The State of Smartphone Gaming in 2022 – PlayStation Universe

Where does one trace the origins of gaming on smartphones? The earliest known game on any mobile phone is thought to be a variant of the popular puzzle game Tetris, found on the MT-2000, an early phone developed by Hagenuk in 1994. Perhaps the best known early mobile game, and one familiar to anyone who owned a Nokia during their 90s heyday, was Snake. This deceptively simple action-puzzler captivated a generation of mobile gamers eager for gaming experiences on the go. Of course, weve come a long way from there now when the first iPhone launched in 2007, it completely revolutionized the way smartphones were designed and developed.

With full color displays, touch-screen inputs and the integration of sophisticated sensors like accelerometers, a new generation of mobile app games rose to prominence on these new slate devices. From Plants vs Zombies, to Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, these titles offered a quality of gaming never-before-seen on mobile. Still, what all these titles shared in common was a focus on casual gaming. Nobody seriously considered that smartphones, themselves, could be a viable gaming platform, especially in the wake of previous failed attempts to create a competitor to the likes of the Gameboy or enduring classic, the PSP, in the form of Nokias N-gage. Yet slowly but surely, these devices would grow more powerful, resulting in the possibility of running full console games on them locally. Suddenly it seemed as if smartphones werent merely a contender in the portable gaming space, but the leading light.

In 2017, Razer launched the Razer phone, and in-so-doing kicked off a new epoch in smartphone gaming by announcing the arrival of the dedicated gaming phone. Now, ASUS ROG Phone, Lenovos Legion Duel, Nubias RedMagic and Xiaomis BlackShark phones all crowd this space, delivering HD screens, 2 day battery lives, external cooling fans and a range of add-on peripherals from game-pads to power-banks. What these devices all share in common is a commitment to being the best possible way to play games on mobile, with their ergonomic designs and low latency displays lending peak performance to any of the diverse gaming experiences that can be enjoyed on smartphones in 2022. From blackjack, one among a host of online variants of enduring classics, to ports of 7th generation console titles like Alien: Isolation.

While these devices are certainly impressive, its clear that theyre designed to target a specific sector of the market those hardcore fans who refuse to make any compromises when it comes to gaming performance on their smartphones. As such, they have increasingly become associated with the mobile esports community. Yet their impact is being felt across the wider market, and has led to a trickle-down effect into more affordable phones. By becoming an established product category, they have sent a strong message to the wider industry that gaming on mobile is no longer a side-show, but represents the main attraction to many consumers. This fact is especially pronounced in emerging markets from Sub-Saharan Africa, to Latin America and South East Asia, where DFC Intelligence reports gamers are 1.5x likelier to use their smartphones as their primary, or sole, gaming console.

So what about the games? As mentioned above, smartphones offer the unique ability to be able to access a range of titles through their browsers and various apps, with iGaming classics able to rub shoulders with some of the most popular console games of the past 20 years, such as Half-Life 2 and Minecraft on the platform. We even now find ourselves in the previously unimaginable position of witnessing crossplay releases between mobile devices and existing consoles. Titles such as Genshin Impact launched simultaneously on iOS and Android as well as consoles and PC, redefining how people thought about mobile gaming in the process. Popular F2P titles like Fortnite increasingly experience a growing percentage of their player-base tuning in from smartphones, leading to competitors like Call of Dutys Warzone announcing its imminent arrival on smart devices. All in all, the future looks bright for mobile gaming, and should cloud gaming platforms like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Google Stadia become the dominant means by which people access titles in the future, smartphones may end up being not only a major contender in the gaming hardware market, but the leader before long.

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The State of Smartphone Gaming in 2022 - PlayStation Universe