While MMORPGs had primarily their place on the PC in the past, many games are now appearing entirely for mobile or at least offer crossplay to smartphones. While this trend scares off many fans, MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch is increasingly taken with mobile MMORPGs.
A few years ago, I was a convinced PC gamer who couldn’t imagine playing on my smartphone. “This is just a place where Peggle or Candy Crush can be played, not for real gamers,” you would have heard me shout. But ever since I became a father, I see the situation a bit differently.
As a baby, my daughter liked to sleep for hours on my belly, and today she still needs help falling asleep. However, it’s hard to take my gaming PC into her nursery, whereas I can easily take my smartphone. Plus, one is constantly on the go, to friends or family, and rarely comes to the home PC.
So I now play MMORPGs on my smartphone almost every day. Admittedly, not the games with dull autoplay, but primarily RuneScape and occasionally Albion Online. And for me, these titles are exactly prime examples of how to make good mobile MMORPGs.
And I am not alone in playing on the smartphone. In 2021, 23.5 million people in Germany played regularly on their mobile phones (via game). On the PC, however, there are only “just” 14.3 million players. Internationally, especially in Asian and South American countries, it looks quite different. Here, smartphones dominate.
All mobile MMORPGs are pay-to-win, autoplay, and anyway silly!
For years, more MMORPGs have been released for mobile each month than in an entire year for the PC. Games like Lineage W generate 8 times more revenue than 3 major PC MMORPGs combined. And even large companies like Blizzard with Diablo Immortal or Riot Games with LoL Wild Rift have jumped onto the mobile bandwagon in recent years.
However, mobile MMORPGs have a bad reputation, and not without reason. Many titles rely on aggressive monetization, which allows players to skip artificially integrated time barriers or simply purchase significant advantages in the shop – in other words, pay-to-win.
I myself tried three new games in the Play Store last December that I had never heard of by name but received over 4.5 stars from more than 10,000 reviews. And my goodness – all three were a disaster. They all relied on autoplay, and they all had a shop with real pay-to-win, one with potions that simply give you 10% more stats or more damage… great!
But high-quality mobile MMORPGs with crossplay to other platforms are the future, I am firmly convinced. And with RuneScape, I am currently realizing how well this can work.
Many quests, simple fights, and collecting and crafting I do while lying in bed. Difficult tasks, on the other hand, are completed on the PC when I have a larger screen as well as a mouse and keyboard in front of me.
And I could imagine this concept for many MMORPGs since in nearly every game, there are tasks that could easily be accomplished on a smartphone.
PC first, Mobile second
The important thing is that developers think of their PC community first. There should be no autoplay and no pay-to-win. There must be challenging content, such as in the form of tough dungeons and raids or large PvP battles. Many Asian MMORPGs have done the opposite, such as Odin: Valhalla Rising, which, while also being released for PC, still offers autoplay there.
There’s a reason why I am playing RuneScape and Albion Online on my smartphone. Both were first released for PC and then brought out mobile versions. With great success, especially for RuneScape. The franchise celebrated record profits and player numbers thanks to Steam and Mobile releases.
How does Albion Online play on the smartphone? Check out this video:
But it seems that western developers are now also increasingly following this path – PC first, Mobile second. A prominent example is Pax Dei, a new sandbox game that is first released on Steam, to later be playable as a cloud MMORPG on consoles and mobiles.
More than a quarter of all 59 PC MMORPGs currently in development have already announced a mobile version. And I think that’s great. Because if I can play my favorite MMORPG on multiple platforms, I can invest even more time in the game.
What do you think about mobile MMORPGs? Do you have any games that you think are really good, or should MMORPGs only be released for PC? Feel free to share in the comments.
The currently best mobile MMORPGs are compiled here:
