DmC Devil May Cry and developer Ninja Theory are feel that mobile games are the future of the videogame industry, according to a report by Edge magazine. The company’s design head, Tameem Antoniades, reportedly made remarks along those lines at the recent Slush 2013 media conference.
[Note: Edge’s report mentions that Ninja Theory is transitioning entirely to mobile, which is not true. Ninja Theory refuted the claim on Twitter, stating that they have both console and mobile games in development.]
“The AAA games console model is a little bit broken,” Antoniades said. “To us, success is being able to survive. But every now and then you look around at a conference and realise that there’s no one left. That’s because of the barriers to entry at the $60 model. The platform holders control the platform and the distribution, the publishers control the marketing and the funding.”
Regarding mobile platforms, Antoniades cited their convenience as the primary cause for them taking over such a large portion of the industry today. He added that mobile devices will go on to be the future of the industry, owing to a variety of factors, the largest of all being convenience of use.
Fightback, a mobile phone brawler by Ninja Theory.
“The winner is and always has been the convenience factor,” Antoniades stated. “It doesn’t matter what the platform is, what the delivery mechanism is. Simple to use, always available, cheap or free. And convenience is very much digital. I use Spotify for all my music. If there’s a band that’s not on there, Pink Floyd or whoever, I simply don’t listen to them.”
Regarding mobile devices, he went on to add, “It’s the most convenient device we’ve ever created and it’s basically absorbed everything; music, digital cameras, email.”
“There are still technical limitations on mobile—bandwidth for streaming, processing and battery power that will just hold it back for a few years. After a few years, I fully expect mobile devices to be the dominant form.”
Does this mean certain genres will die, due to the transition to mobile? Absolutely, Antoniades says.
“The touchscreen. Yes, it limits you. Certain genres of games don’t work on it—they are bad for it. Throughout the course of history, from arcades to consoles to PCs, games have died. The 2D side-scrolling beat-em-up has gone. Entire genres of gaming won’t exist or have a very clunky existence on mobile. But, happily, things like the point and click adventure game genre are coming back.”
