Qualcomm Embraces the Goldilocks Approach to Mobile Gaming
Since the days of Pong and Space Invaders, gaming has evolved from rudimentary pixelated visuals to immersive cinematic experiences. Now, mobile devices are poised to make even bigger strides in the industry.
Qualcomm is making a bid to be inside game-focused handhelds across the price spectrum with its Snapdragon G series. This intelligent, Goldilocks-like strategy enables the company to satisfy multiple segments and consumer needs in the market.
Genres and Genre Players
Genres are categories that video games fall under, allowing them to be easily classified and recognised. This makes it easier for gamers to discover what kinds of games they enjoy, and for others to find out what sort of games they might like to play. Putting a game into a genre does not imply that it is mediocre or boring; in fact, many of the most popular games are genre titles.
The majority of mobile devices sold are used for gaming, and this trend continues to grow. While PCs and consoles still receive the most press, mobile devices are well-positioned to continue growing in popularity for gaming due to their accessibility, affordability, portability, diverse game libraries, and ever-changing capabilities.
One way that this shift is happening is through advances in mobile technology, such as the Snapdragon series of processors. These processors allow smartphones and handhelds to achieve desktop-like performance, which makes them a more compelling platform for gaming than previous generations of hardware.
Snapdragon chips are found in a wide range of handheld devices, from less expensive devices that focus on streaming games to flagship handhelds with high-end features, such as augmented reality. Qualcomm’s portfolio of Snapdragon processors allows them to capture a substantial portion of the mobile gaming market.
Casual games are designed for short bursts of play, usually as a break from other activities or to provide an easy way to relax. They are typically boldly coloured, have simple controls and an intuitive interface, and provide a good balance of reward to time investment that keeps people coming back for more.
Logic games involve solving simple logic puzzles, often with a narrative element, and are popular for their ease of use. They are often free-to-play, and the best ones provide a good balance of rewards for playing time invested.
4X games are a type of strategy video game that has four primary goals: explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. These types of games can be either turn-based or real-time, and they often cover a long historical period such as Sid Meier’s Civilization or a science fiction setting such as Stardock’s Master of Orion or Monolith Soft’s Galactic Civilizations series.
The Goldilocks Approach
Once upon a time, there was an ambitious mobile gaming founder who wanted to try out all sorts of genres in order to figure out where the money was in the industry. She started by trying hyper casual. It seemed lots of investors were pushing money into the sector, and she saw some big exits by hyper casual game publishers.
But she soon realized that wasn’t the right approach. While hyper casual was great for getting attention, it wasn’t very profitable for a lot of the gamers who played it. She quickly figured out that she needed to create a more engaging experience if she was going to attract a loyal following and make some serious cash.
To do this, she had to build a new kind of game that combined the best of both worlds. It had to be a little more challenging than a traditional mobile game, but also more immersive and visually appealing than an average mobile video. This led her to build a title that blended elements of platform, shooter, and RPG games with some of the functionality of social media apps. The result was a game that was both fun to play and highly profitable.
With smartphones continuing to close in on console and PC capabilities, the market is now split between three primary device types for gaming: smartphones, tablets, and dedicated gaming handhelds. The latter category is where Qualcomm sees the bulk of gaming revenue growth.
For its part, the chipmaker is broadening its lineup of processors for dedicated gaming handhelds to better address the different segments and needs within this market. Its top-of-the-line G3x Gen 2 chipsets are intended to offer the whizziest features and performance, and they’ve reached the reference design stage—a hybrid of proof-of-concept and a tool provided to manufacturers to aid them in the creation of their products.
On the other hand, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon G1 processors will be used in devices at the low end of this spectrum (presumably under $200) that are primarily designed to stream games from the cloud, much like PlayStation’s Portal—formerly Project Q—is simply a convenient remote way to play games running on your PS5. Finally, the company is using its Snapdragon 8 and 8+ processors to power dedicated gaming handhelds that can take advantage of services such as Nvidia’s GeForce Now.
