Mobile gaming isn’t known, in the U.S. at least, as a bastion of deep gameplay and immersive experiences. Most gamers still associate mobile gaming with free-to-play microtransaction trap machines and dismiss the content as frivolous or predatory or shallow. Epic founder Tim Sweeney disagrees, and told the assembled crowd at his GDC 2016 keynote he thinks the audience for mobile is changing.
“I think what we’re really seeing is that core gamers are spending a lot more time on mobile devices. They’ve tired of casual games and now they want core games with deep gameplay and great graphics,” he said.
He points to Korea as the leader in what’s possible for mobile gaming. During his keynote, Sweeney highlighted the trends that are turning Korea into a proving ground for what Triple A mobile development will look like.
“Korea has been a trendsetter in the gaming industry. The free-to-play model that’s now prevalent in mobile games across the whole world started in Korea,” he said. “And now they’re pioneering Triple A on mobile.”
Sweeney highlighted two titles, Blade and Heroes of Incredible Tales ( HIT ), as archetypes of what’s possible in terms of gameplay and commercial success. He called Blade “the first game of it's type to enable this AAA mobile experience” and praised it’s ascension to the top of the Korean sales charts. It’s made more than $130 million in revenue, going head-to-head with HIT which remains a consistent chart topper as well.
The sales are getting the attention of big companies in the U.S., as Epic recently partnered with Samsung on the S7 launch to debut Protostar , a demo game that runs on a shiny new graphics API called Vulkan, which Sweeney referred to as the “new industry standard.” The demo showcases the potential for high-quality content on the mobile platform.
“This effort has done a lot to push high-end mobile graphics forward, and this new wave of mobile hardware is enabling an entirely new revelation in mobile gaming. It’s beginning in Korea, powered by Unreal and reshaping the whole game industry there,” Sweeney said.
