Where are all the AAA Gone to?

I feel iOS gets quite a few AAA games over the course of a year and at times the nice surprise one wouldn’t expect to arrive on the AppStore. Certainly not as many as a Nintendo Switch but Switch users pay much more upfront for there entertainment so premium developers are naturally going to prioritize certain platforms like the Switch. If your a gamer I see iOS as a compliment to the Switch and not a replacement.

Personally I only own a iPad since I like board, card, strategy/rpg and certain free 2 play games but I would definitely get both if I was into gaming as much as I used to be.

 

Doesnt seem to be as many as yesteryear but i feel like we've had some great games the last few months...

Teslagrad was a quality premium game, Star Traders Frontiers was quality, Bendy and the Ink Machine. Grimvalor

I've just gone back to GTA San Andreas now its full screen on my iphone xs.

 

Apologies for the long rant, but this is the reality.


Because AAA publishers would prefer to do a “mobilized” and heavily monetized version of their AAA games on mobile.
-paywalls
-grinding
-difficulty spikes
-adds
-online only (this is to provide microtransaction hooks)
-games as a service
And all manner of other things to make you to continue to pay.

This stuff is defended by shills and whales.

Just have a look at EA and Activision with Command & Conquer and Diablo.

The iPad Pro 2018 has the “gaming power of the Xbox One S” but F2P Diablo Immortal and a bastardized Command & Conquer gets put on it instead. (This was mentioned at conferences where the main fans are PC/Console gamers mind you)

The lack of AAA games (or the App/Android Store having 99.98% F2P mobile games) has been brought up for over the past 10 years.

It’s beating a dead horse and it’s simply time to accept that mobile devices (with the exception of the Switch) is not the platform for console level AAA games and will never be.

Actually the video games industry as a whole is heading towards a very expensive/shallow path that would probably end up being crashed by many of the major publishers (and their greedy major shareholders) I.e Tencent, Activision, EA, Zenimax, Ubisoft etc.. or the majority of consumers have finallly has enough with shoddy quality games and being ripped off.

These are the actual facts that contributed to the video games crash in NA in 1983.

 

Apologies for the long rant, but this is the reality.


Because AAA publishers would prefer to do a “mobilized” and heavily monetized version of their AAA games on mobile.
-paywalls
-grinding
-difficulty spikes
-adds
-online only (this is to provide microtransaction hooks)
-games as a service
And all manner of other things to make you to continue to pay.

This stuff is defended by shills and whales.

Just have a look at EA and Activision with Command & Conquer and Diablo.

The iPad Pro 2018 has the “gaming power of the Xbox One S” but F2P Diablo Immortal and a bastardized Command & Conquer gets put on it instead. (This was mentioned at conferences where the main fans are PC/Console gamers mind you)

The remaining excuses for this are
-battery life
-no controller support
-people not willing to pay $20-40-60 for an app (when they don’t realize these are AAA games and whales spend upwards of 10s of thousands of dollars on “free” games in a year)

The lack of AAA games (or the App/Android Store having 99.98% F2P mobile games) has been brought up for over the past 10 years.

It’s beating a dead horse and it’s simply time to accept that mobile devices (with the exception of the Switch) is not the platform for console level AAA games and will never be.

Actually the video games industry as a whole is heading towards a very expensive/shallow path that would probably end up being crashed by many of the major publishers (and their greedy major shareholders) I.e Tencent, Activision, EA, Zenimax, Ubisoft etc.. or the majority of consumers have finallly has enough with shoddy quality games and being ripped off.

These are the actual facts that contributed to the video games crash in NA in 1983.

 

All of those are valid issues.

-battery life
Playing a latest high end premium games with all the bells and whistles turned on while unplugged can unfortunately give you a brief playing session on their latest mobile devices and even worse, with certain games and settings, can drain quicker than the charge of the in box charger. Reading the Assassins Creed thread some users used better chargers to “keep up” (switch charger I believe) with the drain but it is certainly a blunder from Apple shipping with old accessory tech especially, like you wrote, promoting their latest iPad with the graphics power of the Xbox One S.

-no controller support
I agree with you that controller support could be much better. Although if Apple was a bit more hands on with gaming, which is one of their biggest revenue streams, this would be far less of an issue. Its been said plenty of times before that Apple doesn’t want to be seen as a gaming company and I agree.

If Apple had an official high quality controller that they would promote along with embracing gaming the iOS ecosystem would be a bit different today.

-People not willing to pay a big premium price upfront
Unless your premium game has a well recognized name or is the latest phenomenon your going to have a tough time getting people to accept paying over a certain amount on the AppStore. This can be backed up by comparing premium iOS game prices with the price their selling on Steam or the Nintendo store for the same game. These multi platform games can fetch much greater value outside the AppStore.

