The first days of mobile gaming were ugly in a lot of ways. This was most obviously visible in terms of graphics, but also making things less than tenable were terrible controls, poor responsiveness, and awful overall gaming infrastructure. Despite these early hurdles, modern mobile gaming has grown to be worth billions, on an upward trajectory which is still far from reaching any visible plateau.
While there are thousands of interesting examples of games and gaming types we could draw from to illustrate mobile’s evolution, we want to use the example of online bingo games as a base. How have these illustrated the change in mobile gaming over the years, where are they different from the modern AAA trajectory, and why are we confident they’ll always stay popular?
Mobile and Online Bingo Growth
In the earliest days of mobile gaming, simple gameplay was a necessity. With small screens, limited resolution, and slow processing, nothing else was realistically possible. These realities meant that games like bingo saw advantages right out of the gate. The fun of bingo never came from flash, but rather the simple and enjoyable base systems, and this gave it a leg up on the traditional gaming competition.
As we advanced into the age of the smartphone, online bingo games became much more common and expansive than they were before. While the older style of bingo games are always still available, newer versions have continuously developed, broadening their horizons, and pushing the envelope.
For example, playing bingo online with Betfair today will give access to games like Age of the Gods, The Big Dipper, and House of Mirrors. All of these are still bingo, yet they’ve all expanded on the original formula with new features and top-level graphics and sound.
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A Change in Path
Traditional modern video games, when compared to bingo games, have taken a very different path. Rather than staying true to early games, a large portion of the mobile video gaming market is increasingly content to simply mirror the games of their consoles and desktop cousins. While this has proven successful on some fronts, it comes with caveats which prevent many players from making the mobile leap.
Primarily, these factors are visibility and control. Online bingo games on mobile work well, in part, because mobile’s limitations on these two fronts are effectively eliminated. Bingo works fine on a small screen, as do bingo’s simple touch controls. Compare this to something like modern PUBG, which relies on high resolutions and frame rates, as well as complex and uneven input, and the advantages of bingo become obvious.
“578080_20180628162218_1” (CC BY 2.0) by Whelsko
Maintaining Base Appeal
While the growth of modern traditional video games onto mobile is expected to develop alongside the likes of bingo games, it’s important to note that newer games will never take over completely. The complexity of these games, combined with their limiting factors, ensure that many players will never consider them a viable option.
Online bingo and similar games avoid these issues while building on an enormous historical legacy. Crazes will come and go on the mobile front, but there are a few games which supersede the entire idea of trends. Online bingo is one such game, and as such its base appeal ensures it will never lose footing.