With the rise of mobile gaming, more and more big franchises are starting to embrace the mobile platform. Mobile gaming is the fastest growing segment of gaming at the moment according to data from SuperDataResearch. Some game developers are already ahead of the curve on this revolution – KOG Games launched Grand Chase M on mobile devices just a month or so ago while Forsaken World Mobile also launched around the same time. Both games had popular desktop versions for years before a mobile version was released. It’s worth mentioning that these mobile games operate independently from their desktop counterparts – meaning they’re standalone games with different servers. Despite this, these games seem to be attracting more and more players. League of Angels also embraced the mobile revolution with the launch of League of Angels Fire Raiders.
It’s not just classic desktop MMORPGs embracing mobile. Entirely new franchises are being born on Android and iOS. Asobimo Inc, a Japanese MMO developer, made a name for itself almost exclusively on its mobile MMORPGs. Games like Stellacept Online and Izanagi Online from Asobimo are actual mobile MMORPGs too with large persistent worlds – no instanced nonsense! Seeing so many developers enthusiastically chasing the mobile market shouldn’t come as a surprise. A successful mobile game can generate millions a year in revenues and profit. Although not an MMORPG, Clash of Clans, makes nearly $2 billion a year, making it the most successful online game in the world. To put that into perspective, WoW earns about $900 million while Riot Games’ wildly successful MOBA LoL earns ~$1.1 billion. A single successful mobile game like Clan of Clans can out-earn some of the top online games combined.
With every successful mobile MMO, there are unfortunately dozens of failures. There are just way too many games out there and a fixed number of players, so not every title can be successful. Companies from Nexon to Fedeem (Arc Games) are all embracing mobile, so there are countless titles out there. Legion of Heroes and Nexon M and Dark Summoner from Ateam are two examples of games that don’t command huge playerbases. As is, no free to play moible MMORPG really makes a lot of money. Games like Puzzle & Dragon make millions a day, but they aren’t exactly MMORPGs. I suspect the trend of desktop to mobile MMOs will continue. Arc Games already announced their intentions to make all their titles mobile while NCSoft publicily announced a “Mobile First” strategy, meaning all their future games will be on Mobile (as well as other platforms).