Survey highlights the issues that gamers have with mobile gaming

Mobile gaming has become a fun and important pastime for a wide variety of consumers all over the world. Like other consumers, gamers are a very picky bunch, and anything they perceive as a significant challenge to their gaming experience could have major consequences for mobile gaming. A new survey from Ebuyer, an e-commerce retailer based in the United Kingdom, highlights the challenges that face mobile gaming, and what gamers consider to be one of the most significant problems with most of today’s popular mobile games.

Poor controls cause irritation for gamers

According to the Ebuyer survey poor controls are one of the most problematic issue facing mobile gaming today. Given that the vast majority of these games are developed with a touch screen in mind, creating a control interface that can be both accurate and effective has been a serious challenge for nearly all developers of mobile games. Touch screens are not designed specifically for games, thus have limited functionality when it comes to gaming. According to the survey, 23% of gamers said that controls were often so irritating that they refused to play mobile games.

Micro-transactions and bugs are also a top issue

Controls are not the only problems gamers have with the mobile space, of course. The survey shows that 20% of gamers claim that micro-transactions are problematic in some regard. These gamers suggest that micro-transactions are either completely unjustified or that they are too difficult to use. In some cases, a poorly implemented micro-transaction system has led gamers to spend significantly more money than they had initially intended because of their repeated efforts to get the system to work properly. Bugs and glitches were also a problem for gamers. Approximately 17% of the survey’s respondents claimed that bugs were irritating enough to stop them from playing games.

Advertising proves to be the most problematic issue

The chief issue that gamers have with the mobile gaming space, however, is in-game advertisements. More than 40% of the survey’s respondents claimed that these advertisements were a very problematic issue and that they would be willing to pay significant fees in order to not have to see these advertisements at all. While these problems represent aspects of mobile gaming that are well on their way to becoming infamous, finding solutions to these problems is likely to be a difficult task for developers.

The British authority will enable smartphone and tablet funds transfers among all bank accounts.

The Payments Council in the United Kingdom has announced that the launch of its mobile payments service in 2014 will enable funds transfers among all bank accounts in the country.

Support has already been expressed by Barclays Bank, which will be taking part in the movement.

Barclays Bank has stated that it is in favor of mobile payments, but it will not be alone in providing the service. According to the Payments Council, by the spring of 2014, it will have made it possible for 90 percent of British banks to offer this type of smartphone friendly service.

Customers at Barclays are already using mobile payments through the Pingit app.

This application allows smartphone users to be able to make payments to any bank account in the United Kingdom, provided that the smartphone number of the recipient is on the contact list of the sender.

There are currently eight financial institutions – comprising 90 percent of the current bank accounts in the United Kingdom – which have already made their commitment to offering the new mobile payments service as of the spring of next year. It is expected that they will soon be joined by additional banking institutions, as well. Among those that have already signed up are Barclays, Danske Bank, RBS, HSBC, Cumberland Building Society, Lloyds Banking Group, Metro Bank, and Santander.

There has already been a tremendous adoption of the Pingit app, as the first five days following its release saw over 120,000 downloads. Responding to the considerable demand for using mobile payments, Barclays found itself lowering the minimum age of use from 18 years old, to 16 years old. At the same time, it also increased the transaction value limit.

The Payments Council CEO, Adrian Kamellard, said that “The mobile payments project is a fantastic example of the unique role the Payments Council can play in delivering far-reaching, innovative improvements for customers.” He went on to explain that the newly offered service will provide consumers with a convenient and secure way for sending money to a friend, splitting the bill at a restaurant, or paying a contractor without having to share any bank account details other than a telephone number.