Top 5 Mobile Game Developers Of The 21st Century

Source: Yeeply

Game developers over the past have increased on the mobile platform ever since smartphones started to get better and better in their performance. The commencement of these companies was surely the hardworking days with a lot of mistakes or bugs to be corrected or fixed and introduction to new updates over time. Here are some famous Game developers who have not only become successful but have also created a fan base for their very own games in recent years.

1. Supercell

Helsinki, Finland-based Supercell is known to have made its debut in the second decade from 2012 onwards with its first successful game Clash of Clans. Apart from Clash of Clans, they launched another similar form of the game called ‘Boom beach’ which is also a base defence strategy game like Clash of Clans, ‘Clash Royale’ (tower defence strategy), ‘Hay-day’ (farming simulation), and ‘Brawl stars’ (MOBA/hero shooter arena) which also gained popularity after the launch of these games. However, Clash of Clans is still a popular game with a massive five hundred million plus downloads (500,000,000+) and top-grossing standing at #3 on Google Playstore.

“Our dream is to create games that as many people as possible play for years and that are remembered forever.” Indeed, they have lived up to their mark by introducing the concept of the Clash verse (along with 3 new games in development under the Clash verse, but unfortunately stopped the development of one). Apart from the game developments and updates they launch, they also are open about the career positions available for the general public to view and interested candidates to join the team. Supercell has also worked with other small companies and promoted their friendship through the exchange of ideas and lessons while developing games. Talk about their community interactions and you will surely be satisfied with how they respond to consumer grievances and feedback to improve their fan base.

2. Tencent

Headquartered in Shenzen, China’s Tencent has massively grown to be a massively successful and known company ever since the launch of their wild-card game PUBG Mobile (Player Unknown Battle Ground), which shocked and pushed forward the whole of the gaming industry and inspired other developers to make a similar game like PUBG, thus making battle royale a genre. Through PUBG, Tencent was and is still able to make humongous profits and buy shares of many other game-developing companies like Supercell, Riot Games and more, thereby having a stake in the companies and having connections and assistance concerning the games they develop.

Tencent as a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company has become the highest grossing in the world based on revenue. It has bought the shares of Riot Games, the developers of famous games on PC Valorant and League of Legends. Also holds shares in Activision|Blizzard developed games like Call of Duty, and DOTA 2. During the development of the mobile version of the first-person shooter Call of Duty, Tencent’s subsidiary company TiMi studios were responsible for giving a helping hand in making the Battle Royale mode and sharing its mechanics.

3. Gameloft

This French video game publisher based in Paris, now acquired by media conglomerate Vivendi and a subsidiary of Vivendi, has been known for its famous Asphalt and Modern Combat series. Also consists of two other games under the category of endless runner i.e Minion Rush and Spiderman endless, and an open-world game series that gives you the vibes of the famed Grand Theft Auto but as a lite version of it suitable to run on smartphones i.e Gangstar Vegas, Gangstar New Orleans and Gangstar Rio.

The Asphalt and the Modern Combat series fetched a great amount of revenue as they earned through the number of downloads which ranged from 50 million to 100 million+ downloads. This is one of the main factors that can trace the earnings of Gameloft. Another reason which allowed them to earn profits was because of their freemium model of revenue generation whereby they provided the best experience of racing and shooter via these series for free and charged for additional content (premium cars and their skins for Asphalt and premium guns and characters for Modern Combat). Moreover, they provided offline parts of either of these series i.e Modern Combat 3 and 4 and Asphalt Nitro and Airborne which attracts offline gamers which is a majority including online gamers who prefer playing offline simultaneously.  Asphalt 8 is at the #4 top grossing in racing.

4.  Miniclip

Launched in 2001 as a browser game website, headquartered in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Miniclip initially started developing small games for PC. Being another subsidiary of Tencent, it has gained popularity on the mobile platform too. Games like Mini Militia and 8 Ball Pool are the two famous Miniclip games on mobile, ranging from stunning 100-500 million+ downloads. Mini Militia is a competitive stylised 2D shooter game where you control your doodle character, fly jetpacks and shoot your enemies on various maps. 8 Ball pool is the game of billiards played online. 

Mini Militia and 8 Ball pool together, due to the number of downloads can earn huge revenue. In addition to the downloads, their Freemium model also allows them to excel in gathering a fan base. At the moment, 8 Ball Pool is at #2 top grossing sports and Mini Militia is at #10 top free action, in an obvious grossing stage in their particular genres. 

5. EA games

This company has been one of the earliest successful game developers to create games with vivid graphics which were known to be ahead of its time. EA (Electronic Arts) Inc. headquartered in Redwood City, California is well known for creating sports games i.e FIFA series, and the NBA series and known for making their very own racing games on PC i.e Need for Speed series. Their desktop titles appear on their very own developed digital platform called Origin and compete with Steam and Epic Games store.

When it comes to the mobile platform, they are excelling in their fan base due to the vivid experience offered to them. The only issue with EA games is that they charge a price for their premium games, not following the freemium model of revenue generation. PC titles like Need for Speed have come to mobile i.e Need for Speed: Most Wanted (premium) while Need for Speed: No limits is a new free-to-play series, only on mobile which is actively developed by Firemonkeys Studios (creators of Real Racing 3). Speak of FPS shooter, Apex Legends is a recent launch, which includes the competitive Battle Royale mode which is in direct competition with Activision’s Call of Duty, based on the level of graphics and the ultramodern equipment usage and infrastructure in-game. 

They acquired many small games and polished their looks and launched under their brand after buying their companies. One such example of a popular offline game on PC was Plants Vs Zombies by PopCap games, which was playable only on PC after which they developed, polished it to suit mobile and developed two more games under this title i.e Plant Vs Zombies 2 and Plants Vs Zombies: Heroes. Indeed, they lived up to their mark of optimising the gaming experience on mobile to make it feel like any other console game, and they are respected for that. However they achieve success and increase their fan base, the only issue with them is their greed for money which they charge on their premium games and costly items in the freemium games, and the mobile market players would likely not buy their games, which will hamper their growth.

Written by: Kirsten Kenneth