Is Mobile Gaming An Expensive Space To Innovate For Developers?

According to recent statistics, the mobile gaming industry is worth around $286 billion in 2023, with a projected growth rate of 12.5% – which should help the industry to reach 2.32 billion users by 2027.

For any game developers, therefore, the mobile gaming industry is the market to crack.

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The Importance Of Innovation

But that’s not to say it’s easy. While at one time, mobile games were simple to develop – think Flappy Bird or Temple Run – users these days expect big things.

Most are, of course, accustomed to richly developed games by the latest generation consoles, and while mobile games don’t have to go that far, they still need to offer something just as immersive and efficiently developed.

If you are thinking of developing in the mobile gaming space, it is important to be innovative and come up with something that matches users’ expectations. This means thinking outside the box and testing the limits of your developing skills.

The Cost Of Innovation

It also means costs. It’s fair to say that developing a mobile game is not cheap, not least when you’re being innovative and really pushing for something new.

When it comes to digital gaming, there are many different forms, making it hard to say exactly how much your game might set you back. But generally speaking, the cost of developing a mobile game ranges from $3,000 to $1 million. Quite a spread, right?

It’s important to remember that mobile gaming is a big industry because it’s convenient for consumers. People don’t want ugly tech at home that they need to clean up; they want something simple, slick, and games that they can carry around in their pockets.

To join the masses of companies vouching for a stake in the industry, it will demand expenses to find their way in. But of course, as mentioned before, it depends on the type of game you are creating.

A rudimentary 2D game will probably cost more than $10,000 to develop and release – with a casual 2D game perhaps costing $40,000 more on top of that.

When it comes to developing a good mobile game, there’s more than just programming to think about. As a developer, you need to be spending money on market research, technical specifications, game design documents, prototyping, designing, programming, sound design, testing and then publication.

The Cost Of Mobile Gaming

We’re not trying to put you off, however. On balance, the money needed to develop a mobile game is still less expensive than console gaming and pretty much balanced with PC games – once again, it all depends on the type of game you are creating.

But it’s also important to note that if you innovate and come up with something good, the costs to develop it can be more than rewarded in this industry. Think about the popular Android and iOS game, Angry Birds. This game cost around $140,000 to develop, but it was at the top spot of the App Store charts for more than a year, and, in the end, the brand made $500 million in revenue.

There aren’t many games that make that amount of revenue off a development worth $140,000, and it’s a testament to the unique nature of the mobile gaming market. When it comes to mobile games, all you have to do is log onto the app store and click download. For this reason, technically, everyone has Angry Birds in their pocket, downloaded or not.

In this way, if you put the money in and you have a team of people who really believe in what you are developing, then the mobile gaming space can reward you in a way, not many other gaming platforms can. Just make sure that everything is mapped out and you know exactly where the costs will have to go before you begin!

David Prior

David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.