After thoroughly reviewing Playphone, I'm a little upset I didn't hear about them sooner. The mobile market for gaming has grown beyond what any gamer 10 years ago could have imagined, and is the single largest platform for gaming far surpassing any console of computer. The problem with tapping into the more "hardcore" gamers has always been unity, and it looks like Playphone is looking to patch that. The social aspect of gaming of course comes from competition, so when you're playing online or in your living room or at your computer there's a plethora of ways to communicate and keep boast victories. On your phone, you're really only playing when you're waiting for something or between tasks. I think Playphone could become the steam of mobile gaming.
Developers- The strongest point of mobile gaming isn't the mobility at all but the independence. Indie developers started emerging strongly through steam in about 2008 and it doesn't look like they're going anywhere. Gaming is like any art and requires a variety, this is where indie devs thrive. They can break free the cookie-cutter mold of your standard first-person-shooter or racer and take low cost risks to create fresh games. The first thing on Playphone's page is support for Indie developers. If I hadn't see this, I wouldn't have even bother to dig deeper out of my own interest. Having easy support for developers early on is a make or break most of the time and although I'm not a developer can't comment on how Playphone would treat me, the notion that they're there for me is welcoming.
Marketing- Like I stated before, I had never heard about this company despite considering gaming as my defining feature. It's natural for apps and companies not to go viral just because they have a great idea, but the first result for "Playphone" on the iOS App store is a toddler game. They're not even the second result, they're the third. On Youtube their average total of views is around 35 (and I don't even think those were people looking for the game advertised). This is probably the most worrisome because game marketing spreads strongest on Youtube. Overnight games (usually indie) go viral because some Youtuber played them and recorded themself (this is called a Let's Play). Luckily, this also probably the most fixable as it's very common for developers to reach out to Youtubers and say "Hey, if you play our game, we'll give you a little money or promo codes to give out to your subscribers.
Quality Control- It's just as important to welcome developers, as it is to turn down. The first video game crash of the 80s was caused by a market flood of unoriginality and bland games. The amount of Mario clones is tragic as developers saw the popular Nintendo character's rise to success and thought they could cash in on it by making more of less the same style of game but re-skinning it with their own mascot. This lead to distrust from the consumer and lack of profits for developers. I can't tell you how often I see this in the mobile industry. As soon as Flappy-Bird came out, there were hundreds of clones trying to make a cheap buck. Knock-offs come naturally for anything successful, but they can't be asking the same price for the original. This is swamping the mobile market and snuffing out any spark that might make mobile gaming respectable. Playphone should not be marketing itself as "Millions of games" they should say "Original and Fun".
Ultimately Playphone has caught my eye and I will be looking and what else comes out of them, but if they don't pick up traction I can't say I'd be surprised if they disappeared over night.
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