Why don't more console games get Android ports?

[DaltonM]

We've seen Nintendo and Capcom doing some of these for Nvidia, mainly in China or other regions. Square has been overpricing their older games on mobile for a while. But my question is, where are the PS2+ games? 

Earlier, I was playing GameCube games on my phone with Dolphin. Metroid Prime 1 runs almost perfectly. I can only imagine what a true port would be like. 

Xbox One S controllers now support Android, same with Android 10 and Switch Pro. Razer is making $100 joycons for 2018 phones.

 

My note 10+ has a bigger screen, and when paired with xbox one s controller, it plays Minecraft and most of my other games better than my switch could. 

 

So that leads to my question? Why don't we have Dark Souls Remastered, Final Fantasy X-X2 remastered, Monkey Ball etc on Android?

 

I would pay big money for these games natively on my phone. Until then, I'm steam linking

[Enderman]

Because it's a lot of work.

[vanished]

not only that ^, but they probably feel the market isn't ready for it.  Mobile people aren't used to paying for games, at least not much, so expensive, "fuller" titles might not be well received.  People looking for said titles are also used to going elsewhere and probably want those things on other platforms and not phones.

[minibois]

The interface of many games is just not made for phones, plus not everyone has a controller that will work with their phone...

The people who want this will already know about emulation, so there is not a huge market either

[PlayStation 2]

Really isn't a big market for it outside of, well, China.

Why waste your time trying to get the Chinese version of Super Mario Galaxy (for example) running on a Shield when you can just set up Dolphin on the Shield and do so? Or, more accurately, use a PC for it and up the resolution more than what the hardware of a Shield will allow?

[amdorintel]

they wont make no money from it!

[Kawaii Koneko]

Well, let me ask you this. Have you ever bought any of the existing PC and console ports on mobile?

[kokakolia]

On 11/11/2019 at 1:36 AM, Ryan_Vickers said:

not only that ^, but they probably feel the market isn't ready for it.  Mobile people aren't used to paying for games, at least not much, so expensive, "fuller" titles might not be well received.  People looking for said titles are also used to going elsewhere and probably want those things on other platforms and not phones.

2 counter examples: 

 

- Minecraft 

- Stardew Valley

 

These games weren’t free. But they weren’t expensive either. Around $20 or less. 
 

Furthermore, people already buy retro games on the Switch for that kind of money. 
 

My gripe with mobile is the interface. I don’t like touch screens. Gimme buttons. That’s why I think something like a Nintendo Switch is good for retro gaming. 

[Otto_iii]

Besides the market not being ready most people don't have phones that can outperform a nintendo switch, most people get a phone with a nice enough screen, good battery, good reception, maybe a good camera, and at best watch youtube/netflix etc on it and keep it for 5+ years, most people still have phones from 2015-2017.  Running a youtube app is way easier then a dark souls port, hell even stardew valley or minecraft


Also realistically, nothing against mobile gamers, but most people don't enjoy normal games on mobile that much.  Simple card games, gacha games, candy crush etc sure, but racing, fps, action, adventure etc? its not as fun as with a Mouse+Keyboard or a Controller.  Yeah you can get a controller for a phone but do you expect all those people with 5+ year old phones that can bearly run contacts+youtube+discord/skype at the same time to run out and buy one if they already have a computer or a console, and if most Mobile-Controllers are either pricy, or cheaper but of potentially sketchy build quality. 

I could see a case for it becoming a thing in the future when even the cheapest phones are like yours, roughly on the level of a nintendo switch, but until then, and until there are more proven, well know mobile-controllers, it just doesn't make sense.  

note:
 

Spoiler

I know nothing of modern mobile controllers besides their previous reputation of being rather mediocre compared to something like a switch etc, i could be hugely wrong, maybe the 40$ Steel Series ones are fantastic, but its a big unknown for me, and id imagine most other people who already own devices to game on

 

[kokakolia]

@Otto_iiiI believe that most phones can do PS1 quality games already. And that opens up a lot of games. But the touch screen interface just ruins the experience entirely. I cannot imagine having fun playing Tekken on my mobile. Just no!  

[IAmAndre]

On 11/11/2019 at 12:36 AM, Ryan_Vickers said:

not only that ^, but they probably feel the market isn't ready for it.  Mobile people aren't used to paying for games, at least not much, so expensive, "fuller" titles might not be well received.  People looking for said titles are also used to going elsewhere and probably want those things on other platforms and not phones.

Well being able to play AAA titles on your phone is one of the marketing arguments behind Stadia and game streaming services in general. I'm personally much more interested in playing mobile versions of such titles that are perfectly adapted to phones than carrying a controller with me and relying on the internet speed where I am. I'm also too lazy to install an emulator and stuff and I know that many people are.

[Bramimond]

Not even Visual Novels get ported over to mobile and that's something that would make a lot more sense, since reading on your phone is more comfortable than reading on your PC. Possibly a storage issue, but really, I just think the market hasn't been discovered yet. And also the Google store sucks in all kinds of ways. But if someone would make their own shop it could take off.

