Mobile vs. Desktop Games?

J

James Geiger

Guest
HI - what is your opinion on developing a game for Mobile vs. Desktop? Which has more upside in terms of revenue and recurring revenue at that?

In my opinion, it seems like the clear answer is Mobile - but I could be wrong.
 

Toque

Member
I don’t know desktop.
Mobile is an extremely competitive market. If I break even on a game I consider it a big sucesss. Most don’t.
 
For me, revenue is 100% desktop. I've never had a payout from mobile ads. I just don't have the reach on mobile that I do on desktop. My friends and well wishers play my Android games and they tell me they click my ads. Then again, I don't overdo the ads. I do them once every 5 minutes after you've been playing for 5 minutes.

Everyone's experience will differ.

In terms of developing games, I'd much rather make desktop games. Less restrictions.
 

11clock

Member
The mobile industry is a total joke because of anti-consumer business practices. Desktop is a total joke because of asset flip games flooding the Steam store.

I am currently looking into consoles, more specifically the Switch. I have heard that the market there is pretty healthy.
 
J

James Geiger

Guest
I have read a lot of articles that the mobile gaming industry is a 100B industry (according to various major news outlets). I think everyone has different experiences, so I will give it a try. I can always pivot to Desktop if needed or release for everything haha :)
 
N

nramjieawan

Guest
The mobile industry is a total joke because of anti-consumer business practices. Desktop is a total joke because of asset flip games flooding the Steam store.

I am currently looking into consoles, more specifically the Switch. I have heard that the market there is pretty healthy.
What do you mean by asset flip games?
 

YanBG

Member
What do you mean by asset flip games?
Unity/RPGMaker type of basic games that use the available engine's art/content and all look the same. They are usually crap, fast cash grab attempts.
I have read a lot of articles that the mobile gaming industry is a 100B industry
I'm pc biased and i haven't tried releasing on mobile but from what i gather there is not much revenue for the regular devs. Aren't all the money going to the platfroms and distributors etc? You basically give them free money by publishing your game on their catalogues. They are like "why should we bother spending time to make games ourselves when we can use other peoples work" :D

Ofc Steam is similar but they used to be devs too.
 

hippyman

Member
Now that game development has become more accessible it really doesn't matter what avenue you take anymore in my opinion. Every game market is completely saturated. The whole "indie" thing isn't a small portion anymore. It's basically the majority now. Just two cents from a hobby dev.
 
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Pfap

Member
There is something exciting about releasing a game on mobile... everybody has a phone, not everybody has a desktop. I feel that as a developer you can do more with a pc and I'm not really too fond of touch controls; I always get good results, but I almost always prefer playing my mobile games on my own dev pc version. It pretty much always depends on your game, if you have an awesome console game it will do better on consoles and if you have an awesome mobile game it will do better on mobile.

This guy seems rather salty, but it is good information.

I don't think you need a publisher, but just this past week I was surprised how much Apple's submission process has changed. My first game did not need a privacy policy or support web page, but now they require it; which, requires running a server or hosting files with somebody that does run a server. I am pretty new to web development, so my submission included links to bare bones .txt web pages for my privacy policy and support info.


To specifically answer your question a good case study may be a game like "Stardew Valley". It seems to me that you can grow from a desktop launch, but a lot of phone apps just get "buried". It is still fun to develop for mobile, but if you have something really great, get it out on desktop and then move up from there... unless you have a strictly "mobile" game that doesn't translate to other platforms. A good example of failed translation may be match 3 puzzle games; I remember a Disney Frozen match 3 game on PlayStation, I downloaded it to play multiplayer with family and it had a monetization model similar to candy crush. Which really only works on mobile IMO, but who knows maybe Disney raked in the cash on that game and all rules exist to be broken (right?).


Anyways, I guess if you are trying to make revenue what is important is a plan... a business plan.
 

Rayek

Member
The mobile markets are utterly and completely saturated. Everyone can make games nowadays, even without a single line of code. Original games on mobile (even free ones) are often hacked and sold under a new title. Hundreds of rubbish titles are released every day.

Couple of years ago I spent quite a lot of time and effort on releasing a game on iOS, and despite it being quite original, and having done lots of testing with kids (who all loved it), it flunked. Earned me perhaps a tenner. To make a small dent in those mobile markets you need to be very lucky, throw a lot of money against advertising, spend a lot of time on getting word out about your game, or all three.

Desktop is somewhat better, but not by much. But it is easier to find a niche, and cater for that target audience only. I now work on serious games for a company, and that brings in enough to get by.

I've been investigating the interactive book market. Seems much more lucrative.

Ironically, commercial C64 games seem viable again. Goes to show you just need to find that niche, I suppose ;-) Much easier to grab hold of a couple of thousand of loyal niche users paying $10 than attempting to lock into a market with millions of users with a generic $2 game title.
 

Elodman

Member
Great find! (that new age C64 game)
Anyway its price can be of any range, if we don't know how well it sells.

Ironically, commercial C64 games seem viable again. Goes to show you just need to find that niche, I suppose ;-) Much easier to grab hold of a couple of thousand of loyal niche users paying $10 than attempting to lock into a market with millions of users with a generic $2 game title.
Is this statement, about C64 games, comes from some kind of experience, or could u inform us, where we could find statistics, or read more on those lucrative niche markets?

Thanx, bye.
 
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