Advanced on my lunch break.

    • Re:Aware But Don't Care (Score:5, Interesting)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Monday October 10, 2005 @07:43PM (#13760438) Homepage Journal
      Frankly, I wouldn't mind in the slightest if my cell phone offered a better gaming experience. Thing is, though, I'm not looking to replace my DS. Rather, my phone is with me at times when the rest of my toys aren't. Sometimes I find myself in a position with time to kill. It's for that reason I'm grateful that my phone has a net connection. Yeah, okay, it's not the same as a $4,000 laptop running a 10 gigabit internet connection, but it also doesn't cost me a ton of pocket space either.

      That said, I at least agree that gaming isn't really the direction to go with these things. As much as I love for phones to 'do more', I wish they'd go in the PDA direction instead of the Game Boy direction. One of the things I loved about my 3650 is that it effectively killed my desire to use a PocketPC. More more more.
      • I think that the the UI is the biggest problem to surmount. Adding any UI controls to a cellphone besides the basic directional controller would be messy - but it would help if the directional controller behaved half as well as a modern gamepad (instead of being slow and non-diagonal for gaming). Any additional UI would make the system larger, and small size is paramount in phone design. At best you could get a simple D-pad and a few buttons, and even then the phone is not well-suited for 2-handed use.

        Re

  • Or, ya know, (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by QuantumG ( 50515 )
    you can drop a week's paycheck on a PSP. What scares me is the kids I see playing these things. But then I just look at their designer clothes and shoes and it all makes sense.
    • Obviously the question has to be asked...

      Where the heck are you working? A week's paycheck for a PSP?

      Let's say a PSP is $300

      300 x 52 = $15,600. Add about 30% for taxes, and you have $20,280. That's about $9.75 per hour.

      If you are making $9.75 per hour, you should ask your parents to buy you one for Christmas.
      • Yeah, I was refering to average workers. Obviously geeks can afford to waste their disposable income on stupid gagets but the average person with a morgage and kids to feed can't afford them.

  • Not "if," but "when?" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MiceHead ( 723398 ) on Monday October 10, 2005 @07:10PM (#13760245) Homepage
    We used to develop primarily for PDAs during the dot-com era, and judging from how enthusiastic PDA owners were about their gaming fix, I believe that mobile (cellphone) gaming will take up where the PDAs left off. The only question I have is, "when?"

    • Will it take that killer game to bring awareness to millions who already own phones more powerful than early personal computers?
    • Will it be a killer non-game application, like when soccer moms can browse the Web and message their kids wthout hvng 2 tlk lke ths lol, followed by a realization that, "hey, this thing can play games!"? Soccer moms like to play video games too -- it's that whole casual games [cmpevents.com] nut that industry folk are currently trying to crack.
    • Or when there's more convergence between desktop/laptop/mobile systems? Laptops used to be poor substitutes for desktops, but they're pretty useful these days. Presumably tomorrow's pocket computers will be even cooler than today's [hiptop.com].

    I stopped developing for PDAs for the love of the larger games that could be written for desktop systems. Some smart folks will develop a decent games-accessible interface for mobile systems. So, what happens when we can start writing the big games for tiny systems?
    __________________
    www.dejobaan.com
    • Or when there's more convergence between desktop/laptop/mobile systems?
      There is one thing, which mobile with camera can do and desktop/laptop can not. Mobile with camera is a nautural platform for augmented reality applications, and is a cheap subsitute for wearable display. Mobile can serv as 3d pointing device, display and camera, all in one.
  • I dont think there will be a market for cell phone gaming, ever. There may be that tiny market for those card and old NES ripoff games for when your sitting in a park and you forgot your portable console. There will however alwase be a market for the psp/ds/gameboy sp/gameboy mini. There is NO market for cellphones and they shouldnt even think about putting games on cellphones, theres already too many things that get bogged down on a cellphone.
    • Think outside the box, man. If, by some chance, cellphone makers standarize on a game platform for cellphones, they might very well take off. No, i'm not talking about Mophun (nice, but only for Sony Ericsson), Java (games run on some phones and not others because of libraries issues) or Symbian (high end models only). Something that works everywhere, regardless of phone specifications. As cellphones get more powerful, this might happen. Most phones nowadays are already more powerful than desktops PCs we
      • How about thinking *inside* the box? By which I mean, how big is a mobile/PDA?

        The big problem is the screen. Mobiles typically have screens about 2"x1.5". You really can't play anything more sophisticated than card games on it. Platformers are just about tolerable, but they don't really work. There simply isn't the space to make anything work. Even suppose mobiles get screens the size of a PDA, so maybe 4"x3" - you still can't do more than simple card games, puzzles or whatever.

        Let's think ahead a bit
        • It can happen. Cellphones won't (arguably) replace dedicated portable consoles in the short run because, like you said, the format restricts it - all but the latest phones have rather small screens. This might change soon enough though; i've seen some Sony Ericsson phones with screens covering almost 70% of the device. Every new generation of cellphones improves on this dramatically, and cheaper every time. Such a device wouldn't have a screen much smaller than, say, a GBA SP. Why couldn't it work? B
    • You have some valid points there. Or rather, you might have had some about three years ago, before there was a thriving multi-million dollar global market for mobile games.

