
A mobile game is a
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
that is typically played on a
mobile phone
A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...
.
The term also refers to all games that are played on any
portable device, including from
mobile phone
A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...
(
feature phone
Feature may refer to:
Computing
* Feature recognition, could be a hole, pocket, or notch
* Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob
* Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenome ...
or
smartphone
A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
),
tablet,
PDA to
handheld game console
A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the con ...
,
portable media player
A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, Electric battery, batter ...
or
graphing calculator Graphing Calculator may refer to:
* Graphing calculators, calculators that are able to display and/or analyze mathematical function graphs
* NuCalc, a computer software program able to perform many graphing calculator functions
* Grapher, th ...
, with and without
network availability.
The earliest known game on a mobile phone was a
Tetris
''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...
variant on the
Hagenuk MT-2000 device from 1994.
In 1997,
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
launched ''
Snake
Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...
''. ''Snake'', which was
pre-installed
Pre-installed software (also known as bundled software) is software already installed and licensed on a computer or smartphone bought from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).[app store
An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...]
s in 2008, such as the
iOS
Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
App Store
An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...
from
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
. As the first mobile content marketplace operated directly by a
mobile-
platform holder
Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms.
0–9
A
...
, the App Store significantly changed the
consumer behaviour
Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organisations and all activities associated with the Purchasing, purchase, Utility, use and disposal of goods and services. It encompasses how the consumer's emotions, Attitude (psy ...
and quickly broadened the market for mobile games, as almost every smartphone owner started to download
mobile apps
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
.
History
Towards the end of the 20th century, mobile phone ownership became ubiquitous in the industrialised world due to the establishment of industry standards, and the rapid fall in cost of handset ownership, and use driven by
economies of scale
In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of Productivity, output produced per unit of cost (production cost). A decrease in ...
. As a result of this explosion, technological advancement by handset manufacturers became rapid. With these technological advances, mobile phone games also became increasingly sophisticated, taking advantage of exponential improvements in
display,
processing,
storage,
interfaces
Interface or interfacing may refer to:
Academic journals
* ''Interface'' (journal), by the Electrochemical Society
* '' Interface, Journal of Applied Linguistics'', now merged with ''ITL International Journal of Applied Linguistics''
* '' Inter ...
,
network bandwidth
In computing, bandwidth is the maximum rate of data transfer across a given path. Bandwidth may be characterized as network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth.
This definition of ''bandwidth'' is in contrast to the field of signal ...
and
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
functionality. The first such game that demonstrated the desire for handset games was a version of ''
Snake
Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...
'' that
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
had included on its devices since 1997.
In 1999,
NTT Docomo launched the
i-mode
i-mode (, ) is a Japanese mobile internet (distinct from wireless internet) service operated by NTT DoCoMo. Unlike Wireless Application Protocols, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail, and ...
mobile platform in Japan, allowing mobile games to be downloaded onto
smartphones
A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as mult ...
. Several
Japanese video game developers announced games for the i-mode platform that year, such as
Konami
, commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...
announcing its
dating simulation ''
Tokimeki Memorial''. The same year,
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles.
The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
and
Bandai
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered ...
were developing mobile phone adapters for their
handheld game consoles
A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the con ...
, the
Game Boy Color
The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...
and
WonderSwan
The is a handheld game console released in Japan by Bandai. Developed in collaboration with Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto Laboratory, it was the final piece of hardware Yokoi worked on before his death in 1997. Launched in March 1999 during the ...
, respectively. By 2001, i-mode had users in Japan, along with more advanced handsets with graphics comparable to
8-bit consoles. A wide variety of games were available for the i-mode service, along with announcements from established
video game developers
A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...
such as
Taito
is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, Toy, toys, arcade cabinets, and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, Vending machine, vending machines, and Juk ...
, Konami,
Namco
was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...
, and
Hudson Soft
was a Japanese video game company known for releasing numerous titles across video game consoles, home computers, and mobile phones. Headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo, it also maintained an office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. F ...
