The trend for MMORPG fans is shifting towards mobile, our author Schuhmann notes. Not everyone will like this.
What has happened? For years, fans on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have been waiting for the only truly big new PC MMORPG of recent years: Black Desert for their consoles.
- Then, at E3 in summer 2017, they were promised: Black Desert is coming to Xbox One.
- A year went by with nothing happening.
- At E3 2018, it was said: “Yes, the beta starts in autumn 2018.”
You can already tell: The developer isn’t really eager to release the game as quickly as possible on PS4 and Xbox One.
Meanwhile, the mobile version of “Black Desert” has already soared in Asia and has made so much money for the studio behind it that they have now purchased EVE Online. The Icelanders are now planning mobile games in the EVE universe.
This is a small thing, but it fits into the big picture. With the 2017 hit “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds”, the mobile version is also significantly more important to the developers than providing a PS4 version of PUBG to fans here in the West.
This shows:
- We here in the West want MMORPGs on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
- In Asia, they are already playing mobile.
And: The industry is on the side of mobile gamers. Because that’s where the money is to be made.
The industry is pushing into the mobile market
Asia has already switched to mobile: When you follow sites that used to report on PC MMORPGs from Asia, you notice how they have changed over the years.
Asian PC MMORPGs have almost completely disappeared from reporting, instead, there’s a plethora of mobile MMORPGs that are barely distinguishable from one another at first glance.
At gaming fairs in Asia, mobile MMOs are showcased in droves.
Even we gaming magazines in Germany are now receiving numerous press releases about new mobile games for iOS and Android.
In Asia, the shift from PC MMOs to mobile MMOs has long been completed.
The Chinese are pragmatic: When Riot Games refused to develop a mobile version of LoL, their Chinese partners simply did it themselves. “Arena of Valor,” the mobile clone of LoL, is now such a hit that the Chinese government is taking action against it.
What are these mobile MMORPGs in Asia? There are two major waves:
- On one hand, “PC MMORPGs” are being re-released on mobile and making insane amounts of money – Lineage M is the big example.
- On the other hand, new MMORPGs are being tailored directly for mobile.
Core gaming should come to the West
Here’s the thing: The gaming market in Europe and North America has already developed a strong tendency towards mobile. Millions play on their phones. But they are playing “casual games” like Candy Crush.
In Asia, however, core gamers are already on mobile. The gaming industry now wants to achieve this for the West as well.
This way, Asian publishers are pushing into the West with their mobile games and well-filled wallets. Netmarble has managed to get TV star Conan O’Brien for a major PR campaign for “Lineage 2 Revolution”.
But Western developers also want to get a piece of the pie of core mobile games.
This is what will come to the West: Here in the West, we will also experience a mobile wave in the coming years:
- The new Warcraft from Blizzard will be a “mobile strategy game”
- The new “EVE” from CCP will be a “mobile strategy game”
- The next “Elder Scrolls” from Bethesda will be a “mobile RPG”
This realignment of the major Western publishers towards “mobile” can practically be read in every annual report of the past years. Publishers like Square Enix have already made this turn – Activision and EA are actively working to expand their mobile offerings.
If someone with a lot of money is still planning MMOs for PC, they will be sandbox survival games like New World.
Is there hope? Yes, there is hope. Indie developers want to continue reaching core gamers on PC by swimming against the tide and establishing an attractive offering with limited resources.
Because if the AAA publishers exclude the MMORPG genre, a gap may arise here that clever projects can fill:
- An MMORPG like Ashes of Creation aims to achieve just that and take up the torch that Everquest Next dropped.
- Star Citizen also explicitly wants to be a PC game that meets the highest technical requirements.
Great reservations in the West
Do the players in the West even want the mobile shift?
Here in the West, we feel great reservations against this wave of “core” mobile games. PC players and console players are resisting the idea of playing on their phones for long periods.
The reservations are strong: The image of the “casual mobile” game is so prevalent that a real aversion to playing on mobile has developed.
You can feel it under every article, how much many core gamers are resisting the will of the industry. Core gamers who grew up with PC or consoles can’t and don’t want to imagine “really” playing on their phones.
As an alternative for small tasks in an MMORPG, using an app might be okay. Some may even play Hearthstone mobile alongside.
But for core mobile games to succeed here in the West, the industry has a lot of convincing work to do.
Some companies are already betting their future that we will have Korean conditions here in three to five years:
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