Bushnell: The days of mobile gaming’s dominance are over

Mobile’s increasing dominance of the game industry is over and will be usurped by new technology, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has said.

Speaking to AllThingsD, Bushnell said that the industry reinvents itself every five years, and that while mobile had dominated, the next big opportunities for developers to flock to would be Google Glass and virtual reality headset the Oculus Rift.

He explained that while early adopters had succeeded and were now reaping the benefits of the platform, increased competition from a broader group of developers meant that studios would find it harder to achieve further success.

He went on to add that he would rather be one of 100 apps for Google Glass than one of 300,000 for iOS and Android devices, despite the money the top titles are currently making.

“I think the next big game opportunity is Google Glasses. If I told you all my ideas for it, I’d have to kill you. And the Oculus Rift,” said Bushnell.

“The game business reinvents itself every five years. The last five years have been the days of mobile gaming and shortform gaming, exemplified by Rovio with Angry Birds and Zynga with FarmVille. And that is over.”

He added: “Most games, by their nature, have a half-life of two years or less. It’s the outlier that has a half-life that’s longer than that. But that doesn’t mean that the marketplace is synchronized. So you have the early adopters coming into something, and they soon encourage the more timid to come in. It broadens the group. But players’ engagement is not lengthened.”