Back when Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 series, the support for AAA games was one of the highlights for me during the live event. Mobile gaming was often seen as a younger sibling to its console and PC counterparts. However, the bridge between the experience seemingly disappeared overnight.
It’s been nearly a year since the announcement and we’ve had a couple of new AAA titles released since. But these high fidelity games for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets still feel out of place.
1. Different Playstyles
Gaming on mobile devices has been really successful thanks to the accessibility and on-the-go nature of smartphones. It doesn’t get simpler than picking up your phone and playing. But this experience doesn’t really translate all too well for AAA games. Sure you have your COD Mobile and PUBG Mobile players that are extremely proficient with controls on a smaller display, but the immersive experience of console and PC titles can be missed.
Studios and developers spend years crafting an artificial world. But a player can miss all these finer details entirely. Some of the more popular mobile games often bring short bite sized gameplay sessions and not a long immersive experience. There are a multitude of reasons why AAA games aren’t popular on smartphones and this disconnect in player expectation and actual experience is one of them.
2. Hardware Limitations
Performance have smartphones has made significant strides and it is still impressive that some AAA games can run on mobile devices. But despite all of this, it still falls short of the processing power and graphical capabilities of PCs and consoles. Games that were optimized for mobile devices need to sacrifice visual fidelity to maintain a playable frame rate.
This can be seen in games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and the Resident Evil titles that launched on the iPhones 15 Pros. Unfortunately, Android only gets older AAA titles and none of these aforementioned games. So if you don’t have the latest and greatest iPhone, these hefty games are already out of reach. Developers cut down on many aspects of such games, but these are still massive downloads compared to actual mobile games.
3. No one is buying AAA games on mobile
The mobile gaming market is dominated by the freemium business model, which has even become popular in live service titles for PCs and consoles. In other words, the games on smartphones are free, but companies generate revenue through in-game purchases. This could be in the form of lootboxes or direct purchases of digital cosmetics. However, AAA games have a price tag.
Resident Evil Village is cheaper and still costs 15.99 US Dollars. Meanwhile, Assassin’s Creed Mirage costs 49.99 US Dollars. These titles had a long and expensive development cycle, but mobile gamers would turn away from spending this kind of money without even trying the game. Reports have surfaced that claim that AAA releases are far from a success, Only selling tens of thousands or just thousands of copies since they were released. There aren’t a lot of options as well, with mobile ports incurring additional costs to studios and publishers.
4. Conclusion
Smartphones and tablets have become incredibly powerful devices, but these still face significant hurdles in delivering a true AAA experience. Apple’s announcement was aimed at the right direction but these are still nascent steps. Hardware, gameplay, and business models have yet to be addressed, and we might have to wait for a couple of more years.