 

[lufihengr]

On 11/18/2019 at 1:19 PM, kokakolia said:

2 counter examples: 

 

- Minecraft 

- Stardew Valley

 

These games weren’t free. But they weren’t expensive either. Around $20 or less. 
 

Furthermore, people already buy retro games on the Switch for that kind of money. 
 

My gripe with mobile is the interface. I don’t like touch screens. Gimme buttons. That’s why I think something like a Nintendo Switch is good for retro gaming. 

 

I don't know of stardew valley, but minecraft wasn't/isn't a port. It's a standalone game that they started developing essentially from scratch.

 

 

[Touch My Hamm]

The way I view alot of mobile gaming is that they want free games with microtransactions as it allows for a continuous influx of income for the product. Also most mobile games have alot less budget then undertaking porting a game over to Mobile. Some ports are more passion projects and made to help promote companies more then to be BIG MONEY MAKING APPS. I would think most companies do not see a way to monetize outside the initial sale on mobile which defeats the mobile platforms strongest asset to companies making mobile games. 

[Zodiark1593]

On 11/19/2019 at 5:13 AM, Otto_iii said:

Besides the market not being ready most people don't have phones that can outperform a nintendo switch, most people get a phone with a nice enough screen, good battery, good reception, maybe a good camera, and at best watch youtube/netflix etc on it and keep it for 5+ years, most people still have phones from 2015-2017.  Running a youtube app is way easier then a dark souls port, hell even stardew valley or minecraft


Also realistically, nothing against mobile gamers, but most people don't enjoy normal games on mobile that much.  Simple card games, gacha games, candy crush etc sure, but racing, fps, action, adventure etc? its not as fun as with a Mouse+Keyboard or a Controller.  Yeah you can get a controller for a phone but do you expect all those people with 5+ year old phones that can bearly run contacts+youtube+discord/skype at the same time to run out and buy one if they already have a computer or a console, and if most Mobile-Controllers are either pricy, or cheaper but of potentially sketchy build quality. 

:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

I know nothing of modern mobile controllers besides their previous reputation of being rather mediocre compared to something like a switch etc, i could be hugely wrong, maybe the 40$ Steel Series ones are fantastic, but its a big unknown for me, and id imagine most other people who already own devices to game on

 

The Snapdragon 820 is about on par or faster than the Tegra X1 as configured for the docked Switch (note:, Tegra X1 at full speed still outpaces the SD 820 in GPU). Mid range phones today should be faster. Though granted, certain foreign markets probably stick to low end devices.

 

On 11/22/2019 at 6:03 AM, kokakolia said:

@Otto_iiiI believe that most phones can do PS1 quality games already. And that opens up a lot of games. But the touch screen interface just ruins the experience entirely. I cannot imagine having fun playing Tekken on my mobile. Just no!  

We're well past PS3/360 levels of performance (both cpu and gpu) with devices even a few years old now. Amusingly, I found PS1 emulation to be a lot easier to set up on Android than on PC. Audio is hugely important to my experience, and I suppose flawless, low latency audio requires a lot of brute force that my Atom tablet simply can't provide (and even my desktop stutters every now and then).

[Otto_iii]

hey that is awesome, i'd love to play something like forza 3/4 or similar on my phone, would legit make my day. Good to hear some decent controllers exist, but now that i know all this, still got the issue i nore most people have phones like that *yet*

one can hope maybe if it does become a thing, and crossplay remains a high concern for developers, this may also mean we can see a revolution of games that can run extremely well on low-spec computers, which would be a dream of mine as its only good for PC Gaming even if it initially services mobile etc market

[kokakolia]

@Otto_iii It ain't Forza, far from it. But this is mindblowingly cool.

 

 

Maybe you could run Forza 1 or 2 through a similar method?

 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

On 11/10/2019 at 4:15 PM, DaltonM said:

So that leads to my question? Why don't we have Dark Souls Remastered, Final Fantasy X-X2 remastered, Monkey Ball etc on Android?

Well let me pick on these three for instance

• Dark Souls: How do you play this game without a controller and making touch controls bearable? You can't assume people have a controller to play with and forcing people to use one severely limits the pool of people who can play it
• FF X/X-2: I can see making the controls easier since you don't really need a lot of buttons and whatnot, but asking someone to play a game with a UI designed around a console is going to be frustrating. You'd have to redesign the UI to make it work on a touch device.
• Monkey Ball: The only one that makes sense considering the game is based around tilting, which phones have tilt sensors.

Outside of the control issue, there's another problem: some of these games may not be readily available for porting. Especially in older games where some developers may not even have the source code in a readily available format. Or what they have is too esoteric for Android or iOS to work with, so they'd have to basically start from scratch.

[wolfxtr3m]

On 11/24/2019 at 12:20 PM, Bramimond said:

Not even Visual Novels get ported over to mobile and that's something that would make a lot more sense, since reading on your phone is more comfortable than reading on your PC. Possibly a storage issue, but really, I just think the market hasn't been discovered yet. And also the Google store sucks in all kinds of ways. But if someone would make their own shop it could take off.

 

I would love for visual novels to get ported, I had only played sepia tears on my old phone, couldn't find many for android *Sad*