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[Draugoth]

SuperScale's research also finds 43% of games are dropped during development

New research from mobile revenue growth engine SuperScale has found that 83% of launched mobile games fail within three years, while 43% are cancelled during development.

Advertisement Conducted by Atomik Research, SuperScale's Good Games Don't Die report was published this week, and is based on interviews with 500 game developers in the UK and US. According to the report, 76% of launched games reached peak revenue within the first year, but only 4% reached this peak during the second year.

The report also found that while over half of developers use live ops in their games, 38% don't release regular content or updates, with less than half releasing monthly updates to their games, leading to just 5% of games receiving support seven years post-launch.

Despite the failure rate of new titles, 78% of developers prefer working on them.

However, over a third of respondents said that uncertainty in the industry "is stopping them from developing new games," with 30% feeling as though the current market "is too difficult to succeed in."

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

no shit Sherlock. Bellular News talked about it. (Survivorship bias)

 

[saintjules]

I was never a fan of mobile gaming. There were a good chunk of games I saw like the one below that I would have loved to see on Console, but never made it. I don't know, something about playing on my phone doesn't give me the same excitement versus playing on a TV screen.

 

[Spyxos]

There are certainly good mobile games out there. However, I haven't found any yet.

 

[Phase]

How is that failing?

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Nooo, that can't be true! I want for all the mobile gacha waifu games to succeeded!

 

[RoboFu]

3 years sounds pretty good actually.

But the thing is you guys don’t want mobile games to succeed for some weird reason.

Mobile gaming doesn’t have to only be touch screen gotcha fests. There is no reason mobile gaming couldn’t be exactly like a Nintendo switch. Dock for tv play or add a Sony portable type controller to the screen, or use touch screen controls.

More Options is always the best way to go.

 

[Lokaum D+]

 

[SmokedMeat]

Can’t be. This is the future of gaming.

 

[Phase]

3 years sounds pretty good actually.

But the thing is you guys don’t want mobile games to succeed for some weird reason.

Mobile gaming doesn’t have to only be touch screen gotcha fests. There is no reason mobile gaming couldn’t be exactly like a Nintendo switch. Dock for tv play or add a Sony portable type controller to the screen, or use touch screen controls.

More Options is always the best way to go.

Yeah except that's not the vast majority of what's coming out. It's predatory garbage, laden with ads, to make a quick buck then abandoned for the next one. What you're talking about may become more popular over time as the phone ecosystem evolves, but it's just not there now.

 

[reinking]

I was never a fan of mobile gaming. There were a good chunk of games I saw like the one below that I would have loved to see on Console, but never made it. I don't know, something about playing on my phone doesn't give me the same excitement versus playing on a TV screen.

I have found that my phone works great as a handheld. Phones have kind of taken over what the gameboy used to provide to me. The Switch is a cool hybrid but it is not pocket sized. I even kept my old android phone and just use it as a handheld gaming system now. Now, the gacha filled game market is something I very much dislike about gaming on phones.

 

[Mung]

I remember when the tech media kept telling us that this was the future of gaming and consoles wouldn't last much longer - back before the ps4 and xbox one launch.

They were obsessed with 'convergence' devices back then - another way of saying a jack of all trades.

 

[DeepEnigma]

 

[kyussman]

I imagine some of them make a shit load of money in those three years though,and then they put out a new one.

 

[Robb]

So a failure is reaching peak revenue within 3 years? Sounds like a strange metric?

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Race to the bottom of the shitter.

Not surprised.

 

[Interfectum]

Is it a failure if the company made money and the game just didn't end up being a 'forever game'?

 

[Fake]

Do you guys don't have phones?

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

However, over a third of respondents said that uncertainty in the industry "is stopping them from developing new games," with 30% feeling as though the current market "is too difficult to succeed in."

Skill issue

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I remember when the tech media kept telling us that this was the future of gaming and consoles wouldn't last much longer - back before the ps4 and xbox one launch.

They were obsessed with 'convergence' devices back then - another way of saying a jack of all trades.

 

[GHG]

The statistics are probably similar for console/PC GAAS games.

 

[DrFigs]

3 years is pretty good.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

makes sense. there are tons and tons of them. crazy amount.

 

[Dacvak]

What a stupid statistic. Any mobile game that lasts 3 years would be considered successful under most metrics.

If the headline was something like “60% of mobile games don’t last one year” or something it would actually be a bit more telling.

 

[ReBurn]

How many games are people actually playing 3 years later?

 

[Esppiral]

In other news water is wet.

 

[newtypepilot]

For a mobile game, 3 years is actually an eternity so it's not really considered a failure. The market is so saturated that if a game fails to grow within like the first 6 months, it's already doomed.

 

[Aenima]

If a mobile game lasted 3 years, it was already a success.

 

[yurinka]

Yes, and like 90% of the new releases on Steam that don't sell a shit, under a few thousand units.

Life is hard, specially to the huge amount of shovelware available in most stores.

 

[Madonis]

Everyone wants to make a gacha fortune, but...the future refuses to change.

 

[DragonNCM]

There are certainly good mobile games out there. However, I haven't found any yet.

Try Grimvalor

 

[BoxFresh123]

Kairosoft Games are the shit.

 

[DaGwaphics]

I'm kind of shocked that this would indicate that 17% made it past three years, I would have guessed lower.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Mighty Doom is fun

 

[nosoynadie22]

Analysts were right when they predicted the enormous growth of the mobile gaming market, but it seems they were wrong to assume that this would kill consoles.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I'm surprised it's only 83%. The mobile gaming segment is insanely saturated and every imaginable genre has 20+ random generic games which all look the same as each other

Square Enix has like a 100% death rate on their mobile games, it's basically guaranteed that any mobile game released by Square Enix will be shut down within a year

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Good

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

also this:

 

[InterMusketeer]

Are these games profitable though? Many mobile games are cheaply made while maximizing profits through micro transactions, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were still considered successful.