Mobile game concerns ‘a temporary issue’ – Epic

Industry uneasiness over the quality and value of mobile games will eventually slide away, a key Epic Games exec has said.

Mark Rein, vice president of the Unreal Engine vendor, told Develop that the mobile games sector will eventually produce content that’s marketed, reviewed and priced in a manner to retail blockbusters.

His claims come after Nintendo president Satoru Iwata warned the industry that “game development is drowning” because of a flood of cheap games on mobile markets.

Rein, whose company provides an engine for Android and iOS devices, took a different view.

“I really do think this whole issue is temporary,” he said in an interview with Develop, published today.

“As better quality mobile devices come through, developers will make better quality games. A lot of mobile phone games are small experiences right now, but we will see the Avatar of App Store games eventually, and that game will be equally as relevant to the industry as the triple-A games – games like Bulletstorm – that we see today.”

Asked if he thought the industry was in danger from the swell of “disposable” mobile games, Rein said no.

“Look, about the whole issue of app stores flooded with cheap games that keep the others from being noticed, sure, there is a problem there.

“But eventually we’ll bust out of the idea that the App Store will be the only place iPhone developers can promote their games and tell customers what’s going on.

“You’ll eventually see iOS games being marketed outside of the App Store, the way retail games are advertised, and people will buy them because they’re interested – not because a developer has found a trick to be number one in the charts for a single week.”

Epic Games’ goal in the mobile space “is to raise the bar”, Rein said.

“Our goal is to be about the higher quality experiences, and when people see those higher quality experiences, they will gravitate towards that and less so much on the more trivial games.”

Go here to read the interview in full.