Japan’s Smartphone Games Market 50% of Japan's total games market in 2013

[famousringo]

Soundwave said:

famousringo said:

Ka-pi96 said:
But smartphone games aren't very good. Why people. WHY!?

Remember all that disruption talk in the heyday of the Wii? Remember how it starts?

Crappy products for non-consumers.

The difference though is no one needs a Wii so it was easy to ditch once people had their fun with it and moved on.

A smartphone/tablet are central to most teenagers and adults' day to day (heck, minute to minute) lives. Take someone's smartphone away from them for even an hour and see how much they freak out.

So if they always have a smartphone in their pocket, they'll always have access to these games, that's why I don't see them going anywhere. Especially when the price tag (free to 99 cents) is such an impulse buy.

Not trying to imply that smartphone games will go away at all. The typical trend is to first seize new customers, then take "crappy" customers, then encroach on the high end users. The Wii failed on that final step, for reasons which have been beaten to death and don't need to be discussed here.

Disruption isn't inevitable, but it's a powerful market force, and there's a good chance that as the mobile game market matures it will grow to satisfy gaming enthusiasts.