, including ports of
classic arcade games and 8-bit
console games
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connec ...
.
By the mid-2000s there was a large market for mobile games, of which many were built on the
Java ME
Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of porting, portable code for embedded system, embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digita ...
platform that many devices at the time supported. Earlier they could be obtained using
SMS
Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...
short codes before manufacturers as well as
mobile network operators
A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a mobile network provider, mobile network carrier, mobile , wireless service provider, wireless carrier, wireless operator, wireless telco, or cellular company, is a telecommunications provider of se ...
started offering them for download both on the
Web
Web most often refers to:
* Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal
* World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system
Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to:
Computing
* WEB, a literate programming system created by ...
(on a PC to be transferred to the device) or directly via the air (using
GPRS
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's Global System for Mobile Communications, global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices wit ...
,
3G or
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
). The launch of Apple's
iPhone
The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
in 2007 and the
App Store
An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...
in 2008 radically changed the market. The iPhone's focus on larger memory,
multitasks, and additional
sensing devices, including the
touchscreen
A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...
in later model, made it ideal for
casual game
A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessio ...
s, while the App Store, which is also independent from
mobile carriers, made it easy for developers to create and post apps to publish, and for users to search for and obtain new games.
Further, the App Store added the ability to support
in-app purchase
Microtransaction (mtx) refers to a business model where users can purchase in-game virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions ...
s in October 2009. This allowed games like ''
Angry Birds
''Angry Birds'' is a Finnish media franchise created by Rovio Entertainment, and owned by Sega. The game series focuses on the titular flock of colorful angry birds who try to save their eggs from green-colored pigs. Inspired by the game ''Cr ...
'' and ''
Cut the Rope
Cut or CUT may refer to:
Common uses
* The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely directed force
** A type of wound
** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past
** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment
** ...
'' to find new
monetization models away from the traditional
premium
Premium may refer to:
Marketing
* Premium (marketing), a promotional item that can be received for a small fee when redeeming proofs of purchase that come with or on retail products
* Premium segment, high-price brands or services in marketing ...
"pay once" model. Meanwhile, Apple's disruption caused the market to stabilized around iPhone devices and
Google's Android-based phones which offered a similar app store through
Google Play
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...
.
A further major shift game with 2012's ''
Candy Crush Saga
''Candy Crush Saga'' is a free-to-play tile-matching video game released by King on April 12, 2012, originally for Facebook; other versions for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 10 followed. It is a variation of their browser game '' ...
'' and ''
Puzzle & Dragons'', games that used a stamina-like gameplay feature found in
social-network games like ''
FarmVille
''FarmVille'' is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to '' Happy Farm'' and ''Farm Town''. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plo ...
'' to limit the number of times one could play it in a single period, but allowed optional
in-app purchases
Microtransaction (mtx) refers to a business model where users can purchase in-game virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions ...
to restore that stamina immediately and continue playing. This new monetization brought in millions of players to both games and millions of
dollars in revenue, establishing the "
freemium
Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...
" model that would be a common approach for many mobile games going forward. Mobile gaming grew rapidly over the next several years, buoyed by rapid expansion in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. By 2016, top mobile games were earning over a year, and the total revenue for the mobile games sector had surpassed that of other video game areas.
Other major trends in mobile games have include the
hyper-casual game such as ''
Flappy Bird
''Flappy Bird'' is a 2013 casual mobile game developed by Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen (), under his game development company .Gears. The game is a side-scroller where the player controls a bird, Faby, attempting t ...
'' and ''
Crossy Road'' and
location-based game
A location-based game (also called location-enabled game, geolocation-based game, or simply geo game) is a type of game in which the gameplay evolves and progresses via a player's real world location. Location-based games must provide some mechanis ...
s like ''
Pokémon Go
''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game originally developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. It uses mobile devic ...
''.
