0:01 do you remember when mobile games used
0:04 to look like this and this like this all
0:06 of these were from over a decade ago
0:08 these games were released at a time when
0:10 we were still using iPhone 4S or a
0:12 Samsung Galaxy S3 in a best case
0:13 scenario and so why now that we have
0:15 phones like the iPhone 14 pro and
0:18 Samsung s23 Ultra friends that are
0:20 literally 50 times more powerful do most
0:22 games still not really look any better
0:24 in the same time frame we've seen gaming
0:26 consoles go from PS3 Graphics that look
0:28 like this to pierce Graphics that look
0:30 like this and the mobile gaming market
0:31 now even makes more money than the
0:33 console market so time to find out why
0:35 the mobile games themselves haven't
0:37 stepped up in the same way well the
0:39 first part of the puzzle is that not all
0:40 phones are getting more powerful at the
0:42 same rate but check this out so this is
0:44 a new flagship phone the Galaxy s23
0:46 Ultra versus one of the company's older
0:48 flagships the Galaxy S7 Edge and running
0:50 this performance test you can see
0:51 basically an eight times performance
0:53 jump just in a few years and that's not
0:55 even factoring in all the other benefits
0:57 of just having newer Tech in your phone
0:59 but if we do the same thing on the
1:00 budget end of the spectrum a brand new
1:02 budget phone versus an older budget
1:03 phone with the same time Gap and the
1:05 performance Improvement is Tiny while on
1:07 the flagship end we've gone up by over a
1:09 million points in performance on the
1:11 budget and we've barely gone up 70 000.
1:13 now there is a reason for that at the
1:15 entry level of the market people just
1:16 want different things to what Flagship
1:18 users want like even if every single
1:20 year companies could put more and more
1:22 capable processors in that money is
1:23 often better spent just sticking with a
1:25 processor that's good enough and then
1:26 spending the extra money upgrading the
1:28 screen quality or the camera quality and
1:30 so what this all means is that while
1:31 we're constantly hearing about how
1:32 phones are getting faster and faster
1:34 that progression is only really
1:36 happening at the top tier Flagship end
1:38 and not trickling down through to
1:40 cheaper phones like we expected it would
1:41 10 years ago and so we're now at a stage
1:43 where the power gap between the very
1:44 highest end phones and the Very lowest
1:47 end phones has never been wider so if
1:49 you're a mobile game developer now and
1:50 you can either make a great looking game
1:52 that only 30 of phones are going to be
1:53 able to run properly or make a bad
1:55 looking game that everyone can play
1:57 which are you gonna pick but the store
1:59 doesn't fully explain why the vast
2:00 majority of games don't look
2:01 significantly better so right now I'm
2:03 running a racing game from 2013 on the
2:06 top and a racing game from 2022 at the
2:07 bottom it's really hard to tell the
2:09 difference I mean yeah the reflections
2:11 on the car look better in 2022 but then
2:12 I would actually say the sky looks
2:15 better in 2013 as it does the amount of
2:16 stuff that they've actually added into
2:18 the map but there's another Factor
2:20 that's holding back mobile games from
2:21 leveling up in the same way that console
2:23 games have
2:25 the fragmentation see if you're making a
2:27 game for PlayStation 5 you can build the
2:29 game for PS5 you can look at all the
2:31 components available the Technologies it
2:33 supports and make the absolute best
2:34 looking game possible that can take
2:36 advantage of all of them yeah sure you
2:38 might also make a version for PS4 and
2:40 maybe a PC Port too but because there's
2:42 such few platforms each version of the
2:44 game is its own distinct development
2:46 project that's optimized for that
2:50 platform yeah apart from you cyberpunk
2:52 but you can't optimize like that when
2:53 there's a thousand possible different
2:55 devices literally that people could be
2:57 using like there are with phones and so
2:59 what this means is not just that you
3:00 have to cater to the lowest common
3:02 denominator the weakest phone Hardware
3:04 on the market but also that you can't
3:06 take advantage of the strengths of
3:07 anyone's Hardware like for example the
