AUSTIN, Texas – Video games are no longer limited to corporate-built consoles, thanks to the Wi-Fi accessible smartphones and tablets that are shaping entertainment for a new generation of players. And as the future for gamers increasingly moves from the days of marathon couch sessions to gaming on the go, a new massive investment by Nintendo could further jump-start this evolution of mobile entertainment.
Nintendo this month announced that it will become the second-largest shareholder in mobile video game company DeNA, bowing to years of pressure from the gaming community to shift its entertainment to smart devices. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata told Time that he hopes his company’s brands will find new audiences on mobile devices, but admitted that the transition is a challenge for the entire gaming industry.
"My understanding is that, on smart devices, the main demand is for very accessible games which smart device users can easily start and easily finish," Iwata said. "These are not necessarily the characteristics that people demand from games for dedicated video game systems."
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Nintendo is late to the mobile gaming revolution, as rivals Microsoft and Sony have already made forays into the space to connect phones with their Xbox and PlayStation consoles. But all companies have to embrace a future when their games will be played on many kinds of devices, says Tuong Huy Nguyen, a principal analyst at market research firm Gartner.
“Nintendo needs to do this since the future of designing games is not just on a single device, it’s on every device that a consumer wants to use,” Nguyen says. “Also, the nostalgia – people will shell out money to play classic franchises that can be very enjoyable.”
The kid-friendly characters of Nintendo games like Mario, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Link and Princess Zelda hold places of honor in video game history, though the company also has fallen precipitously from the dominance it enjoyed in the 1980s. The Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system that debuted in 2011 is still attracting audiences, but its high-resolution Wii U home gaming console, introduced in 2012, has been so poorly received that some companies have been hesitant to release games for it.
Support from game developers is crucial for efforts by Nintendo and other businesses innovating entertainment for the Internet age, Nguyen explains.
“You can have a great device or console but if you don’t have great games to play on it, nobody cares,” he says.
Mobile gaming is only one growing sector of the gaming industry, as seen by the innovations displayed at the South by Southwest Gaming Expo in Austin, Texas, this month. Below, U.S. News takes a look at several areas that will affect players – and their thumbs – in the coming years.
Smartphones
Mobile phones are the next frontier for video games because almost everybody has one, Nguyen explains.
Oculus has partnered with Samsung to build the Gear VR visor, which pairs with a smartphone and earphones.
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Photos: Video Games at SXSW
“You can reach developing markets where people were never going to buy an Xbox,” he says, referring to regions like Africa. “In a few years, the younger generation will also begin using more advanced mobile devices than the current consumer base of gamers.”
How mobile games are priced will be a key factor in whether companies like Nintendo can profit from the apps without losing players’ loyalty and interest. And poor planning could lead to government backlash, as the Federal Trade Commission has reached multimillion-dollar settlements with both Google and Apple for not doing enough to prevent kids from racking up unauthorized gaming purchases on their parents’ mobile devices.
“Nintendo does not intend to choose payment methods that may hurt Nintendo’s brand image ... which parents feel comfortable letting their children play with,” Iwata told Time.
Similar to popular music application Spotify, multiplayer movie trivia app “Fireback Movies” attempts to strike an appropriate pricing balance by making it free to play but charging $1.99 for a lifetime premium membership that gets rid of mobile ads and gives in-game hints, developer Ginny Scott tells U.S. News.
And while puzzle games like “Candy Crush Saga” have gained a following on phones and tablets, developers like Game Oven Studios aim for a more immersive experience.
The studio’s game “Bounden,” which was on display at SXSW, uses a smartphone’s motion sensors to challenge two players to imitate dance moves choreographed by the Dutch National Ballet.
Virtual Reality
Some video game consoles already feature games tied to motion sensors, like the Kinect sensors for certain Microsoft Xbox consoles, but SXSW showcased a new generation of wireless motion sensors that paired with virtual reality for an even more immersive experience. Sixense displayed one such wireless tracking system that uses hand grips and goggles to allow users to wield virtual lightsabers.
Virtual reality company Oculus VR also was well-represented during the show, and is well-funded after being acquired by Facebook last year for $2 billion. Oculus showcased goggles that pair with triggers for immersive first-person shooters, as well as a visor that paired with a Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone to create 360-degree virtual tours of places like Versailles. Hype for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is so strong that there have been nearly 45,000 preorders for the system’s latest developer kit. A consumer model of the headset may launch this summer, TechRadar has reported.
Still, as with smartphones, virtual reality systems will need to feature games that are fun and simple to play in order to become a mainstream option, Nguyen says.
“The pieces are coming together, but I don’t think that’s necessarily going to happen next year,” he predicts. “Consumers enjoy immersiveness, but they don’t want to learn a million things to play a game.”
Killer Graphics and Crowdfunding
It may be unusual for items roughly 25 years old to be placed in a museum, but the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System games on display as a history exhibit at SXSW have been left in the dust by vast advances in gameplay.
Programming has become much easier since the 1990s due to the vast resources of the Internet, so it’s possible for a team working outside of a major studio to build a rich, complex game like “Star Citizen,” which was named the “Most Anticipated Crowdfunded Game of the Year” at SXSW. The in-development space adventure game is meant to be played on a personal computer and has already raised more than $75 million online – more money than any crowdfunding project in history.
The graphics of next-generation games like “Star Citizen” are light years ahead of 1990s games, but gamers at the convention also played and sold the classic cartridges, showing that a good story can still age well.
The employees at Pixotri Game Studio have vast experience in creating games and are always trying to push the boundaries of technology and creativity. The games are created using the most popular game enigine Unity, which provides robust, high performance, platform independent solution to creating games.
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