Mobile gaming has impacted the larger video game market by drawing demand away from
handheld video game consoles; both
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles.
The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
and
Sony
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
had seen major drops in sales of their 2011 handhelds compared to their 2004 predecessors as a result of mobile gaming. At the same time, mobile gaming introduced the concept of
microconsole
A microconsole is a home video game console that is typically powered by low-cost computing hardware, making the console lower-priced compared to other home consoles on the market. The majority of microconsoles, with a few exceptions such as ...
s, low-cost, low-powered
home video game console
A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few game ...
s that used mobile operating systems to take advantage of the wide variety of games available on these platforms.
Calculator games

Calculator gaming is a form of gaming in which
games
A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...
are played on
programmable calculator
Programmable calculators are calculators that can automatically carry out a sequence of operations under the control of a stored computer programming, program. Most are Turing complete, and, as such, are theoretically general-purpose computers. ...
s, especially
graphing calculator Graphing Calculator may refer to:
* Graphing calculators, calculators that are able to display and/or analyze mathematical function graphs
* NuCalc, a computer software program able to perform many graphing calculator functions
* Grapher, th ...
s.
In 1980,
Casio
is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...
's MG-880
pocket calculator
An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics.
The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-siz ...
had a built-in "Invaders" game (essentially a downscaled ''
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Taito for Arcade video game, arcades. It was released in Japan in April 1978, with the game being released by Midway Manufacturing overseas. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed s ...
'' clone), released in the Summer that year. Another early example is the
type-in program
A type-in program or type-in listing was computer source code printed in a home computer magazine or book. It was meant to be entered via the keyboard by the reader and then saved to cassette tape or floppy disk. The result was a usable game, ut ...
''
Darth Vader's Force Battle'' for the
TI-59, published in ''
BYTE
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
'' in October 1980.
The magazine also published a version of ''
Hunt the Wumpus
''Hunt the Wumpus'' is a text-based adventure game developed by Gregory Yob in 1973. In the game, the player moves through a series of connected caves, arranged as the vertices of a dodecahedron, as they hunt a monster named the Wumpus. The tu ...
'' for the
HP-41C
The HP-41C series are programmable, expandable, continuous memory handheld RPN calculators made by Hewlett-Packard from 1979 to 1990. The original model, HP-41C, was the first of its kind to offer alphanumeric display capabilities. Later came ...
.
Few other games exist for the earliest of programmable calculators (including the
Hewlett-Packard 9100A, one of the first scientific calculators), such as the long-popular ''Lunar Lander (video game series), Lunar Lander'' game often used as an early programming exercise. However, limited program address space and lack of easy program storage made calculator gaming a rarity even as programmables became cheap and relatively easy to obtain. It was not until the early 1990s when
graphing calculator Graphing Calculator may refer to:
* Graphing calculators, calculators that are able to display and/or analyze mathematical function graphs
* NuCalc, a computer software program able to perform many graphing calculator functions
* Grapher, th ...
s became more powerful and cheap enough to be common among high school students for use in mathematics. The new graphing calculators, with their ability to transfer files to one another and from a computer for backup, could double as game consoles.
Calculators such as HP-48 and TI-82 could be programmed in proprietary programming languages such as RPL programming language or TI-BASIC (calculators), TI-BASIC directly on the calculator; programs could also be written in assembly language or (less often) C (programming language), C on a desktop computer and transferred to the calculator. As calculators became more powerful and memory sizes increased, games increased in complexity.
By the 1990s, programmable calculators were able to run implementations by hobbyists of games such as ''Lemmings (video game), Lemmings'' and ''Doom (1993 video game), Doom'' (Lemmings for HP 48 series, HP-48 was released in 1993; Doom for HP-48 was created in 1995). Some games such as Dope Wars caused controversy when students played them in school.
