The mobile market has become a very hard place to crack.

While there are some smaller apps that manage to break through and become a success, the vast majority of high-level apps are created by established names. Players gained access to a more diverse range of titles, across many genres. The increase in hardware for modern mobile devices meant that new apps were capable of a lot more than apps for the previous generation had been. This saw some big releases hit the market, using technology and game engines that smaller companies were unable to compete with. With small app developers seeing a lot of success on the app markets, the bigger companies realized that there was a lot of potential in mobile apps. The success of independent apps made the bigger companies sit up and take notice of this burgeoning market. Of course, the low-quality titles tended to drop to the bottom of the app stores quickly, but the better releases grabbed the attention of players in droves. The app stores were soon packed, though there were varying levels of quality. The freedom for anyone to create an app or game cultivated more innovation.

Players could install these on the new generation of smartphones, with devices capable of running high-end games. The introduction of easy-to-use IDEs, such as the Corona engine, meant that home users could create their own apps quickly and easily. Both of these operating systems introduced their own app stores, on which users could upload their own creations for other users to play.

This all changed with the introduction of iOS and Android. This meant that the market stagnated and there was very little innovation in mobile gaming. As such, it was only the in-house SDKs that allowed developers to create apps for mobile devices. This meant that the mobile app development game was closed off to homebrew users. It was massively simple, but also laid the foundations for how mobile apps would be designed for quite a few years.īecause there were no app stores available in the early years of mobile apps, it meant that only the company that developed the phone could distribute apps to users. This was a big hit on early Nokia phones and offered players the chance to chase a ball around the screen, collect it by swallowing it, all while avoiding the tail end of the snake. Many people may remember what is widely regarded as the first mobile app: Snake. While the current generation of smartphones and tablets have the power to offer cutting-edge video game experiences, with even a version of Fortnite available for mobile players, that wasn’t always the case.

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