Aslong as mobile games can't compete with the triggers of a controller, they will not break out of the more simple interface for games. So we will still have different markets but games like Rayman that really just mobile correctly will make that platform more interesting.

Mobile Gaming

I equate mobile games with fast food.

It's cheap and fulfills you for about 10 minutes before you want something "real"

If mobile gaming is the future then I'll have to find another hobby.

See you in the next episode of futurama!

I never said any of us normal gamers had to be fans. It's not like any of us who like a higher level of design to our games are all going to migrate to a phone or something.

I'm saying a lot of companies are going to suffer and/or split up and we'll get a lot of low budget, but gradually growing, phone titles, eventually leading to smart phones making open a much wider audience to the type of games we're currently into.

Mobile games were always the next step forward.

Plug tablet with HDMI port into TV, stream games at 60fps 1080p. Play with your favourite configuration blue tooth controller or keyboard and mouse. Why do you need a console or PC? Don't even need a particularly high end tablet.

Mobile gaming is the modern day equivalent of those Tiger portables from the 80s and 90s; cheap, bottom-of-the-barrel excrement.

Console gaming was never mainstream. Not even in the 7th gen. Being a "gamer" is still a thing, and playing games is still viewed differently than watching movies or reading books. The latter two are treated as a given that you'll do them, while gaming is usually ignored as an artistic, entertainment, or storytelling medium. The people who play console games are the gamers, the people who have embraced the medium where the mainstream has failed to do so, for no real reason I can discern beyond some unshakable taboo. Mobile games have been more mainstream than console gaming since they became a thing. They were instantly more mainstream because they were on a mainstream device, and dirt cheap at that. Being mainstream doesn't make them the "next step", and it certainly isn't a step forward. Until mobile gaming is nearly universally accepted by people who actually care about gaming as being the main way to experience games, mobile games will not be the next step. And mobile games are in no position to get anyone who actually cares about games to give a damn about them, and won't be anytime in the near future.

TL;DR: No, mobile gaming isn't the "next step forward". It's neither the next step nor is it a step forward. Just no.

The problem is that mobile gaming being largely free makes it mainstream. When price goes down, audience goes up. But the every fact that it is free holds it back. When price goes down, quality goes down.