3:10 Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that basically
3:11 every top-end Android phone is powered
3:13 by right now is an absolute monster it
3:15 supports like 15 different super
3:17 Advanced Gaming Technologies even the
3:19 same Ray tracing in games just like the
3:21 PS5 can but I've been using a phone with
3:24 a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 inside of it and I
3:26 can't find one properly retraced Android
3:29 game I'm not exaggerating here zero
3:31 percent of Android games at least ones
3:33 that aren't in beta have Ray tracing
3:34 let's call it
3:36 0.0001 just in case I've missed a few
3:38 but the PS5 because the games are
3:40 designed around it has Ray tracing in
3:43 almost 40 of its titles because there
3:45 are just so many different phones each
3:46 one with their own strengths and
3:48 weaknesses developers just have no
3:49 monetary incentive to program in
3:51 advanced features like Ray tracing it's
3:52 just a big investment to make the
3:55 experience five percent better for two
3:56 percenter players whereas for PS5
3:58 because every console is identical
4:00 adding Ray tracing is going to benefit
4:01 every user and so we'll actually add
4:03 value to your game and sell more copies
4:05 and let's talk about this monetization
4:07 because this is the key thing that I
4:09 think turns a majority of developers off
4:10 when it comes to mobile see the way that
4:12 the big budget console gaming Market
4:14 works is you have a few main AAA
4:15 developers they'll spend Millions
4:17 working with teams of hundreds of people
4:19 to make their next game they'll announce
4:20 it and then they'll sell it charging 70
4:23 up front per copy now because these tend
4:25 to be big companies with a reputation
4:27 with established distribution Channels
4:28 with connections to get their games
4:30 right in front of viewers eyes and
4:31 because they'll earn back their
4:32 investment very quickly assuming the
4:35 game is good it's not a super high risk
4:36 Endeavor you can take your time
4:38 developing you can invest Millions
4:39 making sure that your game supports all
4:41 the latest Technologies because in most
4:43 cases you know that you're going to make
4:45 your money back this is not the case on
4:47 mobile the mobile gaming Market is super
4:49 easy to enter and therefore also super
4:51 competitive the majority of games fail
4:53 plus even if you succeed you have to
4:55 jump through far more Hoops to start
4:56 making money from them the default
4:58 assumption with a mobile game is now
5:00 that it's going to be free and so even
5:02 when you get your users your job is not
5:04 done there you have to also get your
5:06 players completely invested in your game
5:07 you don't just need a few thousand
5:09 downloads you need a competitive
5:11 thriving Community before players will
5:12 even think about taking out their wallet
5:14 to buy power-ups or customization skins
5:16 within it and the truth of it is sometimes
5:17 sometimes
5:19 that's out of your control sometimes
5:21 well most of the time really the concept
5:23 of the game just doesn't stick with the
5:24 masses and so instead of wasting years
5:26 making it look nice and pretty and
5:28 Polished you can minimize your risk by
5:29 making the game just look good enough
5:31 and then chucking it into the void early
5:33 to see if people actually like the
5:36 concept I'd say it's quite easy to look
5:37 at the games that have done well on
5:39 mobile by going on the top charts and
5:40 things like that and just thinking that
5:42 all mobile games do that well but the
5:44 truth of it is it is a graveyard out
5:46 there like if you could sort the play
5:49 store or the app store by most recently
5:50 added games and just see everything
5:52 that's getting put onto there you'd see
5:54 it at 99 of these games just disappear
5:56 into nothingness no one finds them no
5:59 one plays them plus if your game is less
6:00 demanding to run it's likely to mean
6:02 that more people are going to be able to
6:03 try it and you're giving it the best
6:05 chance to become a big game that
6:07 actually has some Buzz about it which is
6:08 kind of the opposite of how it works
6:09 when you're making a console game the
6:11 other economic factor is just the simple