The Right Genre for the Right Device
The Goldilocks approach to mobile gaming allows Qualcomm to satisfy the various categories and consumer demands within the handheld device market. Its Snapdragon G series is designed to power game-focused handhelds that range from inexpensive cloud-only devices to portable powerhouses. The latest chip, the G3x Gen 2, is optimized for top-tier games that may generate excess heat and features active cooling to minimize thermal impact on the system. It also offers haptic feedback to enhance the immersive experience, game upscaling for improved graphical fidelity, and XR glasses tethering to enable extended virtual reality experiences.
In the entry-level segment, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon G1 is a processor that is made to support streaming games locally over Wi-Fi or 5G. It supports minimal input lag and runs on a battery-friendly Wi-Fi 5 design, allowing the device to run for longer than traditional mobile phones without sacrificing performance or compromising battery life. It is designed to handle high-resolution games and HD video streaming at up to 30 frames per second.
For the higher-end of this segment, the Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 has a CPU that is more than twice as fast as the previous iteration, and a GPU that is over 30% faster. The company claims that this new processor achieves a 20% increase in framerates in the most popular AAA mobile games, and scores better on Genshin Impact, Geekbench, and other graphics benchmarks than its predecessor. It also supports two 3,000mAh batteries for extended play time, and extensible storage to accommodate larger game files.
While PCs and consoles get the most media attention, smartphones are well-positioned to acquire popularity for gaming thanks to their accessibility, affordability, portability, diverse game libraries, and dynamic nature of the gaming market. Qualcomm’s new lineup of Android-based, streaming-focused chipsets will give device makers more choices to create the ultimate gaming handhelds that fit this trend.
As for Nintendo, Van Dreunen believes that the company has no reason to follow the pack and join this mobile gaming dance, particularly when its own strategy worked so well with the Wii a few years ago. The Japanese giant is more likely to continue marching to its own drumbeat, he says, focusing on niches such as the handheld gaming market where it can leverage the advantages that its game-development expertise and strong brand offer.
The Right Genre for the Right Time
One of the biggest challenges for game makers is deciding what type of games to build. The LTV potential and the time to positive ROAS both play a role in choosing what genre to build in. Let’s use the story of Goldilocks to illustrate this point.
First, it’s important to find a niche in the market that can grow to become profitable. That means avoiding games that will be commoditized, or played by everyone, and instead finding a genre that has the right balance of gameplay, monetization opportunities, and audience. Next, the game must be developed for the right type of device. This means balancing the needs of mobile devices with the requirements of console and PC gaming machines.
Finally, the game must be developed at the right time. The right time is when the game has a lot of traction in the marketplace and a large enough audience to make it profitable. That’s why it is so important to be aware of the trends in the gaming industry and plan accordingly.
To help developers get the most out of their games, Qualcomm provides them with a variety of tools. The company has a suite of GPU SDKs to help them design and optimize games, profiling tools to measure performance, and hardware development kits. Additionally, the company has a number of networking technologies for low-latency and high-performance wireless connectivity.
Qualcomm is making a big push into the nascent specialised handheld gaming market with its Snapdragon G series. It has three chips to cover a range of price points and features. The G1 is designed for low priced devices that are primarily focused on streaming games from the cloud or other devices. The G2 adds support for XR glass tethering and the latest Bluetooth versions, while the flagship G3x is intended for devices with a more whizzy feature set.
At the moment, the specialised gaming handheld market is dominated by AMD and Qualcomm processors. The pricey Xbox Series X|S and PS5 gaming consoles, and handhelds like the Valve Steam Deck and new Asus ROG Ally, all use AMD’s Ryzen processors. However, Qualcomm’s G3x Gen 2 chip is a contender for the top spot in these systems. It’s been used in a reference design for the Razer Edge handheld, and is expected to be used in other devices with XR capabilities.
