Mobile has managed to achieve huge technological strides in a relatively short space of time.
Whether mobile games should be technically complex and whether they should provide a deep level of gameplay is a topic up for debate,
however. The average consumer has yet to work out how to activate the GPRS settings on their phone, let alone manage to download a
mobile game, activate the connected features or play in multiplayer mode via Bluetooth.
There are three factors driving the technical complexity and depth of game-play. Firstly, and not to be underestimated, is PR.
People are only interested in hearing and reading about the latest great thing you can do on your mobile. The only PR Tetris generates
is how successful it is as a mass-market consumer proposition and how much Jamdat paid for the privilege.
The game that scooped the mobile games award at last year’s BAFTA, on the other hand, was Bluetooth bi-planes.
The second factor driving the technical and depth of gameplay experience are the operators. Operators need to recoup the investment
in their 3G licenses, and therefore tell us – 3G is not early adopter – it has to be mass market today.
Similarly, handset manufacturers are competing against each other to bring to market the phone with the most mega pixels in its
camera, the biggest memory, the fastest processing power etc. Pressure from the handset manufacturers and operators in turn puts
pressure on games publishers to produce ever more graphically stunning and complex gaming experiences.
The third and final factor driving this trend is the fact that the majority of mobile gamers out there are still early adopters
or existing gamers and not the mass market we’re hoping to convert into gamers. Therefore, in Europe at least, the popular games are
still ports of traditional videogames, and the games that are selling, which are involve, shooting, driving, role-play, strategy, etc.
For the mass market, who might play a game on their train journey home or while waiting for a bus, we know that the depth of
gameplay and stunning graphics aren’t necessary. But should that mean that games like The Sims 2 which is due to launch on mobile
later this year, shouldn’t offer the depth of gameplay which consumers expect from the PC version? Of course not, where possible game
play should stay true to the essence of the franchise. However, the sooner that we understand that technical complexity isn’t an
essential part of gameplay, the better………
How Deep Can You Go?