A little while ago, we wrote about how the current wave of high end smartphones and tablets hitting the market could possibly signal the end of the gaming console. Looks like Juniper Research analysts agree with our theory – a report predicts that, by 2017, mobile devices will become our preferred gaming accessory instead of our Xbox’s and PS’s.
According to this report, 64.1 billion downloads of games would happen in 2017, which is three times higher than the figure for 2012. However, only 7 percent of this figure would be paid for – advertizing would end up making game developers richer.
This transition towards mobile devices could also encourage the development of more complex games with multi-platform compatibility, all thanks to the cloud. In addition, the increasing storage capacity in mobile devices would also encourage users to download more games.
However, Juniper says that this wouldn’t necessarily banish the likes of Wii, PS, and Xbox, even if their sales could see a drastic decline by 2017. Social and casual games would be the most downloaded kinds of games.
