Mobile games in particular have never shied away from their goal, which is to ultimately make money. Sure, micro-transactions exist in almost every live-service game nowadays, regardless of the platform, but they seem particularly prevalent in the mobile gaming space. Money makes the world go round, and what’s the odd few pennies here and there, when you’re in the height of battle or building a base?
Micro-transactions might seem inconsequential at the time, but with millions of players purchasing boosts, currency, and a bunch of other handy resources in their games on a daily, mind-bogglingly huge scale, it’s no surprise that the mobile gaming industry is worth billions.
Two huge games made some major changes to the way monetization works in their titles during the month of August, according to a new GameRefinery report. Merge Mansion, which recently joined the Green Game Jam initiative, doubled down on its recent introduction of ads. Previously, the game was the only Merge2 title that didn’t have adverts, but in order to compete with other games on the market it has continued to roll out ads to selected accounts.
Supercell’s Squad Busters also had a change-up with its micro-transactions, after the community backlash surrounding its controversial pay-to-win elements. Consumable keys and Mega Units were removed from the game since these items let you gain a significant advantage and could be purchased outside of active games. If you can only be as good as your bank balance, it destroys any competitive integrity.
It’s always disheartening seeing those with far more expendable income reigning triumphant, and it’s a contentious topic not just in mobile gaming, but the industry as a whole. So it’s a step in the right direction, with Supercell recognizing that it needs to find a balance between making money and keeping the player base happy.
Something far more entertaining than micro-transactions, and dare we say… Epic appeared in the mobile gaming space in August. Massive games such as Fortnite and Fall Guys are officially back on mobile thanks to the arrival of the Epic Games Store. Epic and Apple had been battling it out for some time, but last month we finally saw the introduction of Epic Games on a global scale for Android users, but sadly only in the EU for those of you on the iPhone side. It’s a step – or a fall, or a skydive from the battle bus – in the right direction, and it’s incredibly exciting to see Epic Games arrive on Apple and Android devices. We hope Apple relents enough to allow Epic to bring its games to global iOS users soon, but we have no confirmation on a time frame.
Speaking of global phenomena, the Chinese otome game Love and Deepspace is finding a pretty sexy amount of success in the western markets. Considering the South Asian core market, it came as quite a surprise to see Love and Deepspace thrive elsewhere. Well, it wasn’t a surprise to us, we all know that sex sells. With regular updates and the introduction of steamy new characters, it saw a huge uptick in downloads and pushed the dating sim into the top 20 in the US after a particularly enticing gacha banner that offered exclusive content for the four datable characters.
On the other side of the coin, Marvel Snap made some super moves in the Chinese mobile gaming markets. China can normally be a tough market for card games since most of the successful ones are based on already established IPs like War of the Three Kingdoms. But after just two weeks, Marvel Snap seems to have enamored Chinese players and is sitting pretty in the mobile gaming charts.
We wonder if Blizzard’s Hearthstone is preparing to compete with its comeback this month since the game was initially pulled from the eastern market thanks to a hiccup between NetEase and Blizzard. If the success of Marvel Snap is anything to go by, we’re sure Blizzard is gunning for the same.
There you have it. August was a pretty jam-packed month in the mobile gaming industry, with Fortnite ports and dating sims reigning triumphant. We might have had something to do with that because we were more than happy to work our way through the hot and handsome roster of Love and Deepspace characters. We’re only human, okay? If sweet-talking your way into a committed relationship with a pixelated man isn’t your jam, then don’t worry, we’ve got all the latest Marvel Snap bundles for you, too.