The look and feel of these games on an HP-48 class calculator, due to the lack of dedicated audio and video circuitry providing hardware acceleration, can at most be compared to the one offered by 8-bit handheld consoles such as the early Game Boy line, Game Boy or the Gameking (low resolution, monochrome or grayscale graphics), or to the built-in games of non-Java virtual machine, Java or Qualcomm Brew, BREW enabled cell phones.
Games continue to be programmed on graphing calculators with increasing complexity. A wave of games appeared after the release of the TI-83 plus, TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus series, among TI's first graphing calculators to natively support assembly. TI-BASIC programming also rose in popularity after the release of third-party libraries. Assembly language, Assembly remained the language of choice for these calculators, which run on a Zilog Z80 processor, although some assembly implements have been created to ease the difficulty of learning assembly language. For those running on a Motorola 68000 processor (like the TI-89 series, TI-89), C programming (possible using TIGCC) has begun to displace assembly.
Because they are easy to program without outside tools, calculator games have survived despite the proliferation of Handheld device, mobile devices such as
mobile phone
A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...
s and
PDAs.
Industry structure
Total global Total revenue, revenue from mobile games was estimated at $2.6 billion in 2005 by Informa Telecoms & Media, ''Informa Telecoms'' and ''Media''. Total revenue in 2008 was $5.8 billion. The largest mobile gaming markets were in the Asia-Pacific nations Japan and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, followed by the United States. In 2012, the market had already reached $7.8 billion A new report was released in November 2015 showing that 1887 app developers would make more than one million dollars on the Google and iOS app stores in 2015.
Mobile gaming revenue reached $50.4 billion in 2017, occupying 43% of the entire global gaming market and poised for further growth. It is expected to surpass the combined revenues from both PC gaming and console gaming in 2018.
Different platforms
Mobile games have been developed to run on a wide variety of platforms and technologies. These include the (today largely defunct) Palm OS, Symbian, Adobe Flash Lite, NTT DoCoMo's DoJa, Sun Microsystems, Sun's Java (programming language), Java, Qualcomm's Qualcomm Brew, BREW, WIPI (platform), WIPI, BlackBerry, Nook and early incarnations of Windows Mobile. Today, the most widely supported platforms are Apple Inc., Apple's iOS (Apple), iOS and Google's
Android. The mobile version of Microsoft's Windows 10 (formerly Windows Phone) is also actively supported, although in terms of market share remains marginal compared to iOS and Android.
Java (programming language), Java was at one time the most common platform for mobile games, however its performance limits led to the adoption of various native binary formats for more sophisticated games.
Due to its ease of porting between mobile operating systems and extensive developer community, Unity (game engine), Unity is one of the most widely used engines used by modern mobile games. Apple provides a number of proprietary technologies (such as Metal (API), Metal) intended to allow developers to make more effective use of their hardware in iOS-native games.
Monetization
With the introduction of the iOS App Store and support for in-app purchases by October 2009, the methods through which mobile games earn revenue have diverged significantly away from traditional game models on consoles or computers. Since 2009, a number of models have developed, and a mobile game developer/publisher may use one or a combination of these models to make revenue.
;Premium
:The premium model is akin to the traditional model where the user pays for the full game upfront. Additional downloadable content may be available which can be purchased separately. Initial games released to the App Store before in-app purchases were available used this approach, and still common for many types of games.
;Freemium
:The
freemium
Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...
or "free to try" model offers a small portion of the game for free, comparable to a game demo. After completing this, the player is given the option to make a one-time in-app purchase to unlock the rest of the game. Early games shortly after the introduction of the in-app purchase feature used this approach such as ''
Cut the Rope
Cut or CUT may refer to:
Common uses
* The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely directed force
** A type of wound
** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past
** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment
** ...
'' and ''Fruit Ninja''.