      Your screen size argument is similarly broken. A standard sized phone can (and increasingly frequently, will) have a screen of at least Game Boy Micro quality. Games for phones, PDAs and handheld consoles are not striving for photorealism or immersion, they simply need visual clarity.
  • ... to the days where cell phones had one function: making and taking phone calls?

    Sure, some features of cell phones are good, some aren't, but I think that people are trying too hard to just add features to be different. I mean, do we really need cell phones that can take pictures, play music and games, and surf the Internet? Especially when such features are usually of low quality?

    If I want mobile gaming, I'll grab the latest handheld from Nintendo. Their games are much better than anything I've ev

    • The cell phone is the engine of the revolution (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Asmor ( 775910 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2005 @01:22AM (#13762445) Homepage
      What happened to the "good old days" of cell phones doing just one thing is that they are the engine for a revolution. The personal computer of sci-fi, a little box that connects you to everything and that you keep on your person, is here, now. It's the cell phone. What PDAs strived to be, cell phones ARE. They are a ubiquitous mobile computing platform, an indespensible part of people's lives, and their integration of new technologies will only grow.

      Granted, at this point in time, I think it's a poor idea to add games to cell phones in general. There are certainly exceptions, though. I have Puzzle Bobble and Boggle on mine just in case I'm ever bored and don't have or don't want to whip out my Nintendo DS.

      But look at what cell phones are, at their base. Originally, they were just a communications tool. Now they are also a personal organizer. They're on the verge of becoming an internet appliance.

      Mark my words, cell phones will drive the adoption of personal mobile computing to the masses. Hell, they're already more powerful than some of the first PCs. They might even surpass PCs one day for Joe Average, who might just get a docking station to plug his phone into when he's at home for a larger display and full-size input.
    • Google Local and switchboard.com greatly enhance my phones utility.

      I can get addresses, directions, find services, get free 411, and do a reverse number lookup from my car (not while driving).

      I also get pages when I am emailed and can check my email within seconds of receiving it.

      All this from a phone that cost me nothing (with a one year contract) and for $7.99 a month.

      Other features of the internet that I would miss but not too much are the weather, movie listings (don't need to find a newspaper at 10:00
    • They still do that, some better than others.

      And thank you, karma-whore, for fulfilling the required "I wish my phone only made phone calls and nothing else" post on every article about phones, no matter what the subject.
      • I'm not a karma-whore by any means. I am honestly frustrated by today's phones that add in low quality features that suck up a disproportionate amount of the battery life. I cannot see the benefit of having low quality games taking up the majority of my cell phone's battery life as opposed to a relatively cheap handheld system with much higher quality games that don't use my cell phone's battery.
        • Then don't buy a phone that caters to those that want to play games. That's like saying, "I don't WANT a car that has a 20 speaker stereo, customized user settings and built in GPS." Well then don't get it. And don't say phone companies don't provide those anymore; they definitely always have a bare bones phone, usually a nokia 6xxx series, which is a) bulletproof and b) has good sound quality.

          The point is, every time an article like this comes up, someone says, "But all I want is a simple phone!" and

  • Not until we get some decent apps (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nekojin ( 855341 ) on Monday October 10, 2005 @07:47PM (#13760460)
    Cell phone gaming HAS taken off. Just not in the US. Take a look at some of the stuff they get over in Japan. I think a large part of it is the fact that US phones basically suck. The only good game I ever played on one was before the advent of color screens and it was a Roguelike. Over there they have Final Fantasy 7: Before Crisis, [rpgamer.com] Shining Force, [rpgamer.com] and, although I don't have links for them, Dragon Quest/Warrior and a bunch of other REAL games. Many of them are sold in chapters or installments, typically for around 500 yen. When I see crappy half-assed pinball games going on US phones for $5, the distance between the two standards really starts to show. I'D pay $5 for a FF7 prequel I could play on my phone when I'm not busy doing anything else. I'd pay $5 for Shining Force! But we don't have those. I really wish we did, or at least things LIKE them. Not until then will cell gaming really take off.
    • No kidding. I'd pay $7 for a good SF, DQ, or FF episode. But the crap thats available to me? None of it is any good. I (unreluctantly) paid $7.50 (cdn) to download a copy of Bejeweled because its a great time killer, and thats it, thats all.
      Cmon... If they want to start selling games to gamers, maybe they should make some real games?
      • Yeah... I bought a Rainbow Six 3 for my Motorrola thinking, 'maybe this won't suck.' I was wrong. Somehow, I got it into my head that it would be possible for my phone to run a game well enough to entertain, but it dissapointed in stead. Guess I'll just have to add random number together on the calculator to pass the time now.

        Actually, now that I think of it, I just bought the iPod Nano. It comes with solitaire loaded up on it. Comes in handy when I've got a minute or two to kill. I checked and my gir

      • Why is Bejeweled not a 'real' game?

        Puzzlers like that are PERFECT for something like a cellphone. They deal with the limited interface well, and can be played in small sessions. Trying to cram complex games onto a cellphone is a bad idea IMO.