6:13 fact that most mobile game developers
6:15 are smaller companies like if we just
6:16 have a look at the top three games on
6:18 the iPhone right now you do find quite a
6:20 few sizable Brands you get a lot of
6:21 companies who've kind of figured out
6:23 what makes mobile games work and then
6:24 they've just made like a ton of them but
6:26 if you look a little deeper you'll find
6:27 that the vast majority of companies
6:29 making mobile games are 50 employees or
6:32 less like a snake IO this is a huge game
6:35 made by cool apps two apps number of employees
6:36 employees
6:39 26. in companies like this often just
6:41 don't have the physical Manpower or
6:43 resources to make visually stunning
6:44 games and because their users aren't
6:46 paying upfront at the point of
6:47 downloading their game these developers
6:50 can't Coast on past success or word of
6:51 mouth or establish distribution channels
6:53 to have repeat successes every game
6:55 needs to stand on its own and has to
6:56 succeed on its own to have its own
6:58 economy you're probably starting to see
7:00 why mobile game devs are not constantly
7:03 out there trying to make the next Crisis
7:05 a couple of logistical issues too like
7:07 the fact that in the last 10 years we've
7:08 still not figured out how to make touch
7:10 screen controls feel satisfying I mean
7:12 yeah there's gaming grips there's some
7:13 gaming phones that have baked and
7:16 triggers there's gamer goo that reduces
7:18 the sweatiness of your fingers but let's
7:20 be honest only like three percent of the
7:21 market is actually buying these things
7:24 and so games are not being built for
7:26 them especially not the gamer good God
7:28 my trousers I promise buzzer it was Game
7:31 ago plus the battery life issue we've
7:32 got a number of phones are much more
7:34 than just gaming devices we need our
7:37 phones to make phone calls and to be
7:38 reachable so if you jumped on to an hour
7:40 of full-on console quality Call of Duty
7:42 on your phone but then exited the app
7:43 and realized you only had five percent
7:46 battery remaining wouldn't be very happy
7:48 about that right so unlike with consoles
7:49 and PC that are plugged into a wall and
7:51 can draw as much power as they need to
7:52 to run at their best there's a lot of
7:54 constraints that are put into place on
7:55 phones to actually stop them doing that
7:57 so that you can use them for other
7:59 things but I think the single most
8:01 important thing to bear in mind here is
8:03 that people think about Mobile gaming
8:04 differently to other kinds of gaming
8:05 there was definitely a time when games
8:07 on phones were accelerating in
8:09 popularity in like 2012. we're looking
8:11 at the number of players doubling every
8:12 six months it definitely felt like the
8:15 end was here for consoles Wyatt actually
8:16 even went as far as to Crown The Game's
8:18 console dead but then I realized a few
8:20 things one that you can't just take the
8:22 way that something is currently growing
8:23 as proof of how it will grow there's
8:25 reasons why the growth was particularly
8:27 high at the start lots of people were
8:28 getting smartphones for the first time
8:30 it was a novelty people were curious
8:31 about what a smartphone could do so it
8:33 would experiment more and more
8:36 experimentation leads to Rapid growth it
8:37 meant that developers were testing the
8:39 boundaries more and therefore making
8:41 more progress but nowadays we've almost
8:43 settled on the realization that people
8:44 don't really play on their phones as a
8:46 console replacement they play mostly
8:48 just to fill time the phone's got
8:50 different benefits to traditional gaming
8:52 it's not this hyper immersive get
8:53 comfortable on a sofa big screen
8:55 experience the console gaming is but it
8:57 is super convenient it's the games that
8:58 you'll always have with you and that
9:00 you'll want to jump into you for 15
9:01 minutes at a time in between other
9:03 things and so because the purpose of
9:05 mobile games is less about embellishment
9:08 and more about the practicality it turns
9:09 out that it's not just developer
9:11 unwillingness but most users of mobile
9:13 games are also perfectly happy just to
9:15 have a simple looking title that's quick
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