;Free-to-play
:A free-to-play game requires no cost at all to play, and generally is designed to be playable from start to finish without having to spend any money into the game. However, the game will include gameplay mechanics which may slow progress towards completing the game. Commonly in mobile games, this is some form of energy or stamina that limits how many turns or actions a player can take each day. By using in-app purchases, the player can immediately restore their energy or stamina and continue on. In-app purchases can also be used to buy power-ups and other items to give the player a limited-time advantage to help complete the game. While free-to-play games had been common on computers prior to mobile, the method was popularized in mobile gaming with ''
Candy Crush Saga
''Candy Crush Saga'' is a free-to-play tile-matching video game released by King on April 12, 2012, originally for Facebook; other versions for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 10 followed. It is a variation of their browser game '' ...
'' and ''
Puzzle & Dragons''.

;Advertising-supported
:A Ad-supported software, ad-supported game will be free to download and play, but periodically or persistently, the game will show an advertisement to the user which they will have to watch through before they can continue with the game. The Developer (software), developer earns revenue from the advertising network. In some cases, an in-app purchase allows the player to fully disable ads in these games.
;Subscription model
:A Subscription business model, subscription-based game will offer a base version with limited features that can be played for free, but additional premium features can be obtained if the user pays a monthly subscription fee. If they terminate their subscription, they lose access to those features, though typically not any game progression related to those features, and can pick up those features later by restarting their subscription.
Many game apps are free to play through a combination of these models. Over time, mobile developers of these types of apps have observed that the bulk of their players do not spend any funds on their game, but instead revenues are generated from a small fraction, typically under 10% of their total players. Further, most of the revenue is generated by a very small fraction, about 2%, of the total players, who routinely spend large amounts of money on the game. A similar split on revenue had been seen in
social-network games played in Internet Browser, browsers. These players are known as "whales", inspired by High roller, same term used for high rolling gamblers. The social nature of a mobile game has also been found to affect its revenue, as games that encourage players to work in teams or clans will lead to increased spending from engaged players.
Common limits of mobile games
Mobile games tend to be small in scope (in relation to mainstream PC and console games). Storage and memory limitations (sometimes dictated at the platform level) place constraints on file size that presently rule out the direct migration of many modern PC and console games to mobile. One major problem for developers and publishers of mobile games is describing a game in such detail that it gives the customer enough information to make a purchasing decision.
Location-based mobile games
Games played on a mobile device using localization technology like Global Positioning System, GPS are called
location-based game
A location-based game (also called location-enabled game, geolocation-based game, or simply geo game) is a type of game in which the gameplay evolves and progresses via a player's real world location. Location-based games must provide some mechanis ...
s or location-based mobile games.
These are not only played on mobile hardware but also integrate the player's position into the game concept. In other words, while it does not matter for a normal mobile game where exactly the player is (play them anywhere at any time), the player's Coordinates, coordinate and movement are the main elements in a location-based mobile game.
A well known example is the outdoor recreational activity of geocaching, which can be played on any mobile device with integrated or external GPS receiver.
External GPS receivers are usually connected via Bluetooth.
Several other location-based mobile games, such as the 2001 game ''BotFighters'', were closer to research Prototype, prototypes rather than being commercial successes.
Location-based mobile games sometimes have augmented reality functionality, such as in the case of the 2016 game ''
Pokémon Go
''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game originally developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. It uses mobile devic ...
''. Usually in these cases the augmented reality functionality is not at the center of the experience.
Augmented reality games
Mobile devices have been used as a platform for Augmented reality (AR in short) games, using the device's camera(s) to as an input for the game. While playing the game, the player aims the device's camera at a location and through the device's screen, sees the area captured by the camera plus computer-generated graphics atop it, augmenting the display and then allowing the player to Human–computer interaction, interact that way. The graphics are generally drawn as to make the generated image appear to be part of the captured background, and will be rendered app memorizing as the player moves the device around. The most successful and notable example for a mobile game that has an augmented reality feature is ''
Pokémon Go
''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game originally developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. It uses mobile devic ...