I agree that F2P Whales will spend crazy amounts that I would never dream of but I feel that is an entirely different user. The f2p whale is looking for that continuous competitive experience where using real life resources to shift the virtual balance of power. The user has an addiction to their virtual empire and being seen as something great, and feared, to other users. If they have seemingly endless resources to throw at their favorite f2p mobile than more power to them. I’m certainly not one to tell someone how to spend their money. My larger point is most of those whales probably don’t care about our favorite premium RPG / Strategy games on the AppStore.

The users that complain about spending 4.99 are usually users that don’t view mobile as a primary gaming platform. They may spend more on their favorite free 2 play but I don’t believe most of these type of users are dropping thousands to millions on f2p.

You are correct in 2019 and maybe for years to come but I can’t commit to saying never. If you would have told me ten years ago that I would be holding a super thin device that is more powerful than my monstrous desktop I would of had a tough time believing you. Tech aside, the mobile market is growing every year and I feel that being “plugged in” is becoming more antiquated as the years go by. I can’t tell you where gaming will be in the years to come, whether it’s purely casual f2p, full featured “premium” f2p, or premium but I’m betting it’s not going to be in front of the television or desktop monitor.

 

I still dont get controller support. To me mobile games are meant to be played on my mobile, thats whats so great i can be on a train or working away and in the palm of my hand i have all these 1000's of games.

I still think there is a market for premium games but i blame the users. Just look around here, the second theres promo codes people flock to try and get one, beg if they've all gone when at times the games 99c only !

People wait for sales instead of paying a few extra dollars for a premium game. Its the users fault that most devs have gone down the freemium route.

We seem to get the odd premium game now and then but sadly its not like the old days, i was spending loads of money every week as there were 8 or so great games released weekly. Still i'm happy with what i've got, said it before, but in the palm of my hand i can play Sonic when i want, GTA Vice City when i want, Ghost n Goblins and many other classics

 

I agree. The race to the bottom pricing actually hurts premium mobile gaming in the long term. When I listen to the current gaming crowd they view mobile as a place to play casual games and have yet to see it as a peer to other platforms. I believe that will change in the next couple of years.

I think the AppStore pricing issues predate its very existence. While I was an original supporter of Steam when digital distribution was more taboo than it is today I think Steam and more specifically their practices will go down in history as the turning point in gaming for better and worse. Their blowout sales IMO changed the game across all digital distribution platforms. I’m just as guilty as everyone else, I picked up hundreds of high profile games I never even installed because “they were only a couple of bucks” and “I’ll install and play it someday”. On PC why would I ever pay the “console price” ever again? I never needed to play a game on day one and I could just wait a couple of months for a seasonal sale and I did exactly that.

To be fair certain games probably did benefit from an amazing price tag but most smaller developers had to begin adjusting their prices to the new world. From what I’ve read from dev blogs it hurt the hardcore independent strategy / rpg market the most. These devs relied on the bigger price tag to make up for less units sold because they were catering to a much smaller audience.

That’s why I appreciate that SquareEnix and Capcom see certain value in their franchises when they bring a premium game over to iOS. Which in turn, over time, may influence users that spending a bit more upfront on mobile is ok and in the end may help the lesser known developers get a better price for their work.

 

Nothing is going to change.

As long as 99.98% of the App/Google Store is F2P/P4F/FREEMIUM mobilized games that are heavily monetized that make companies like Tencent (particularly in Asia $billions) and shills, whales keep defending/excusing it you will never see “console gaming power” mobile devices any where on equal level to actual consoles and PCs in terms of AAA games we know you are referring to.

It’s been 10 YEARS.

If gamers want console level AAA (though AAA game publishers are starting to rip off of gamers and have adopted a lot from the F2P model, but that is a separate issue) on the go the Nintendo Switch is simply the only option.

I don’t see Microsoft or Sony making a PS4/Xbox One handheld (that you can actually play your current console games library on it) and I wish PC manufacturers (or Steam) would make an actual PC handheld that can play your steam games not merely stream it.

There is obviously a market out there for people who want to play there big games library of console and AAA games on the go (without the need for streaming, subscriptions etc) in handheld form.

Mobiles are simply not the platform for it and never will.

 

Funny you should say that, it doesnt run the latest Steam games (The latest model might do but thats expensive !) but i bought a GPD Win for lots of my old Steam games...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPD_Win

Works a treat, picked one up from ebay for £220. The new one looks great but seems to be about 550-600 which is way too expensive

I hope things change in the app store and more devs move back to premium but at the end of the day they need to make money. If the kids stupidly keep buying lots of IAP's but refuse to buy premium games then we're stuck

This new company Eli is involved with i hope works out well. I'm gladly pay for some of the old iOS classics at a premium price

 

“They need to make money”

The Apps store has hundreds of thousands of F2P games, so to have another F2P game to standout is futile, inless you are ‘Candy Crush’, Fortnight etc..

