Nothing fancy or new but it still definitely caught me off guard because of the lack of context for why so and so trends occur.
http://www.gamezebo....06/worst-trends-2011The key stuff are:
Games that aren’t cross-platform - This is particularly weird because if you look at some of the quality mobile games that are exclusives, many of them are not that hard to port as far as design goes and the demand could easily be there considering the price of mobile games but for some reason or another, maybe from game developers wanting the prestige that comes from being a specific platform game, there's been many attempts at closing these opportunities. There are games that I've heard have a PC version but that they are only in Japanese. There are games that try to make a port even though they can barely push the mobile OS capabilities and end up creating an exclusive "worse game of the year" version of the ported series that in turn makes them seem more like exclusive games in a bad way than a port. I guess it's just developers settling on a gaming platform niche but in terms of game development, I say compared to portable gaming platforms and dedicated consoles the mobile app market section of games is pretty strange and in a good way. Things from superb quality games being sold for cheap and random rarely seen games popping from time to time in ways that distinguish themselves from the other sections of the gaming niche.
In the past something like gamefaqs could have all encapsulated these games. Nowadays there's the Stream type of games with certain expectations. There's the flash breed of games. There's the app breed of games. There's the hype that comes from quality DLCs (I'm looking at you Arkham City) and as a guy who doesn't follow the news at all, I find it really weird because the existence of DLC bodes poorly for gamers...and yet the spread of games in all these different not suited for gaming platforms bodes well for games that come close to having unlimited replayability.
Casino games that you can pay into, but never cash out of Games like Zynga Poker have been around for awhile now, but 2011 saw titles like this not only flood the market, but actually perform incredibly well. In fact despite its age, Zynga Poker still draws in nearly 30 million people a month, making it the fourth most popular game on Facebook. Two different “free” poker titles are currently sitting the Top 10 Grossing Games list in the App Store, followed closely by Card Ace: Casino at #12 and Slotomania at #26.
Seriously, people. If you’re going to spend the money, why not just go to a casino where you might get some back? No wonder Zynga’s launching the Zynga Casino brand.
#1 - Scary hidden object games This just cames off as a WTF moment. What would possess many game developers to follow certain themes so badly that it ends up becoming the #1 list in a worst trends list? I don't really buy into what a commentor said about supply and demand. Hidden object games are the supply and demand. Not the theme types.
