Mobile Ports to PC?

[Sylar]

What are your thoughts on mobile game ports to PC?

Recently I have seen several popular mobile games make their way over to PC. Sometimes they are paid, sometimes they are free. I am all for free mobile to PC ports, even though it makes more sense to play it on the original platform. IMO, though, the paid ports are just looking to milk the cash cow even more

 

[RivaCom]

I think it depends on the game. I can't really recall a Mobile game where I said, hey this would be awesome without touch controls. However there are a few games I would love to see become mobile.

 

[Sylar]

I think it depends on the game. I can't really recall a Mobile game where I said, hey this would be awesome without touch controls. However there are a few games I would love to see become mobile.

Interesting point there. I was actually referring to an emergence of games such as this one: http://store.steampowered.com/app/346900/?snr=1_7_15__13
Where a previously mobile-only game is ported to the PC.

 

[RivaCom]

In terms of games like that, just like any company, the more platforms you have the game on, the more money you potentially make. That game in question was originally a browser game, moved to mobile, then to stand alone platform for steam. Not very difficult to transfer over i'd assume. You will most likely see a lot of similar games like that go cross platform because there is very little issues when doing so.

 

[Nemesysbr]

I think any game porting over to pc is good, since I am a pc gamer and I want my platform to thrive. It's also pretty much a given that a mobile game will reach its true potential once it goes go to a more versatile platform, be it pc or consoles.

 

[Liselle]

I've never actually seen a mobile game ported to the PC, only the other way around. However, I think it's good for the game because it's reaching out to a larger community so it would only make the game grow bigger. In a sense, it could just be the developers trying to get as much revenue on the game as possible but it also benefits the players. The more people that play the game, the more willing the developers are to update it and make it better so it can generate more revenue.

 

[contracterboss]

These days some developers are making the ports to PC, one such developer is Rockstar, They have been porting some of their games to Mobile, some of titles that they have ported are GTA 3, GTA: Vice City, GTA: Sanandreas and recently they released mobile port of bully.

I think after with time other developers will also start to port their games to PC. I am waiting for UBISOFT to do so. But gaming on mobile haven't made much progress since 2015 tho, some companies tried to support mobile gaming but some what failed like Nvidia made shield, that was not a flop but it wasn't a game changer either. So don't know in future other developers will also start porting or no.

 

[Xilkozuf]

I'm fine with them. Sometime you see really good games on mobile, but for some reason you don't have a good compatible phone (maybe because they are just for Android or for iOS, maybe you don't want an expensive phone...). But I'm also more happy when the port adds something, and it's not just a copy-paste of the original game. Some PC-exclusive features, new levels, new bonus, an improved graphic or music... stuff like that.
What I'm not fine with is the other way around: PC games ported to mobile. It's not the same thing! This would worsen the game! It is intended to be played on PC, with keyboard and mouse (or a gamepad, if you want), not on a small phone with a small screen and a small touchscreen. There might be some games which looks fine on mobile too, like visual novels and similar, but otherwise it's not a good idea for me.

 

[OursIsTheFury]

It's good to waste time on, but they're there for the person who's bored away from a computer, so playing games on mobile would be enough. I think if I have the option to play a mobile game on PC and a standard PC game, I'd pick the PC game every single time. Also, most mobile games nowadays have "ceilings" for players, and would require in-app/in-game purchases with real money for you to go higher. From unlocking imbalanced characters/weapons, to simply making the game easier thus making you progress more. It's not the way games are meant to be.

 

[Makef0rt]

I am not really sure how to feel about this. If it comes with decent PC configuration, perhaps it might not be a bad thing, although you can pretty much emulate any game on PC by running them with an emulator. And there are so many great ones out there. BlueStacks, Nox, KOPlayer, Andy, MEmu... Just some of them. Even better, certain emulators allow you to easily configure controls and redirect them to your keyboard instead. I used to play Tapped Out on BlueStacks. You just cant compare small mobile screen and monitor, especially if the game can look great on bigger resolutions.

 

[AnthonyB]

I can't stand mobile ports to PC. There are rare exeptions that may be good, but on the whole, I cant stand them. They're usually shit games to begin with. The ports rarely change anything other than "tap" to "click". Sometimes they dont't even bother to change that.