'' (2016), where the player travels to locations marked on their GPS map and then can enable the augmented reality mode to find Pokémon, Pokémon creatures to capture. However, as of January 2022 there has been a lack of significant AR mobile games success since, with several AR mobile game projects being shut down, such as Microsoft's Minecraft Earth and Niantic's Catan: World Explorers
Multipurpose games
Since mobile devices have become present in the majority of households (at least in the developed countries), there are more and more games created with Educational technology, educational, Lifestyle (sociology), lifestyle and, health improvement purposes. For example, mobile games can be used in speech-language pathology, children's Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation in hospitals (Finnish startup Rehaboo!), acquiring new useful or healthy habits (Habitica), memorizing things and learning languages (Memrise).
There are also apps with similar purposes which are not games per se, in this case, they are called ''gamified apps''. Sometimes it is difficult to draw a line between multipurpose games and gamified apps.
Multiplayer mobile games
Many mobile games support multiple players, either remotely over a network or locally via
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
, Bluetooth or similar technology.
There are several options for playing multiplayer games on mobile phones: live synchronous Tournament, tournaments and Turn based, turn-based asynchrony (game theory), asynchronous tournaments. In live tournaments random players from around the world are matched together to compete. This is done using different networks such as Game Center, Google Play Games, and Facebook.
In asynchronous tournaments, there are two methods used by game developers centered around the idea that players matches are recorded and then Broadcasting, broadcast at a later time to other players in the same tournament. Asynchronous gameplay resolves the issue of needing players to have a continuous live connection. This gameplay is different since players take individual turns in the game, therefore allowing players to continue playing against human opponents.
This is done using different networks including Facebook. Some companies use a regular turn-based system where the end results are posted so all the players can see who won the tournament. Other companies take Screencast, screen recordings of live players and broadcast them to other players at a later point in time to allow players to feel that they are always interacting with another human opponent.
Distribution
Mobile games can be distributed in one of four ways:
* Over the Air (OTA): a game binary file is delivered to the mobile device via wireless carrier networks.
* Sideloading, Sideloaded: a game binary file is loaded onto the phone while connected to a PC, either via USB cable or Bluetooth.
* Pre-installed: a game binary file is preloaded onto the device by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
* Mobile browser download: a game file is downloaded directly from a mobile website.
Until the launch of Apple App Store, in the US, the majority of mobile games were sold by wireless carriers, such as AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US. In Europe, games were distributed equally between carriers and off-deck, third-party stores.
After the launch of Apple App Store, the mobile OS platforms like Apple
iOS
Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
, Google
Android, and Microsoft Windows Phone, the mobile OS developers themselves have launched digital download storefronts that can be run on the devices using the OS or from software used on PCs. These storefronts (like Apple's iOS
App Store
An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...
) act as centralized digital download services from which a variety of entertainment media and software can be downloaded, including games and nowadays majority of games are distributed through them.
The popularity of mobile games has increased in the 2000s, as over US$3 billion worth of games were sold in 2007 internationally, and projected annual growth of over 40%. Ownership of a smartphone alone increases the likelihood that a consumer will play mobile games. Over 90% of smartphone users play a mobile game at least once a week.
Many mobile games are distributed free to the end user, but carry paid advertising: examples are ''
Flappy Bird
''Flappy Bird'' is a 2013 casual mobile game developed by Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen (), under his game development company .Gears. The game is a side-scroller where the player controls a bird, Faby, attempting t ...
'' and ''Doodle Jump''. The latter follows the "freemium" model, in which the base game is free but additional items for the game can be purchased separately. Some of the most popular mobile game developers and publishers include Gameloft and King (company), King.
See also
*
*iPod game
*Handheld electronic game
*Handheld game console
*Handheld video game
*List of most-played mobile games by player count
*Mobile app
*Mobile gambling
*Mobile development
*N-Gage (device)
*Scalable Network Application Package
*Transreality gaming
References
{{Pervasive games
Mobile games,
Mobile software, Game
Video game platforms
Video game terminology