(Coffee & Swiping is a random news-y/blogg-y article about the gaming industry and everything in between. It’s basically an excuse for me to ramble on about anything and everything that has to do with nothing.)
Holy Shit! It’s been FOUR YEARS since the last Coffee & Swiping article! That’s just crazy how much time flies! Anyway, I just felt like venting a little while scrolling through the news and social media this morning…..
The big thing that hit me in the feels is the news about TouchArcade shutting down after 16 years. It’s so sad to hear. TA has been a staple in the mobile game industry since basically the conception of the platform. I got into mobile gaming back when the App Store first launched in 2008 (maybe even a little before with the old Java games) and TouchArcade was there. I remember staying up late in the TA Forums every Tuesday night as the week’s new games made their way onto the App Store. We didn’t really know how good we had it back then. It was like a family in the forums. Everyone was out there helping search for the newest and best games. Shit, I was an active forum member all the way until we created SNAPPZILLA back in 2016!
This had me thinking about the mobile game industry as a whole and where it’s going. Things have changed so much since 2008. The first 5-8 years were kind of the “Golden Years” for gamers. We had dozens of polished games releasing every week and they were all like $0.99 to $2.99. We hadn’t even heard of IAPs back then. Every game was “premium” back then. I still have old iPod Touch devices full of these iconic games.
Since then 90+% of all games have gone free to play or they are on some sort of subscription service like Apple Play or Netflix. This makes me ask, have we actually progressed? Has the mobile game industry actually gotten better? I guess that lies on who you are asking. To big publishers, I’m sure they are happy with how things are going. But, to the gamer and small developer, the industry feels almost dead. I have been combing through the App Store/s looking for new games for SNAPP for 8 years now and the number of polished non-hypercasual games have gone down dramatically.
So, who’s actually playing these games? It’s a multi-billion dollar industry, so SOMEBODY has to be playing these games! The mobile game industry is making more money year over year, yet less good games are being released. Is the market just a bunch of kids playing hyper-casual games and watching ads? Unfortunately, the answer is pretty much yes. Well, kids and “whales” playing a handful of the same type of games.
The video game industry as a whole is in a weird spot right now. Everyday we hear that another studio is laying off a bunch of people. Hell, I’m one of them! I was laid off a year ago from the studio I was at and still haven’t found work yet! And it’s affecting everything in between. Artists, coders, even game media are hurting. I’ve noticed a big drop in readers over the past year or so. A big part was due to the whole Twitter/X change, but I’m sure a lot of people just aren’t into playing ad-based games on their phone anymore.
Regardless of where the industry is heading, I’ll still do my best to keep SNAPP Attack up and running. Luckily, i’m a one-man-show, so costs are low (and unfortunately I have the extra time at the moment). But for sites like TA with tons of talent on the payroll, I’m sure they struggled to stay afloat during these times. As sad as it is to hear they are shutting down, but I’m glad to have gotten the chance to make some memories with them. So, thank you for everything TouchArcade! You helped mold and shape this industry during some of its best times. Hopefully you are all proud of what you created. I know that we all are!
Paul (@hashtagNOEN)
