From Traditional Gaming to Mobile Gaming: Why Players (don't) Switch

Mobile gaming has been on the rise for many years, while traditional gaming (PC, console) has declined. Where is this trend coming from? Which factors drive the switching intention of gamers from traditional to mobile gaming? Here are the science-based answers.

On February 27, 1996, a legend of video game history conquered Japan... Pokémon. 20 years later, the successor to the original game took over the world for weeks: it was Pokémon Go. The game brought in 470 million USD, and just 80 days after its launch, it was installed on 550 million phones.

"The changes of gaming forms of Pokémon series (from traditional gaming to mobile gaming) is a good example of the development of video games. Today, the global video games market is mainly driven by mobile games..." [1]

In 2018, for the first time, mobile games were the largest subgroup in the global video game industry. At the same time, the revenue share from traditional gaming declined further, from 63% to 49%. Unsurprisingly, companies such as Blizzard Entertainment (known for providing their games on traditional hardware only) made the switch to mobile gaming, as they strongly invested in China to capture market share in the land of mobile gaming. However, it, let's say, was met with some resistance by the fans.

Obviously, Bilzzard (and other gaming companies) want traditional hardware players to switch over to mobile, to some degree. But that may sound harder than it actually is. What are "the factors that drive video game players to switch from traditional to mobile gaming?" [1] That's what today's study was trying to figure out. In doing so, the researchers posted a questionnaire on 12 popular Chinese gaming forums, returning a sample of 340.

📱 Why would You Switch?

The researchers found two distinct groups in their sample. There were the Unshakable stayers, where 47.3% are extremely unwilling to switch, and the moderate intentional emigrants, where 27.8% would "never" switch to mobile. The intention of the rest of the sample to switch wasn't very high either. This contrasts the trend we've been seeing in recent years—a shrinking traditional gaming market, and boom in the mobile gaming market.

"... mobile gaming seems to play a complementary role for the players of traditional gaming. One potential reason for the discrepancy between... could be that the growth of mobile gaming is not in fact driven by existing players switching from traditional gaming, but by an influx of new players." [1]

The players reported a perceived shortage of time for playing games. I guess that's normal? Everyone would like to have more time for the things they enjoy.

Players also perceived traditional video gaming as being more time-consuming than mobile gaming. In my opinion, this either stems from traditional players playing more on their traditional devices or a distorted perception. A PC or console is usually where players game for a longer period of time. However, mobile gaming is something people do in between other things, but it adds up. Therefore, they could perceive traditional gaming as more time-consuming, but this may not be actually the case.

This would be in line with players reporting that mobile gaming is relatively flexible, compared to traditional gaming. However, it should be noted that the players in the sample had more experience in traditional gaming and that their switching intention was relatively low. So, switching from PC, console, etc. to mobile wasn't something they were planning to do.

Now, let's talk about some factors the researchers found that impact the switching behavior of players from traditional to mobile. First, there are so-called push effects (performance weaknesses that push players away from traditional gaming). Second, there are pull effects (strong points of mobile gaming that attract players). Lastly, mooring effects (retaining the influence of the advantages of traditional gaming).

Among the push effect variables, the perceived expensiveness of traditional gaming (a PS5 is €650 in Germany) positively impacts the player's switching intention. Contrary to what one would assume, a shortage of time for playing did not impact the switching intention. Even those who would like to play more don't touch mobile gaming to play in between other activities.

"Among the pull effects, we find a significant and positive relationship between perceived flexibility of mobile gaming and switching intention." [1]

"The results for the mooring effects support a relationship between perceived cost of lost benefits and switching intention, thus suggesting that the fear of losing benefits hinders players from switching." [1]

Another mooring effect was that the intention players have to switch from traditional to mobile gaming is weakened by the high performance of traditional gaming (PCs or consoles are just the stronger hardware).

As one would expect, past traditional gaming experience influenced the switch negatively, while past mobile gaming experience affected the switching intention positively. Something that one would not expect is that owning a portable console does not impact the intention to switch to mobile gaming. Lastly, full-time students and those with a job had significantly higher intentions to switch. The flexibility of mobile gaming makes it easier for them to fit gaming into their schedule.

Hope you all have a great week, and enjoyed the episode. Cheers,

Christian 🙂

References

[1] Cai et al., 2022