Mobile gaming has a huge market at the moment, with the amount of games coming over to mobile from other platforms. Even those designed for mobile use, have been booming for quite awhile now. But that doesn’t mean that all games on mobile, are quality. In fact, in a sea of games, only a few actually are playable. The rest are plagued with issues, bad graphics, poor translations, and so on. One of the biggest issues are the copycat games, where games literally just copy the mechanics/ideas of others, and pass it off as their own.
And that’s one of the milder instances of the issue. Some steal from other games, tweak the graphics or art just enough, and publish. Check out this game below, the name sound familiar to anyone?
It’s literally stealing the name from Moonton’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang so shamelessly, and not to mention the game-play mechanics of an Auto Battler. That though, I’ll let slide. Many games take from others, but there’s still something to be said about intellectual property theft. The character in the icon and the background of the video are also from Mobile Legends itself. Check out the pics below to compare it for yourself!
At the moment it is unclear if Moonton outsourced the game to be made by Kaka Games Inc., or if it is an official title from the MLBB developer. And if not, that’s some serious copyright infringement.
But forget that, check out the next example of copyright infringement I found below. They’re literally using everything about the Pokemon Franchise, when clearly this is just some trash, where someone decided to pluck models and characters from. Don’t even bother checking this game out, because I surely regretted giving it permissions for the sake of the article. This is just another clear example of how unmoderated, and bad the Google Play Store, and Android gaming can be.
The Two Extremes Of Mobile Games
The above is an example of the thinking that developers and publishers for mobile games have. There’s little to no thought, and no originality.
Mobile Gaming at the moment seems to be only at two extremes. Either really good, or REALLY bad. They’re either some form of idle game, where you don’t really do anything, or something that’s too ambitious for a mobile game. In recent years, we’ve got some quality ports and games made for Mobile. PUBG Mobile took the world by storm, along with Fortnite, Stardew Valley, and soon the upcoming Call of Duty Mobile.
These are ports from Console quality games, and they blew up coming to mobile. But the fast paced market of mobile gaming makes it hard for developers and publishers to keep their games fresh. Another thing that needs to be addressed is the insanely poor quality of some of these titles.
Check out this one, that is currently on the Google Play Store. Even this game has 1K downloads, and a rather high 3.8 star rating on the Store. Who are these games even for? The sheer lack of moderation and actually checking on the quality of these games, is why no one takes Mobile Gaming as seriously than they do other platforms.
People are always looking for the next big thing, and that’s what makes the Mobile Gaming market so volatile. In reality however, it’s those games that would make for a better experience for gaming on the go. It just has to be done right.
False & (Sometimes) Disturbing Advertising
False advertising in the mobile gaming market is rampant. Some developers will literally take any game, or whatever footage they want, to depict their game. Often times, it’s not even what their game looks like, or how it actually works. Check out this ad for Rise Of Civilisations, a game with over 10,000,000+ downloads on the Google Play Store. It changed it’s name to Rise Of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade, so keep that in mind.
I mean, pretty sure that isn’t the actual gameplay footage, considering they say it’s a;
“Real-Time Battles Battles are not pre-calculated but happen in real time on the map. Anyone can join or leave a battle at any time, allowing true RTS gameplay. “
Look at the screenshots below to see what the game actually looks like.
That’s just one example, mild example of false advertising. There are some game ads that rip off video and game-play from OTHER PC, or console games, and pose as if that was their game. On a mobile. The audacity of some of these mobile game developers is quite astonishing. But my bigger question is, why aren’t Google moderating the kind of content that goes up on their store? Most of these games are honestly below quality, and some even have intellectual theft.
Not to mention, one of the most disturbing ads I’ve seen in awhile. Check out this ad for a game called “Lily’s Garden”.
I mean, what the f***?? How is that suitable for a game on mobile, where there are impressionable kids? Well, never mind that, this even disturbs me. In the end, the game is literally just a Match-3 game. So I’m not quite sure this was as effective as the people who made this, thought it would be. Lily’s Garden has over a Million downloads on the Google Play Store.
The Bigger Issue – Micro Transactions
One of the biggest concerns in mobile gaming, are micro-transactions. I’m all for free to play, but pay to win mechanics are a whole other issue. It kind of takes away from the whole point of playing the game. Paying to get an item, or character, when you’re supposed to work your way towards it. Some games take things WAAAY out of hand. Check out a “deal” on Ubisoft’s latest mobile game, “The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot”.
With an original price of 549.95 Euros (RM 2,572.76), Ubisoft undoubtedly shows off their insane greediness. Okay fine, let’s take into account the 109.99 Euros (RM 514.44), that’s still a ridiculous price for what? 3 pieces of 5 star equipment, 6000 gems, and 500 energy. And don’t even get me started on energy systems in games. Because that only is in place, to get you to pay, to literally PLAY the game.
This kind of haggling, and trying to entice gamers to purchase these micro transactions is insanely predatory. Witht he money spent in this in-app purchase, I could’ve bought 2-3 AAA games for my PS4, or a bunch of indie games for PC. And that’s the state of Mobile Gaming at the moment.
What Do We Do About It?
Well frankly, there’s nothing we can do. The state of mobile gaming will be like this, until someone starts to do things seriously on mobile, without the bullshit I mentioned above. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of games that are extremely good on mobile. Even then, I’d bet they have some sort of in-app purchase issue, quality control, or some other thing that’s holding it back from getting to the level of gaming we have on other platforms. I love gaming on mobile, it’s the most accessible, easiest, and pretty useful thing you can have. You’re waiting at the Doctor’s, on a commute, or just bored. Take out your phone, start up a game, and just chill.
But with the state of gaming on mobile reaching this point of saturation, and just overall abysmal quality, I’m wondering how long more do I stay a mobile gamer. Maybe it’s time to pick up a Nintendo Switch, but till then, I’m stuck in what can sometime be, a cesspool of bad games and no moderation on the “Games” market for Mobile.
