The Evolution of Mobile Gaming

With the advent of mobile phones in the early 2000, people tend to use their portable phone more than before. After calling and receiving calls from other users, consumers started to send text messages. The addiction of having a mobile phone has spread over the years, and big companies back then felt the need for entertainment in the mobile phones so that they can get profit from it. Start of the emergence of mobile gaming goes back to nostalgic games such as Snake, Solitaire, and Tetris. These games were said to be the first games that brought back mesmerising histories to every child those days. They were created initially on Nokia and on basic monochrome displays. Working on Snake and other simple mobile games brought about the need to develop from simple games to more advanced ones in order to expand the mobile gaming market. Very first idea of making these types of games was the need to fill the gap of mobile gaming in attracting more people of young ages to buy more phones. On this matter, Java games evolved over the years and became popular among teenagers. Moreover, by the advancements of the hardwares, android and IOS platforms developed more complex and immersive mobile games to make profit from their own Stores. One of these monetization techniques was making in-app purchases. This strategy is also called freemium which lets gamers access the world of mobile gaming for free and with the option of buying in-game currencies virtually to show off their cool profiles to other players. This article will expand the evolution of mobile gaming in chronological order so that you can get the gist of the creation and development of simple games up to now.

The Evolution of Mobile Gaming

Every generation has spent a long time on mobile gaming platforms and their awesome games that have been created, developed, and designed over the years. But what remains is the nostalgia and the early versions of the games that were created for the first time. Gamers around the world have lived their whole childhood playing very simple games that bring back the memories which will not die. Even these simple games have evolved and directed the new generations to keep this nostalgia for many years. It can be inferred from the developments of mobile gaming that even the simple games have evolved over the years up to now. In this matter, this article will categorise the mobile gaming evolutions from the early 2000 and the emergence of phone up to now:

• From 1990 to 2000: Mobile gaming has started its very first way to phones that have low hardware capabilities such as Nokia which people have memories from. If you ask anyone what was your first game you ever played on a phone, they will answer the same which is Snake, Solitaire, and Tetris. These pre-installed games are the simplest ones that are redesigned for the new generations as well.
• From 2000 to 2010: Mobile phone companies have expanded their working time on developing simple games to more complex ones. Mobile gaming industry has been revolutionised by the advancements of hardwares installed on phones. In this case, two platforms were designed and developed that are called Java and Brew. These two platforms allowed more advanced phones to be installed and played with high graphics. Other advantages that can be added are sound quality and the gameplay. These games had also more genres, levels, and more complicated than before which attracted more users to play these games. In 2008, the emergence of the IOS App Store and Google Play Store a year later have centralised the mobile gaming market, paved the way for developers to get a chance of releasing various complex games into the marketplace and earn millions of dollars, and expanded the way for a quick growth of mobile gaming market. Clash of Clans, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Temple Run to name but a few are the most popular games that are intertwined with the people’s lifestyles.

• From 2010 up to now: The booming years of the mobile gaming industry has changed the world’s lifestyle and culture with stunning and exciting games. Back then, you needed to buy a game in the market to play. But for the sake of more profit, you can now download it for free with the exception that you must buy in-game currencies to level up faster which is called in-app purchases. With the advancements of smartphones in graphics and high-quality audios along with the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), mobile gaming escape the complex mobile gaming and rushed into the immersive mobile gaming experience in which it lets gamers to adapt themselves in a virtual world such as Genshin Impact, Pokémon GO, Minecraft, PUBG, CODM, and so on.

From Snake to Complex Mobile Games

Early 2000 lightened the way by showing simple games such as Tetris, Snake, and Solitaire to the old generations. Nokia’s Snake was the simplest game that was pre-installed, and a small snake or a worm had to eat dots in order to get bigger and get more points on certain modes with obstacles. This classical arcade game not only upgraded over the years but also evolved by adding more events and friendly leaderboards such as Snake.io on Google Play Store that was downloaded more than 100 million times. Same goes for Tetris, an endless puzzle game, on Google Play Store.

Thanks to the advancements and higher capabilities on android and IOS devices, more games have spawned and popularised by gaming developers in the mobile gaming industry. It was in this era that various genres such as RPGs, strategies, MMOs, and open-world became popular and evolving over time. Zenonia, Clash of Clans, Order & Chaos Online, and Grand Theft Auto series are the few games that evolved, changed their titles, or were replaced under a new mechanism recently. A characteristic that can be attached to these games are the fact that they were updated for the sake of profitability.

The Evolution of Immersive Mobile Games

With the rapid updates on phones’ hardware and software in mobile gaming in recent years, new kinds of games called immersive games with rich storytelling, amazing graphic quality, and unforgettable gaming experience have been introduced to game lovers. This type of mobile gaming brings players closer to a virtual world in which they feel characters are themselves. CODM, PUBG, Genshin Impact, Asphalt 9: Legends, Sky: Children of the Light to name but a few are the top and best gameshave ever created. Mobile gaming has always continued to develop every day. In This case, games like Pokémon GO are using augmented reality in order to engage in a virtual world and connect other people together as well. Mobile gaming is going beyond this subject and makes a cross-platform method that lets you play with your phone along with your friends on other platforms such as PC and consoles.