6 Reasons Mobile Gaming Is Better Than Console Gaming

The gaming industry has changed. For years, video games had the same focus, the same platforms and the same audiences. The console wars raged; Sega battled with Nintendo for market dominance.

Then Sony came along, Sega fell by the wayside and Nintendo fought Sony for supremacy. Every few years, the next generation of consoles would come along, and we would be dazzled with the improvements in graphics, game size, and the changes in technology.

But now we've got to the point where the hardware required to play games is no longer contained in a heavy machine wired to your television, but handily sitting in your pocket. For those of us who are neither teenagers nor hard-core gamers, how exactly has mobile gaming bested the consoles from our youth?

You Don't Need To Invest In Dedicated Equipment

Consoles cost a lot of money. A lot of us cannot justify spending so much on a machine that has just one use. The vast majority of first-world population have mobile phones and tablets anyway. They are multipurpose; they are phones, cameras, video recorders, daily organisers, toys and books.

Even if we do buy them for the games, we still get all the other uses as well. We're not just throwing a large amount of money into something with only one purpose.

The games are cheaper too

No more investing two or three hours of wage for one game. Mobile games are rarely more expensive than a few dollars. While it's true that you'll never get as much content as you will for a console game, the value for money is still in proportion.

The Freemium gaming model has provided a way for developers to make a huge profit while giving their games away for free, as long users remain happy to put up with in-game advertisements.

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You can try before you buy

Most mobile games will have a trial version that allows you to experience a game before purchasing. Once you get invested, you can the buy the paid version, but you get to find out if you want to first. No more spending money on something that turns out to be a big disappointment.

Nostalgia

The generations before now all grew up with 8- and 16-bit gaming. We grew up on small platform and puzzle games such as the ones mobile gaming offers. While we can enjoy the graphical and technological advances of console games, we know how much fun can be had from something so simple as Angry Birds or Temple Run.

We can fit them around our schedule

When you're young, it is so easy to be become a hard-core gamer. After school, your time is your own, and you can spend hours glued to the screen working your way through the extended downloadable content of the latest release, or playing constant online multiplayer options.

But once out of the teenage years, out of home and out of compulsory schooling, there isn't time for that any more. Rather than whole evenings to kill, we have odd half hours between dropping the kids of at school and doing the shopping.

We have an hour or two of commute to fill. We have ten minutes while dinner is cooking. This isn't nearly enough time to boot up the console and load up a game, but it is enough to grab the phone and put our feet up for a moment.

It's convenient

We can do it wherever. Most mobile games allow us to jump in and out, as and when it suits us. Waiting in a queue at the bank; in the bath; sitting in the car; waiting for a bus. With your phone, you don't even have to plan ahead. When the opportunity arises, the gaming console is right there, in your pocket.

    Serge

About the Author:

Serge is a tech partner and founder of Edictive based in Sydney, Australia. He works on complex technical problems every day for the entertainment industry.