The biggest challenge for mobile gaming in 2022

2021 hasn't been all smooth sailing for the mobile industry, with an ongoing pandemic and Apple's aggressive privacy changes presenting developers, publishers, and marketers with many challenges to overcome.

However, what obstacles may the mobile gaming industry face for the remainder of 2022 and beyond?

• Android privacy changes: There's no doubt that the industry's ability to scale games has become more challenging after iOS 14, and Google expects to gradually roll out a privacy sandbox policy over the next two years.
• Changes in China's app market: China approved 45 new mobile game licenses in April, ending a nearly 10-month outage that left the world's largest mobile gaming space on the brink. Over the past 18 months, Chinese authorities have also introduced a series of draconian measures, including restricting minors' playtime, implementing stricter privacy controls on mobile apps, and implementing new requirements aimed at curbing addiction, which have affected advertisers inside and outside the region.
  This is expected to have long-term effects and will only increase competition in other markets. More Chinese developers may be forced to build more high-quality games that recognize cultural values and invest more time and effort in Western markets to achieve business growth, which once again intensifies competition between apps and marketers.

• M&A fever: In the context of Apple's privacy policy changes, the mobile industry has been in the midst of M&A fever for the past year, driven by competition for first-party data. The appeal of blockchain games to venture capitalists suggests that this situation is unlikely to slow down anytime soon.

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Mobile Game Trends: Moving from F2P to P2E via Blockchain gaming

Irreplaceable tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, blockchain - all these terms have recently entered public awareness in unprecedented ways. Hordes of celebrities have joined the NFT, with everyone from Ubisoft to EA declaring "earn from the game" (P2E) games to be the future of gaming.

But what impact will NFTs and blockchain have on mobile gaming? And, just as importantly, is this a bubble about to burst?

Many free-to-play (F2P) developers are now looking at the hype around P2E and considering transitioning into the space. An interesting case study is Thetan Arena, a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that recently relaunched its blockchain-based money-making mechanism.

However, there are plenty of caveats for any developer concerned about blockchain's potential to transform the game. While the P2E concept can be tempting - and certainly proves to some developers - it's worth remembering that players don't necessarily flock to these games because of P2E mechanics.

Thetan Arena, for example, builds on existing, fully completed, high-quality games, rather than a brand new game under development - so players have a reason to play games outside of P2E. It's not "if you build P2E, they'll come" - it's more about "coming for the game, staying for the blockchain".

Thetan Arena, for example, built upon an existing, fully-finished quality game as opposed to being an entirely new work-in-progress title - so players had a reason to play beyond P2E. It’s not a case of “if you build P2E, they will come” - more “come for the gameplay, stay for the blockchain”.

As for whether blockchain gaming will prove to be unsustainable - a bubble - it will certainly take some evolution to truly transform and popularize mobile games.

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The next opportunity for mobile games in 2022

The new strategies and approaches the industry has seen include:

Creating new genres for viewers who don't currently play games

Supercell is the best example of this approach: They have become experts in finding niches in the market and designing (and marketing) games for people who are not traditional games.

While challenging, this approach clearly has room for massive growth. Over the past 12 months, we've seen a significant increase in the number of installs of fun apps (up 79% year-over-year), puzzle apps (up 41%) and racing apps (up 39%) as developers struggle to find something appealing. Previously untapped audience.

Discord and other community platforms to drive growth

Communities have always been an important part of the real-time service games that many apps aim to be, and platforms such as Discord have been embraced by MMORPG-type games as destinations for large-scale, active games around the community of these titles. We're now seeing other types of games, such as Paradyme Games' simulations and sandbox games, all trying to leverage the platform to grow communities and nurture long-term players.

The implementation of the impact of mobile gaming to other ecosystems

Devices such as PCs, consoles, and even VR requires a lot of infrastructure and upfront investment. It is clear, however, that there are enormous benefits to achieving this goal.

Indie games will ride the waves

According to App Annie, the in-game ad market will clearly reach nearly $11 billion by 2024. But this growth doesn't just come from existing dominance. Smaller developers and indie studios now have the tools to break the noise and bring their games to market.

The standard complaint we often hear from new developers is that they get lost in noise. Larger intermediary platforms are currently focusing on their biggest client publishers. But over the past year, we've noticed that more and more small developers are starting to monetize their games very effectively, many of them even releasing themselves.