The app store standoff is a chance to reshape mobile game discovery | Opinion

2024 hasn't exactly gotten off to the best start for the game industry: mass layoffs loom over large publishers like Epic and Riot Games, and it's becoming harder and all the more expensive to develop and deliver breakthrough games. While the growth outlook for mobile is much more optimistic than it has been in years – with Data.ai projecting up to 4% year over year growth – Epic and Google's court proceedings and Apple's response to Digital Markets Act legislation have cast a shadow over this promising growth and the future of the mobile games industry.

The general atmosphere is one of distrust and dissent, to say the least. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney referred to Apple's DMA response as "hot garbage," whereas Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg slammed the changes as "so onerous" that it would be hard for any app developer to "really seriously entertain what they're doing here." Spotify CEO Daniel Ek chimed in as well, calling the proposed changes "a farce" in a lengthy Spotify blog.

Things weren't always this way. I've worked in the game industry for over 25 years and remember a time when operators like Vodafone and T-Mobile were still the gatekeepers for mobile apps. Fearing their role would be diminished to simple bit pipes and aspiring to be value adding partners instead, operators began forcing stronger and more rigid technical integrations upon apps, much to the dismay of developers.

Everything changed with the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and the App Store a year later in 2008. Within the next five years, Apple and Google's platforms had completely usurped the operator business and created an entirely new kind of market for mobile games. The business model for making mobile games changed thanks to the flexible payment services and featuring possibilities offered by Apple and Google, resulting in the massive growth of free-to-play games in 2012.

Looking back, it's clear today that hit games like Angry Birds and Candy Crush wouldn't have made it without the app store business model.

"It's clear that the industry has evolved and is again in need of its next revolution"

But the landscape has changed quite substantially since the launch of the App Store, too. While the mobile game pioneers were focused on, well, making games and thus heavily reliant on Apple and Google's platforms for reach, developers today invest huge amounts of money into marketing themselves and the role of featuring is non-existent – yet the fees remain the same.

The current app store ecosystem, intensifying competition among developers, and mounting pressures on margins make it hard for both established studios to scale and new games to break through.

While Apple and Google were responsible for driving one of the most substantial growth surges in the history of commercial games, it's clear that the industry has evolved and is again in need of its next revolution.

Looking around, no one seems to have a clear vision of what this could be – just a solid conviction that somewhere along the way, things went south. I'm less interested in finding the culprit or calling time of death and more intrigued by exploring what a new kind of app store or platform for mobile games could look like. What would be needed to once again propel the industry forward?

It's clear that the focus should be on adding value to consumers and allowing new players to enter the ecosystem – not maximizing margins for walled gardens. Fully tapping into the growth potential of emerging markets like Africa or Central Asia would also mean introducing more diverse and flexible payment methods beyond the current credit card focused model.

As the mobile game industry is just short of 20 years young and lacks many benchmarks, I often find myself drawing inspiration from more established entertainment categories like film and TV instead.

"The focus should be on adding value to consumers and allowing new players to enter the ecosystem – not maximizing margins for walled gardens"

There, the recipe for competition and discovery is clear – content is king. Netflix, Disney and HBO don't compete with quantity alone: they compete with curated storefronts, distinct content strategies and exclusive content surpassing traditional Hollywood productions in both budgets and critical acclaim.

Instead of the current duopoly model, could the future of mobile games, too, be in marketplaces that are customized for specific audiences, supporting discovery through content tailored for distinct consumer needs? At best, this kind of model would allow consumers to easily find the right genre of entertainment for themselves – be it mystery, romance, drama, or comedy – while eliminating artificial and unnecessary boundaries between games, film and TV.

Another interesting game of musical chairs is who will be responsible for building and hosting these new storefronts – will someone new emerge to challenge Apple and Google? Epic has already pushed to open its own third party app store, potentially opening the floodgates for a plethora of other developers on iOS in Europe. Or, will we see streaming services like Netflix begin to integrate mobile games into their existing applications instead of driving subscribers into external storefronts?

This could potentially pave the way for a new wave of startups, given that the EU succeeds in creating a legislative environment that welcomes competition. Whatever these new models are – and whomever they are operated by – these future app stores must put focus on privacy, diverse payment opportunities, and content and discovery.

The mobile game industry is by all accounts still young, and there's growth potential waiting to be untapped – but only if we make an active effort to drive it forward. This turning point in our industry, if ever, is the time for mobile game developers and platform owners to come together and align on a better model. A model that – much like those defining moments in mobile game history in the 2010s – truly serves players, platform owners, developers and industry growth.