Tag: mobile games

The latest operating system from Apple has been designed with better graphics performance.

On Tuesday, September 9, Apple unveiled its new iPhone models – the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus – both of which feature larger screen displays compared to its predecessors, a processor with greater power and the iOS 8 operating system that is equipped with increased graphical performance, which is good news for mobile gamers, game developers and the mobile gaming industry as a whole.

iOS 8 features Metal, which should be a help to game developers.

The iOS 8 new graphics engine is called Metal and, because of its high-end graphics capabilities, the company says games will look even better on its new operating system. Since both of the new iPhones have bigger screens (4.7 inches for the iPhone 6 and 5.5 inches for the iPhone 6 Plus) and improved hardware, the mobile gaming experience is anticipated to be an upgrade compared to other devices.

According to Apple, “Metal enables incredibly high performance for sophisticated graphics rendering and computational tasks.” The company further explained that “Metal eliminates many performance bottlenecks that are found in traditional graphics APIs,” and that “Metal offers a streamlined API, a unified graphics and compute shading language, and Xcode-based tools.”

Apple has said that when coding, the operating system enables developers to get “closer to the metal”. For gaming, Apple’s Spritekit and Scenekit framework promises improved 2D and 3D rendering and greater battery power efficiency. Graphics engine developers, such as Crytek and Epic, helped to develop Metal.

During the event’s mobile gaming segment, Apple showed off one of the first MOBA for mobile devices.

Called VainGlory, the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game developed by Super Evil Megacorp was created using Metal and will be exclusively launched for the new iPhone 6 models and iPad.

In addition, it has been confirmed that major publishers like EA, Gameloft, Square Enix, Disney, and Rovio will be developing games for iOS 8. However, it is not yet known if these games will be completely new games or if they will be upgraded versions of games that already exist. Also, Mobile gaming developers currently working on creating new titles for the Apple devices include Vector Unity, CD Projekt Red, Super Evil Megacorp and NaturalMotion Games.

Global spending on smartphone apps is about to increase more than it has before.

According to analysts at SuperData Research, by the end of this year, mobile gaming revenues will reach $21.1 billion, which means that compared to 2013’s $17.7 billion mobile games revenue, this will work out to a 19% increase since last year.

Asia mobile users are the major reason behind the growth in this market.

The lead researcher and SuperData founder, Joost van Dreunen, said in the report that “Much of this growth is due to Asia.” Van Dreunen added that Asia “accounts for over half of the worldwide mobile market and its booming smartphone industry as devices become more affordable and ubiquitous in the region.” What has been discovered is that while Western consumers tend to focus on mobile games spending on a per-player basis, the contribution Asian nations like China, South Korea and Japan are making are far bigger.

Based on what was found by SuperData, by the end of the year, Asia’s revenue for mobile gaming will climb to $11.3 billion. This amount includes revenue that results from in-game ads and in-app purchases. Furthermore, the intelligence firm anticipates that by 2016 the global gaming revenue will be at $28.2 billion once more smartphone consumers come online in Russia, India and china.

In the West, mobile gaming spending is growing, but slower than the global average.

The report noted that although spending is increasing in the west, as it is estimated to grow by 16% from last year to 2014, it is growing at a rate that is slower compared to the average worldwide.

That said, Western gamers do spend a lot of money on mobile games. The research from SuperData has shown that the average mobile player who pays for games in the US and the UK, spends much more than other mobile gamers in just about everywhere else in the world. However, the reason why this is believed to be the case is that both the UK and US mobile technology markets are well established and consumers have had a long time to become accustomed to how mobile games operate.

Nevertheless, in every region the mobile games market is growing. Therefore, if in the next few years, revenue does reach almost $30 billion, the companies who establish a presence in the mobile gaming space now are likely to be glad that they did.