Mobile gaming has been both trendy and lucrative for a long time – until its recent decline beginning in 2022 due to delays in licensing and some unfavorable movements in some of its major markets. While this has noticeably adverse results in terms of bought games for the handy platform, games played on mobile devices still make up a huge chunk of total gaming industry revenue.

This trend now begins a slightly noticeable practice of some studios porting their games to PCs, particularly Android games. That seems to defeat the notion of gaming on the go. Besides, current-generation and even a few older PCs can deliver what a mobile game needs in terms of computing power and graphics. If portability is the main point of mobile gaming, what’s pushing developers to introduce mobile games to a system that needs you to be in one place?

There’s another side of the gaming market

Some of the most moneyed gamers swear by PC and/or other home consoles as the only way to play. These gamers have their reasons. They may not like the idea of their phones doubling as a gaming device. It could also be that they’re not willing to lose a significant chunk of battery life for something another machine can do. Maybe some only want to play when they get home and do not want to be reminded of gaming.

Mobile games make up around half of gaming’s total revenue – and it’s a no-brainer on where the other half is. Also, cross-platform compatibility is a new feature more and more games are getting the hang of. Players can meet each other on the same digital playground, no matter the machine in which they’re logged in. New industry strategies focus on being ever-present. The more visible the game, the more people it will attract, and the more revenue streams it gets. For older games like Clash of Clans, a PC port can extend the life and relevance of a game due to the influx of new players or the return of dormant ones.

Porting costs less

It’s not a generally wise decision to make the same game from another platform from the ground up. Since there’s an existing system, all it needs is a few tweaks to make it work in another gaming machine. From touchscreens to buttons, swipe-and-drag to click-then-drag, and reworking menus to accommodate what is essentially a bigger and more forgiving PC screen. All this can be done at a fraction of the development cost.

It makes more than a simple return on investment – especially if the title in question has made a successful launch and has reached a degree of popularity among the gaming community.

More monetization opportunities for studios and publishers

The usually small screens of mobile gaming mean monetization via character cosmetics may be limited to fewer items. Sometimes, the sizes of possible skins and visual accessories are difficult, if not impossible, to render in full detail. Skins and alternate visuals still make up a good fraction of in-app purchases. The market simply dictates that players will always want to find ways to give a cooler look to their characters.

Mobile to PC ports can provide more justified or satisfying digital merch purchases. It’s always a screenshot-worthy moment when a player can display the full splendor of all those purchased cosmetics. Also, more packages that include a variety of gameplay-improving items can be more effectively presented on a 14-inch or bigger screen.

Some mobile games are as good, if not better, on PC

Action-heavy games require a lot of timed movements. Most mobile devices, at least those that are at current gaming spec, don’t have the consistency of being able to be split-second accurate with what a player wants to do in-game. Touchscreens, even in their latest tech forms, tend to have input delays for at least a fraction of a second. In many cases, that’s more than enough for an enemy to best the user – and this can be frustrating, especially when there’s no internet lag to worry about.

This is where the trusty keyboard and mouse tandem comes in. Combine this with mid-tier hardware specs, and a player can have a blast of a game on PC. The other advantage is also the bigger screen where details a player will take time to discern on mobile are easier to spot. An enemy sniper is more likely to lose the element of surprise if the target can get away from that player’s line of sight. It can also mean that the hunter-becomes-the-hunted situation is a more common scenario when a screen delivers better resolution. This is a reason some games like Call of Duty Mobile are scheduled to get a PC port. Players can fuel crazier moves with reflexes that match their thinking speed with a more responsive control scheme, compared to a more planning ahead approach that needs to be deployed when using touchscreens.

A better and more holistic gaming experience is more often than not a justifiable tradeoff for having to sit in front of a screen. Gaming companies are aware of the existence of the dedicated gamer, and mobile-to-PC-ports are a bridge to these usually separate gaming classes. For a truly portable and exciting playing experience, discover mobile games on Peekapps.