While you also have gigantic publishers like Tencent and EA that only push for F2P games because people (in particular whales) spend $thousands on only a handful ‘Free” “games” tallied within a year.

It’s been a statistical fact that a majority of the earnings for mobile games have come from a small segment of the population.

E.A., Activision could easily make or port their full fledged premium AAA games on mobile and make a lot of profit, but they know they can make a sickening more money with the F2P model that persistently ‘nickel and dime’ consumers while also being “cheap”.

It’s really been over 10 years and things will not change.

This topic will come up where people think/hope it will change, but as long as corporations like Tencent, E.A. (Even Apple) make massive tons of money from the “free” games nothing will change.

 

Well most devs seemed to have gone the free to play route. Be interesting to know how many are making a lot of money thinking they can all make loads like Candy Crush etc.

Some of the IAP's are just ridiculous, i do like the game Into the Dead but the latest IAPs were £39.99 and £79.99, just disgusting. But to me its the users, they get these £700+ phones yet wont buy a 1.99 game as they'll wait for a sale or for a promo code (and are quite happy leaving a fake 5/5 review).

I love it when we get a 8.99 premium game which is quality. As a schoolkid i was trying to buy as many games as i could for my home computer, years later kids are thinking 2.99 for a game is expensive ! Crazy

With the amount of phones out there mobile gaming wont die but i do hope it'll move away slightly from the freemium state its in now

Really hope Eli does well at his new place as that sounds a great idea. Hope the games are priced properly, not keen on a 'Netflix' style subscription (which a lot of other apps seem to be using). Be interesting to see what happens when they announce titles etc

 

It’s definitely a different world then it once was for gaming. On the Sega Genesis Phantasy Star IV had a $100 price tag at my local Toys R’ Us and as a child I always wanted to buy it but it was just way to expensive. Now it’s only a couple of bucks for PS II,III, and IV with the Sega Forever Package. Ironically enough certain modern console games with day one DLC can fetch that near three figure price for a piece of gaming software.

For many gamers growing up in this time it is crazy for them to spend any money up front. Back in our day AAA games like Fortnite, Apex and Hearthstone would have fetched a full premium price tag just for the right to install and play.

 

Nothing changes, when nothing changes.

 

For mobile gamers it is crazy for them to spend any money upfront.

Console and pc gamers still pay for games upfront and really, really hate the mobile F2P model baked into a few modern AAA games.

All I can say is.

If you want traditional high end AA-AAA games on mobile you are looking at the wrong place.

Other than of course consoles and PCs, the Nintendo Switch when it comes to gaming on the go is your best option.

The Switch is still getting there for good AA-AAA consoles games outside their 1st party offerings.

 

Hey at least, we have the best versions of both Valkyrie Profile and The World End With You as amazing ports...just....well....after these last two..I never found anything that neat again...barely any premium stuff releasing these recent months(for exemple Gameranx no longer have a video for paid games because there barely any now).Seem the next time there is a huge sale..it will be a very boring time..rather go try to have more than four games on my Switch(also clean up my Steam wishlist in the next summer sale and get some wishlisted games when there is a ps store sale.

 

I think theres been a handful of decent AAA games recently

if anything i've got too many to play ! Need to play Oddmar much more, Suzy Cube, Super Hyrorah, Teslagrad (Great AAA platformer) and more.

 

Absolutely!

...and with top quality controller support in the next iteration of apple software I feel that games that were once deemed “too athletic” or “complex” for the touch screen may be considered. No excuses to not include through controller support now since the compatibility floodgates have been opened.

Then we have Apple Arcade on the horizon which, admittedly, may go one of two ways but I’m not one to bet against Apple when it comes to subscription based services. They may quietly revolutionize the gaming software industry across the board, to the disgust of every “true” gamer, with Arcade and while not the first in the arena (Apple hardly ever is an innovator) but they’re usually the company that takes an existing idea and makes it work beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

 

Still eager to find out how it works. Eg after 6 paid months can the games stay there to keep ? Just curious how it’ll work

 

I would be surprised if Apple let’s you keep the software in an active state if the user unsubscribes from the service. There may be an element to the service that allows you to pay X amount of money for certain games that give them full independence from the service but I just don’t know.

I feel Apple has a lot to prove since their not bulletproof when it comes to gaming. I thought this generations Apple TV thus far has been a bust on the gaming front despite the company initially pushing games on the TV device for a short while before becoming bored. Much greater controller support is going to help but the Apple TV AppStore has less than stellar developer support probably stemming from lackluster navigation, terrible Apple TV remote, and limited controller support at the time. It also doesn’t help that the storage leaves a lot to be desired.

Hope their interest in Arcade holds. If it does, even through the lulls, then they may have a good chance at changing the business. If not we’ll have the software equivalent to another Apple TV to look forward to.