App market analyst believes console gaming is ‘under threat’ from mobile competitors

A global provider of app market data believes mobile gaming spend will exceed console revenue within the next six years.

App Annie’s EMEA managing director and SVP of partnerships, Nicolas Beraudo, claims console gaming is "finally under threat", projecting that cross-platform play – lead by games like Fortnite – and the evolution of smartphones with better battery life and 5G technology, will enable mobile sales to claim an additional 35 per cent of the global gaming market and drive its overall share of consumer spending to 60 per cent.

"Games in 2019 will be less siloed and more connected," Beraudo said. "But mobile isn’t just gaining a bigger piece of the pie, it’s making the pie larger. Monetisation opportunities stand to increase as a result of the increase in cross-platform play as well as the increase in mobile payment adoption. The fastest growing form of monetisation in mobile gaming is subscription-based."

In other mobile news, Google recently had to pull 13 driving games from its Google Play store after it was revealed they contained malware. Security researcher Lukas Stefanko reported that combined, the 13 apps – all credited to a developer called Luiz O. Pinto – had been downloaded 560,000+ times. Two of the apps were trending at the time they were withdrawn from the storefront.

Microsoft, too, is committed to mobile gaming and is currently prototyping Xbox controllers for mobile devices. The company is looking to develop controllers that can be appended to mobile phones and tablets to bring "console quality" gaming to our portable devices. A research paper entitled "Demo: A Versatile Controller Concept for Mobile Gaming" detailed the rise of touchscreen controls and explores "traditional gaming experiences on mobile devices by incorporating tactile input controls". Using "anecdotal feedback" from gamers as far back as 2012, the team then designed and built a prototype accessory concept.