When it comes to mobile gaming, the vast majority of gamers aren’t choosing a dedicated mobile gaming console, they are using smartphones and tablets. It’s also no surprise when you step back and consider that the Android ecosystem is by far large the most popular out there that a huge number of mobile gamers are gaming on Android devices.
A new report has been published by App Annie that shows mobile devices such as Android and iOS gadgets are decimating traditional handheld gaming consoles when it comes to sales. The report shows that sales of iOS games have already passed sales of games on traditional portable consoles such as the Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita.
The report also shows that sales of games via Google Play are expected to surpass game sales on those portable consoles within the next few months. Spending on game software for traditional portable consoles has declined significantly between Q4 2012 and Q1 of 2013, the market is booming for mobile devices.
Another interesting tidbit about the figures when it comes to revenue generated is that ad revenue isn’t considered in the numbers. Considering how many games use the freemium model supporting in app purchases, the gap between money made on mobile platforms and on traditional handheld gaming platforms is likely even larger than it looks.
While neither the PS Vita or the Nintendo 3DS have proven as popular as their predecessors, the money made for Nintendo’s incredibly popular DS and DSi consoles is also on the decline. Not everything is rosy in the mobile gaming environment though, some developers are seeing piracy rates for Android games as high as 95%.
SOURCE: SlashGear
I agree with the piracy but that is about to end. The new Google Play API’s will allow devs to block side-loaded apps from using the online services. It will not block stand alone play but when everyone wants multiplayer and achievements those can be blocked leaving the pirate no way of playing or showing off to his friends.
Essensially the dev can see when someone is playing one of their games and they did not purchase it. They can then kill their online abilities. A dev can also just run a blanket rule for any user playing a game that does not show purchased in the Play Store. This will also work for regular apps that will use data sync and can kill an apps functionality all together without being able to retrieve online user data.