 

[SashaS]

While they are far and few in-between, there are some I'd love to see on PC and some that I was glad to find out already are. The latter would include Transistor, Shadowguneadzone and Timberman. Asphalt 8 also found its place on the Windows store quite fast. I'm kind of annoyed you can't get it on the Mac App Store though, it would be so perfect there. Games I'd love too see on PC that are mobile exclusives right now would be CSR 2, Clash of Clans, Hillclimb Racing and Alto's Adventure. Essentially any landscape game would work, really.

 

[castills]

While they are far and few in-between, there are some I'd love to see on PC and some that I was glad to find out already are. The latter would include Transistor, Shadowguneadzone and Timberman. Asphalt 8 also found its place on the Windows store quite fast. I'm kind of annoyed you can't get it on the Mac App Store though, it would be so perfect there. Games I'd love too see on PC that are mobile exclusives right now would be CSR 2, Clash of Clans, Hillclimb Racing and Alto's Adventure. Essentially any landscape game would work, really.

Woah, I had no idea Transistor was an iOS port! The gameplay was very smooth my crappy laptop pc with a controller! I'll have to try the other out.

 

[WarVet]

Some of these games are very good. While I do agree they are mostly "Idle" games some of them display very good quality. So I like the ports, as long as the price is adequate of course. Can't recall how many times I caught myself thinking how cold I spend so much time in such a silly game so i guess their purpose was accomplished haha

 

[castills]

Some of these games are very good. While I do agree they are mostly "Idle" games some of them display very good quality. So I like the ports, as long as the price is adequate of course. Can't recall how many times I caught myself thinking how cold I spend so much time in such a silly game so i guess their purpose was accomplished haha

Ah those free to play tags are a gamer's best friend! Which idling gane have you enjoyed? I haven't played many, but Soda Dungeon has a pretty nice soundtrack and 8-bit feel.

 

[Neiltarquin]

Im not sure if im good with that because mobile games are supposed to be time killers. It's good that their porting it to pc because its business plus heavy gamers can actually focus on playing the games they like, but is not a good thing for me.

 

[WarVet]

Ah those free to play tags are a gamer's best friend! Which idling game have you enjoyed? I haven't played many, but Soda Dungeon has a pretty nice soundtrack and 8-bit feel.

I have a long history with boring classes and idle games haha. Idle Heroes, Adventure Capitalist there was even a URSS simulator in which I dare say I spent way too much time before my older cell phone died. On another note, there is a game called "Knights of pen and paper"ever heard of it? It's not exactly idle but it reminded me of Soda dungeon a bit.

 

[OursIsTheFury]

While they are far and few in-between, there are some I'd love to see on PC and some that I was glad to find out already are. The latter would include Transistor, Shadowguneadzone and Timberman. Asphalt 8 also found its place on the Windows store quite fast. I'm kind of annoyed you can't get it on the Mac App Store though, it would be so perfect there. Games I'd love too see on PC that are mobile exclusives right now would be CSR 2, Clash of Clans, Hillclimb Racing and Alto's Adventure. Essentially any landscape game would work, really.

Can't you get those games from a mobile emulator for the PC or something? I read somewhere that you can access gaming apps on emulators, which can easily be found on the internet if you looked. Apparently the gameplay is the same, but it's harder to do touchscreen stuff since you can't do that on your monitor; only the mouse and having to point and click your way into the games. But hey, if you're really curious about it, why not try.

 

[PenguinManiac]

Most mobile games are supposed to be time sinks to play every now and then, and thus have a very simplistic gameplay. That's why not all of them translate well on PC.
Look at Adventure Capitalist, for instance. The mobile version is addictive and I'm kind of embarassed to admit how much time I've wasted on it, but the PC version only lasted a couple of days on my HDD. Or, to quote some more obscure examples, there was a mobile game made by a metal band, Hail to the King: Deathbat, that was first published on mobile and later on Steam. Even though the game itself was nice to play on a phone, it wasn't highly praised on Steam because you could tell it was lackluster for a PC game.
Some games to manage to make it through, but, in my opinion, they're the exception.

 

[Cendrillon]

I don't see why not! I used to play Granblue Fantasy and it was way more comfortable for me to play rather than doing so in my phone.
Plus sometimes there are games you can't get on your phone, whether you have Android and want an iOS game or viceversa. I think it's neat, not to mention that programs like Bluestacks make this kind of business even easier!