Tim Axon, Head of Gaming at Maxymiser, discusses the importance of ensuring optimisation fits with the fast changing mobile gaming experience.
Mobile dominates every aspect of online activity right now. Yet despite being relatively early to the party, some gaming companies are barely achieving 50% of revenue via mobile. At the same time, innovative mobile only platforms are gaining huge swathes of market share by delivering a quality and consistency of customer experience that outshines those companies still reliant upon ageing mobile platforms.
Add with the huge impact of the Point of Consumption tax which is drastically undermining profitability and leaving many of the smaller to medium sized players feeling extremely vulnerable to aggressive acquisition from overseas players, and the pressure is on to exploit new mobile technologies to transform the quality of the gaming experience irrespective of platform or device.
From App testing – both native and hybrid – to responsive design and the growing use of new JavaScript frameworks such as ReactJS and AngularJS, Tim Axon, Head of Gaming, Maxymiser outlines the importance of ensuring optimisation fits with the fast changing mobile gaming experience.
Market Pressure
Has the mobile revolution taken some gaming companies by surprise? While there is no doubt that the gaming market in general was pretty early to recognise consumer desire to interact via a multitude of platforms, the latest generation of mobile only gaming platforms have stolen market share in an unprecedented fashion, sending waves through the industry. With an oversubscribed marketplace, unmanageable competition and the new UK tax requirements fuelling mergers and acquisition, right now, the ability to deliver a great mobile experience may make the difference between staying in business and disappearing altogether.
Today the divergence in quality of experience being offered to consumers is significant. Some companies have gone the native App route, creating an entirely separate mobile App to the desktop or mobile site; others have opted for a hybrid model that wraps the mobile website in an App and creates an experience that is consistent however the consumer decides to interact.
Either way, it is possible to optimise the customer experience. However, while with a native App that process is disconnected from the rest of the web optimisation activity, with a hybrid model, it is essentially business as usual: a company can optimise every aspect of the customer journey, from promotions to registration, as before in order to improve overall customer value.
Responsive Model
Of course, looking ahead, most companies are planning a responsive website, taking away the whole ‘mobile versus desktop’ debate by automatically resizing/reshaping the website to reflect the device being used. However, responsive design itself creates new technology challenges – not least the issue of page load times on mobile devices. As a result, growing numbers of innovative web designers are experimenting with new JavaScript frameworks and libraries such as ReactJS and AngularJS which essentially transform the speed by ‘preloading’ pages.
These new JavaScript libraries, however, in turn cause another new challenge: how can web developers continue to optimise the customer journey and experience if the pages are preloaded? Optimisation tools essentially rely on the page load process to prompt the presentation of new content – with this preloaded model it is now essential for the optimisation toolset to be tightly integrated with the new JavaScript technologies to enable the optimisation process.
Pace of Change
This is a phenomenal change in mind set and technologies. While, in essence, all of these changes – from hybrid Apps to responsive design to new JavaScript frameworks – are designed to improve the consistency and quality of the consumer experience across any device, this is a huge step forward in technological innovation.
Organisations need to create an architecture that is fit for purpose for the next five years – and that means ensuring that every aspect of the technology hangs together. Does a native App really fit in a model that is focusing on consistent experience? Does responsive design really work for consumers if the page load is too slow on mobile devices? And can the optimisation tools that are essential for improving the quality of the customer journey work with the latest generation of JavaScript technologies?
2015 is set to be a tumultuous year for the gaming industry, not least as the true implication of the Point of Consumption tax is revealed. With traditional customer acquisition methods no longer financially viable, companies need to make every single interaction count. It is those gaming companies that take the right technology steps over the next few months that will be set fair for the next few years; the rest may well find themselves consumed in the mobile revolution fall out.
By Tim Axon
Head of Gaming
Maxymiser