    • Japan's Docomo [216.239.37.104] system features an always on connection which is ideal for all sorts of gaming and chatting applications. So I read years ago. It will be interesting to see how this system does now it's finally in Australia, known as iMode.

      I might be happy to amuse myself on the train with a game on my mobile, but not if I don't know how much it's going to cost. Instead for the fixed price of $1.20 and mild depression I can buy a newspaper, find out what's been going on in the world, do the crossword and at

    • When I see crappy half-assed pinball games going on US phones for $5, the distance between the two standards really starts to show.

      If only you alreay could get easily $5 games on your cell...
      On mine, with a java machine (so, theoretically easy to port and write games), i can only access those that my provider allows and then i need to pay $1 to $5 PER MONTH to access and play those, when they are just downloaded once and played locally. A SUBSCRIPTION for crappy games.

      no, thanks...

  • Mobile gaming stinks (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Phantasmo ( 586700 ) on Monday October 10, 2005 @10:27PM (#13761331)
    Honestly, I hope this industry fails, dies out, disappears, etc. I know that my cell phone is as powerful as a Gameboy Advance, but I really, really don't want to be playing games on it. A numberpad is a poor interface for gaming, and if you try to add gaming controls then you just end up adding a lot of clutter that interferes with silly, non-gaming activities like dialing numbers or talking to people.

    Frankly I'd prefer manufacturers to spend their time making cheaper, more durable phones with longer battery lives. A smaller environmental footprint would be nice, too!
    • you think mobile gaming won't fly in the u.s.? look at the success of the nokia n-gage! /sarcasm. however, i do believe the future of cellphones as mp3 players is quite promising. flash drives will only get cheaper eliminating the need to carry two accessories.
  • It seems the market for mobile gaming is about the same (virtually zero) as the market for mobile video. Gaming is worse, too, in that it sucks up more of your attention than would passively viewing video. Yeah, you'll get a few anti-social kids and gadget hounds, but what's really the point of getting out into the world if you're only going to stuff your eyes and ears right back into the technology? You'd be better off developing for the Mac as a second platform than most any mobile device.
  • Okay, so plenty are mentioning the general lack of interest in playing games on cellphones, and the poor interfaces for doing so. Here are some other problems to overcome:

    A) Battery life. With the rush to "Small Form Factor" (aka microscopic physical size), they've shrunk the battery too. It seems that someone somewhere has decided that recharging yer phone every 2 days is acceptable. Playing games uses a lot of juice, and if that thirty minutes of messing around at lunchtime means your battery may die bef
    • "The two I've bought in the past year came with 3 games each. All six of them suck. I mean, they _really_ suck."

      Ditto. Admittedly, I bought a very cheap phone with my 2-year contract. It came pre-installed with a version of blackjack... that doesn't even follow conventional blackjack rules. Getting blackjack pays 2-1, not 3-2. No splits. Doubling down not only doubles your bet, it also increases the payoff to 2-1... so doubles your bet again, but only if you win the hand. If you have two Aces, only
      • Yow! That's good. That reminds me of back when I was in college and had a job testing all the crappy games being released. I remember one Basketball console title -- I think it was called "Take it to the Hoop" or something -- where we had to explain first to the producer, then to the programmer what constituted travelling. The guys had no knowledge or interest in sports: they were told to make a basketball game, and that's what they did.

        So it sounds like the current mobile phone game market is a similar "g
        • "Then again, they did get you bored enough to play that game 100 times."

          The train is what got me bored. If I hadn't been testing my power level hypothesis, I probably would have been smushing my nose against the window or something just as bad.

          Although, that's a neat concept for a 'game' -- release a broken/incomplete/open-ended game, with the tools to fix it or change it in myriad ways -- see what people come up with. Allow people to play eachother's games on a subscription network on a console.

          Mod
      • Why does no one ever complain about games on the iPod. Their pong is no better than cellphone blackjack.


  • 1. Most are truly unplayable with the cell phone (See Madden Football)

    2. The developers and publishers don't really care if the games are unplayable, since to try them out, you have to buy them, and then it is already too late. Just try to get a refund. And better yet, if you signed up for a subscription instead of buying, you will probably forget to unsubscribe and then have a $5 charge added to your bill each month. This is what they hope for.

    3. Phone companies are generally evil. (See your phone bill)

    4.
  • It seems to me that all this talk about mobile gaming being the next big thing is an attempt at creating a self-fullfiling prophecy. Over the past few years I have read a lot of articles about mobile gaming going mainstream and how it's gonna be the next big cash cow. I just dont see it happening, and I don't see where the predictions are coming from.
  • The only way i would see that cell phone games have actualy succeded is by seeing there ripped roms actualy being succesfull on the internet.
  • I can't speak for the Treo, but the Samsung i730 (pocket pc phone) has a couple great games. Warfare inc (C&C clone), age of empires, and skyforce, are all decent enough so that I don't have to carry around a gameboy. Plus I have some pinball and sports games that are decent.

    Although I did wish it had better games. FF or a D&D game would be perfect.

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