“Good Games Don’t Die“. This is the title given to a survey published by the SuperScale firm, and when it comes to mobile games, it actually does it quite poorly. Conducted among 500 British and American developers, this study reveals that 83% of Games launched on smartphones and tablets disappear within three years of their initial launch on iOS or Android. We also learn that 43% of them are simply canceled during their development period.
In detail, the study indicates that 76% of the titles analyzed reach their full potential in terms of income during their first year on the market, and that only 4% of them experience this period of felicity during their second year of operation.
Developers relatively pessimistic about the state of the market
In terms of software monitoring, the results are also quite revealing of the ephemeral nature of mobile games. Because while a little more than half of developers do carry out updates and other “live operations” in their games, 38% do not deploy regular updates… and less than half of the developers surveyed do so. to monthly updates. Finally, only 5% of the mobile titles taken into account by the survey are still supported on the software level 7 years after their release.
Interestingly, Games Industry reports that despite this context, 78% of developers prefer to work on mobile games than on more traditional titles, intended for the PC world or game consoles. More than a third of the developers interviewed as part of this study also explain that the climate of uncertainty within the video game industry “prevents the development of new titles“, while 30% believe that in the current state of things”it’s too difficult to find success” in this market.
Note that this ambient pessimism is, ultimately, nothing very surprising. Two-thirds of video game studios currently in operation have suffered layoffs or budget cuts in recent months, according to SuperScale.
“The video game industry is experiencing a period of volatility“, comments the CEO and founder of SuperScale. “Many mobile game developers are struggling to remain profitable in the face of challenges such as ATT and strong competition in a mature mobile market, or in the face of macroeconomic conditions such as high inflation.“.