Does a game being 'mobile-first' limit the amount a developer can charge on console?

Some of the biggest titles of the past few years have demonstrated that mobile platforms do not need to be a lesser alternative to a title's home console editions.

Genshin Impact – consistently one of the most popular action-adventure games with gacha elements on the market – was simultaneously released for Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, and PC in September 2020, and for PlayStation 5 a year later. Other titles from major IP holders are now set to have simultaneous releases across both home consoles, PC, and mobile devices.

That is the result of increasing parity in performance between devices, and companies like Netflix investing heavily in bringing games to mobile devices through its app. Games like the upcoming Tales of the Shire are set to release on Netflix on day one, and the recently-released Paper Trail also launched simultaneously on the platform and on PC/consoles.

It's fair to say that the clear delineation between what is and is not a 'mobile' game is being blurred.

Despite that, years of denigration of 'mobile games' – lesser in some way than PC and console games – still skew the value perception of those titles for a proportion of gamers. Combine that with the continued popularity of 'free-to-start' games on iOS and Android also impacting price sensitivity, and developers and publishers are having to grapple with pricing strategies for games that exist across both mobile and console.

Historical perceptions

Michiel Buijsman is lead analyst at industry research and information company Newzoo. He explains the issue is based on that pre-existing value perception: "In essence, the most important factor when deciding how to price a game is that there is a clear ceiling to how much people are willing to spend on a premium game on mobile, which is much lower than the ceiling on PC and console."

However, he also notes that third parties like platform holders inform that overall pricing strategy: "That ceiling is key when pricing a cross-platform launch that includes mobile: negative community feedback might be one thing, but there's also policies enforced by platform holders that the pricing has to be equal or lower on their store."

"There is a clear ceiling to how much people are willing to spend on a premium game on mobile, which is much lower than the ceiling on PC and console"Michiel Buijsman

That is backed up by research firm Niko Partners, which found that the mobile gaming audience is largely accustomed to the free-to-play model and launching a mobile-first title outside of this model limits chances of success "significantly."

The expectation of games – across both mobile and console – to be free-to-play means that the overall price positioning for mobile titles is effectively capped for the near future. In fact, as more F2P games launch on console, it is likely to be even more entrenched. F2P accounts for 73.1% for global player spending per Niko Partners' figures, and even on console – where premium titles make up a much larger proportion of the mix – F2P already accounts for more than a quarter of digital player spending on PlayStation and Xbox.

The Niko Partners team attributes that to the popularity of games like Fortnite and Roblox being among the top played titles: "Selling copies in a one and done fashion is no longer the best way to attract a large audience and this is why F2P has been successful."

However the team also notes that there are often ways around that value cap; 77% of paying console gamers in the Asia and MENA region have purchased a premium game in the past year: F2P games on console typically offer premium-priced starter editions that come with various in-game bonuses and extras that help justify the upfront cost, as we saw with the China-exclusive PS5 Genshin Impact Starter Set in January 2024. In effect, it is an effort to buck the trend of that lower perception of mobile-first titles by building extras into a first-touch price point.

Developer considerations

As a result of those factors, premium mobile titles are effectively capped at lower price points than they would have been if they were released on console. So how does that impact the developers of games designed for both formats?

Tommy Prentice is product lead at Exient Entertainment. He explains: "Players are now used to 'free-to-play' monetisation systems, which has also become the dominant model on many other platforms – this makes trying to convince players to spend in any other way harder. An upper cap is difficult to determine as this usually comes down to the product that's being offered. It's also important to consider the markets in which you are selling, as that can play a big factor in pricing."

He states that "many market watchers will group all mobile games under the same umbrella" whereas the team has found there is a "big distinction when it comes to premium titles versus any F2P titles in terms of how they are monetised."

Marcus Sanders (perhaps best known as the Souls-oriented YouTuber EpicNameBro) is the developer of upcoming strategy RPG Radix Chronicle. The game's initial Kickstarter campaign was for Windows/Linux/Android releases, with other potential ports to come further down the line. Of the difficulty in setting a price, Sanders explains: "From my perspective, it's a market dominated by gambling (gacha aka lootbox-focused free-to-play titles) and ad-supported games. This generally has a suppressive effect on the cost of games on mobile since player expectations are often set by 'free' titles.

"Selling copies in a one and done fashion is no longer the best way to attract a large audience"

"The key takeaway is that you either are trying to compete for free-to-play players, or you aren't. We are not. We expressly don't want to include gambling or advertising elements. It's a decision based on personal convictions rather than economics. We want to make and sell players a complete game similar to what we were able to buy 'back in the day'."

The perception that games – especially mobile games that rely on microtransactions – are sold piecemeal is also a reflection of the changing economics around game publishing, as Niko Partners noted above.

As a result of those considerations and personal convictions, and in addition to the need to recoup development costs upon a Steam release, Sanders and his partner decided upon the "correct" $20 price point for both PC and mobile devices. He points out that, for Radix Chronicle, it "doesn't seem reasonable to charge a different price when the final experience is the same (or at least very close to it)."

The hardware specs of mobile devices also can 'cap' the price perception among audiences. That isn't to say it's purely the processing power of the phone, either: other aspects of a device can negatively impact value perception of mobile games.

Cristian Cailenau is partner account manager at Raw Fury, publisher of titles like Cassette Beasts, Norco, and Moonstone Island. He explains: "Screen size is directly proportional to the price of the game, or at least it used to be for our previously released games. This means that the mobile price point will be a specific fraction of the PC/console version."

He explains that the fraction decided upon is dependent on factors including user feedback, user base, and average game price – measured between base price point and different price discounts in the game's lifetime. He also points out that the fact that the proportion of content per each game can fluctuate with the addition of DLC, which also impacts price perception.

He does point out, however, that with the increasing power of mobile devices, the team is "reconsidering this strategy" around pricing, as their mobile ports reach "1/1 quality parity with [their] PC/Console counterparts."

So, even if the historic perception of 'mobile games' as somehow being lesser than their console counterparts is shifting, the developers of games for both formats are still grappling with pricing issues as a result of different considerations around mobile gaming. The omnipresence of the F2P or freemium model is a far greater limiting factor than hardware specs – but canny developers and publishers are finding ways to thread the needle to maximise the price potential for their games that live across mobile and home consoles.