That the publisher Activision Blizzard intends to focus more on mobile games is already known. But what does this mean and what are the expectations behind it? A new study has now discussed several solid reasons.
Since the Q3 report of 2018, it has been known that Activision Blizzard will increasingly focus on mobile games. In particular, Blizzard is supposed to release mobile titles for all its franchises.
The starting point here is probably the Diablo Immortal announced at Blizzcon. The news about the mobile games from Blizzard was not well received by the target audience of Blizzard fans, which mainly consists of hardcore PC gamers.
Is the idea of going mobile now a big failure or are there good reasons for the new mobile focus?
Newzoo’s major report shows the advantages of mobile gaming
What is the report about? To analyze the advantages and potentials of mobile gaming, Activision Blizzard commissioned a study from the agency Newzoo. According to their own statements, this company is a leading provider of analytics for games and eSports.
Who was surveyed? From December 10 to December 24, 2018, 12,327 people from the US, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany were surveyed. The age of the respondents ranged from 18 to 68 years.
Topics of the survey included the use of mobile apps, usage of mobile games, and other purchasing behaviors.
What was the study about? Before the study, 4 core facts were provided:
- Gaming is the third most popular category of mobile apps, the second most popular among people aged 18 to 20.
- In gaming, gender differences are particularly pronounced. Certain genders of a specific age group tend to lean more towards particular genres.
- Gamers tend to have more influence on the purchasing behavior of their social environment. They are said to lead their environment to certain expenditures up to 23 percent more often.
- Mobile gamers are much more willing to engage with advertisements and prefer certain brands that have positively stayed in their minds through advertising.
These points will be detailed in the following pages of the report. At the end, the study comes to some interesting conclusions.
What are the results of the study? A large portion of mobile gamers are millennials, that is, people aged between 21 and 35. Half of them are said to be male. Interestingly, about 41 percent of all mobile gamers have at least one child. Additionally, a full 67 percent of mobile gamers are said to occasionally succumb to shopping sprees.
According to Newzoo, this presents some exciting possibilities:
- Mobile gaming is one of the most used applications on mobile devices, reaching an important target group of around 30-year-olds and is equally interesting for both women and men.
- Due to the large variety of preferences among gamers, it is possible to attract a large number of customers with different, tailored games.
- Since mobile gamers are more easily influenced by advertisements than non-gamers and are also influential within their social environment, mobile gaming would be a good marketing tool.
How do the players react? The advantages are thus clearly apparent and from an economic perspective, mobile gaming is a good thing. However, many Blizzard fans are skeptical and fear that their beloved franchises like Diablo, StarCraft, or Overwatch will now be reduced to soulless mobile games that are only out for a quick buck via Pay2Win cash shops.
However, this doesn’t have to be the case. Sure, there are many online games that are shamelessly Pay2Win and scams, but there are also more and more good and high-quality mobile games that are fun and do not make more use of cash shops than regular desktop titles like Overwatch and others do.
It will likely depend on the success or failure of Diablo Immortal whether Blizzard fans will ultimately be reconciled or whether Activision Blizzard will continue to struggle to promote mobile gaming as a big future concept.
