The future of mobile gambling from the experience of Riot Games

Today users want their favorite games to be available anytime, anywhere. Developers feel this trend, moving games from PC to mobile devices and creating cross-platform products. Of course, these processes pose a lot of challenges. But Riot Games sees new opportunities in every challenge.

In charge of marketing and development for Teamfight Tactics at Riot Games, Jen Donahue shared some helpful tips for porting games to new platforms on Google’s Apps, Games & Insights podcast. In addition, we will find out how mobile gaming will affect play slots online and the industry directly from an expert.

Everything is built around players, now on mobile devices

Since its founding in 2006, Riot Games has focused primarily on players. It was apparent from their first game, League of Legends, where the main goal was not to make money but to create a product the audience would love. For this reason, Riot Games abandoned the traditional donation model in favor of the game, where you have to gain the advantage by your efforts, not by paying for it.

Riot Games decided to win the mobile gaming segment on the wave of League of Legends success. As the creators of the most successful PC game of the last decade, they were well aware that the demand for mobile games would grow. And if a company is focused primarily on gamers, it’s bound to move in the same direction as them.

Even the leaders have problems

In many countries, mobile games are already more prevalent than in others. Expensive and bulky PCs are inferior in terms of convenience to tiny computers that we take out of our pockets several times an hour. No wonder that the share of mobile games is constantly growing. And our desires coincide with those of gamers. After all, we are players, too. But porting games to mobile devices is fraught with problems.

Consider the BlizzCon 2018 event, where Blizzard announced Diablo Immortal for smartphones. One audience member asked if it was an April Fool joke. So naturally, when a company like Blizzard creates hype around its new release and then announces that the game isn’t meant for desktops, its most loyal customers might consider it a hoax. And given that Riot Games, like Blizzard, became known for PC games, the reaction to the mobile release of Diablo Immortal scared us.

Something to keep in mind when making cross-platform games

At Riot Games, we realized that to make a successful transition to mobile devices, we needed to retain the essential components of the previous gameplay and help our loyal players adapt to the new realities. Beyond this basic setup, there are three critical things to keep in mind when launching a cross-platform game:

• The gameplay should be smooth on all platforms. Engage UI/UX specialists to help ensure the right quality of gameplay.
• None of the platforms should provide players with an advantage. If the competitive aspect of your game is essential, do detailed testing with players and closely track data, such as win rates on mobile and PC.
• This transition needs to be made in conjunction with the community. Riot Games can attest that this is the key to a fuller understanding of the situation and success.

The community sets the benchmark

Riot Games relies on the opinion of the players as much as possible. The community helps us a lot – whether it’s finding bugs, testing games on different devices, or giving us feedback on gameplay. That’s why we offer pre-registration for all of our mobile games on Google Play.

By registering, players become participants in a closed beta test. As a result, the company gets feedback, and players, to some extent, determine what their, hopefully, the favorite game will look like.

Early testing is also a powerful promotional tool, as Riot Games asks participants to share their impressions. As a result, many players make streams on YouTube or other platforms and introduce the games to a broad audience. For example, while testing Teamfight Tactics, one woman from Australia made some noise after being the first to show her countrymen the game on her mobile device.

Streams aren’t just good for promotion. They’re also a way to get valuable commentary from the streamer and the audience. And just because Riot Games heard and took the community’s opinion into account, the launch of the first mobile game from Riot Games went relatively smoothly. It was just before lockdown began. On resource, you can read about mobile gambling in more detail.

Launching the first mobile game in the COVID-19 pandemic era

Teamfight Tactics was released on PC in June 2019. It took only 82 days to develop. In October 2019, it was decided to create a version for mobile devices. Working on it took five months. Thus, the launch of Teamfight Tactics, the first mobile game from Riot Games, was supposed to occur in Los Angeles in the first week of lockdown.

The current difficulties didn’t stop us from bringing the game to mobile platforms and launching it successfully. The result was not long in coming. Teamfight Tactics quickly became the number one app in Korea and the most popular game in many countries worldwide. Here are the main conclusions Riot Games drew while creating the multiplatform game:

• Tip 1. About Cool Experts. Look for talent in all areas, especially developers who can create great multiplatform games. And, of course, UI/UX experts. I don’t think porting a game from PC to mobile devices is easy.
• Tip 2. About the platforms. Choose platforms for development that are scalable. All of the most popular venues in the industry are like that. They support third-party SDKs needed to implement marketing, testing, attribution, and user agent launches. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to share the details.
• Tip 3. About Players. Involve users in testing. Always test gameplay stability on all platforms. Explain to the players that their opinion is critical and that it largely depends on how the game will turn out. Start doing this as early as possible by talking about everything going on, acknowledging mistakes, and suggesting solutions.
• Tip 4. About servers and hardware. Make sure that your servers have the necessary processing power so that users around the world can enjoy a smooth gameplay experience. No matter how great your game is, lags and glitches can scare off users, crash app store rankings, or destroy your chances of success.

What’s the future of mobile gaming?

Mobile gaming is on the rise. Since mobile devices are getting more powerful and smaller every year, it’s no wonder. Now they provide the same quality of gameplay that only computers could offer for years. And this fact makes mobile platforms attractive for eSports.

The cybersports industry has been developing by leaps and bounds in recent years. More people are already watching video game competitions than the most popular sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup or the Super Bowl. The growth of players and fans has allowed Riot Games to partner with companies in various fields: fashion, cars, beverages, finance, etc. In other words, cybersports have already gained recognition around the world.

Now anyone who owns a smartphone can become the winner of the next cybersports championship. Feeling that professional status is quite natural, players worldwide with redoubled force began to demonstrate their tactical skills, anywhere and anytime.

But it’s not just that. Thanks to the porting of TFT to mobile platforms, many people learned about the Riot Games community. Even more, friends are revealing their little legends and diving into portals with other players worldwide.