Game ports have been a thing for quite some time, and console ports have always been a pretty safe bet with both Xbox and PlayStation generations now being plenty powerful enough to cope with a PC game without too many changes. But mobile and Switch ports have always come with an air of ‘yeah, but it probably won’t be good’. Which is pretty understandable, we’ve been burnt in the past and if we’re a little on the fence about them, we can’t be completely blamed.
But given the caliber of recent games being brought to both mobile and Switch, it feels as though handheld ports are finally being taken seriously. Gone are the days of LAN parties and waiting an age for something to download, and with technology only hurtling forward at a breakneck speed, you can now get some of the best games in the world right in the palm of your hand.
The total revenue of the gaming industry as a whole in 2023 was worth an estimated $136 billion, and mobile gaming alone was estimated to hold a 49% stake in that figure, with a truly staggering $92 billion worth of revenue. And that’s just mobile gaming, let alone the likes of the Nintendo Switch and other handheld gaming consoles, but it still comes as a bit of a surprise that handheld gaming can actually be that good. Well, we know it can be, and it feels as though devs are finally starting to recognize it, too, because more and more games are being ported to mobile.
Take Dark and Darker, for instance. Even amidst a pretty controversial lawsuit, Ironmace loaned the dungeon diving extraction game to PUBG Mobile publisher Krafton, and we had the pleasure of previewing Dark and Darker Mobile when we visited the Krafton offices in South Korea earlier this year. Dark and Darker is a massive online multiplayer, with punishing PvPvE mechanics and the choice of several different classes, all with varying abilities and skills. It’s a monster of a game, and yet Krafton absolutely nailed the port to mobile. In fact, it worked so well that we included DNDM on our list of new mobile games to check out next year.
Naturally, there are certain types of games that can very easily work on handheld devices. Card deck games have always flourished on the likes of mobile and Switch, with Balatro scoring the accolade of best mobile game at The Game Awards 2024. It’s also no surprise that Pokémon TCG Pocket has amassed well over 60 million downloads since its launch, and the likes of Hearthstone, The Witcher 3’s Gwent, and Slay The Spire have all found a very comfortable home on handheld gaming consoles.
Now, obviously not all ports are worth singing home about. There are some games that just did not do well on handheld devices (we’re looking at you, with a still very, very disappointed expression, Mortal Kombat 1). WWE 2K18 was the one and only time that the wrestling franchise attempted to break into handheld gaming, and it was such a monumental failure that the IP simply hasn’t bothered since. While we appreciate the effort, we understand that there are titles, particularly huge AAA games that take a lot of juice even on an optimized PC, that just don’t belong on mobile or the Switch.
The likes of 2020’s The Outer Worlds is a shining example of a game that was made purely with a decent PC rig in mind, and with such a shoddy Switch port, it was sort of obvious that it was only done to perhaps get a little more revenue in the bank. Despite how far technology in the gaming industry has come, there are still only a finite amount of games that port well.
But the industry does seem to be waking up to how good mobile gaming can be. Certain developers are actually creating games with all consoles in mind right from the beginning, not just creating an original PC version with the good intentions of launching on all devices at some point in the future. We recently interviewed Gori: Cuddly Carnage’s John Kalderon, the CEO of developer Angry Demon, to discuss how it went about releasing the whacky kitty hack ‘n’ slash on every console, Switch included, from day one, and how that, in turn, affected the development process. If indie studios can do it, and do it relatively well, then there’s no reason why other bigger game devs can’t take it into consideration.
Maybe that’s why we’re seeing such an influx of actually good ports. Mobile gaming takes up a massive space in the industry, both in player counts and profit, and we’re honestly still surprised that it feels so fractured. Handheld gaming quietly dominates the numbers, with PUBG Mobile being a prime example. The mobile port of one of the OG battle royales remains to be one of the most watched esports in the world, something we discussed at length in our interview with James Yang, Senior Director of Global Esports at Level Infinite.
There’s also a fair argument to be made that companies initially outside of the gaming space have taken notice of how good mobile gaming is. Netflix Games appeared as a fully realized platform back in 2021, and has gifted us with some truly wonderful mobile ports, like the punchy roguelike Hades and the absolute nostalgia kick of GTA: San Andreas. Who doesn’t want to drive around Los Santos when you’re sitting in an airport waiting for a flight? Who doesn’t want to flirt with Megaera in Hades when you’re stuck on a bus or away from your normal gaming rig? When ports are done well, it proves to the entire industry that mobile gaming is awesome.
So, it’s getting there, slowly but surely. The majority of gamers might still look at handheld gaming with a slightly wrinkled nose and the expectation of a million and one microtransactions, and we can understand why. But if you’re willing to give it a chance, and jump in for a couple of rounds of PUBG Mobile to go after a winner, winner, chicken dinner on the go, or take a journey or two through the Underworld with Hades’ Zagreus, then you’ll see just how worthwhile mobile ports can be.