Once thought of as a novelty not worthy of any serious consideration, mobile entertainment has grown to become an industry worth billions. Existing in no small part as a natural extension of technological evolution, the last decade has seen dozens of examples of mobile entertainment making great leaps towards the success of more traditional forms of access.
Yet, despite these advancements, there are many instances where mobile entertainment is begging to plateau. So why does this occur so commonly in areas like movies and gaming, while games like bingo succeed?
The New Online Bingo
Having been a mainstay in the online casino space since the late 90s, bingo is no stranger to the World Wide Web. In its more recent incarnations, however, bingo has advanced significantly in terms of the range of gameplay and ease of access.
Today, online bingo has a wide range of themes and buy-ins, from titles like Deal or No Deal, Jackpots Drop Room, and Helter Skelter. Fully playable and streamlined on mobiles, these cross a bridge where many other forms of entertainment struggle, so why is this?
What Holds Mobile Movies and Gaming Back?
This question very much depends on the form of entertainment we’re looking at, with different avenues producing different inhibiting factors. For media such as movies and videos, this problem is largely one of screen size. As great as mobiles can be for smaller videos, their lack of visual real-estate can be real killers when it comes to more involved shows.
This is simply because mobile screens aren’t large enough to display all that we need to see or all that filmmakers intended us to see. Even increases in resolution won’t help in this regard, as a hard limit on screen size isn’t really possible to overcome.
Bingo avoids this issue by never requiring significant amounts of visual data to be relayed. All that digital bingo needs to show are bingo cards alongside chat rooms and callout information, all of which can easily fit on a well-designed UI. In other words, the problems which will only grow more pronounced in videos and movies have no reason to ever occur with bingo games.
In traditional video gaming, this same concept applies, with additional issues making the experience even more problematic. In video games, the other major issue is that of input limitations. Over time, traditional video games have evolved to controllers with dozens of tactile buttons, or all the keys you can manage on PC.
While many of the same games that exist on PC and console are coming to mobile, the same can’t be said about how easily these control on original systems. Cramped touch-controls on mobile can massively inhibit enjoyment, which is why Bluetooth controllers are becoming popular as more people realize that in some cases, traditional hard buttons work better. This is, however, an issue that bingo sidesteps.
For bingo, a player doesn’t need dozens of buttons, and they don’t need the precision that tactile systems present. Control is simple, easily done with even the slowest and most unresponsive touch screens, and this gives bingo a serious edge. Like with movies, this is a problem that’s insurmountable on a straight touch interface in gaming, while bingo escapes unscathed.
Though these developments paint bingo as having clear advantages, it’s worth noting that this synergy of bingo games and mobiles was largely accidental. Bingo happened to be one of the forms of entertainment that could translate to mobile well, and with expert implementation, it succeeded like few forms of entertainment could.
While it’s possible that movies and video games will see improvements to overcome their issues in the future, the hard boundaries on their use could indicate ultimate stopping points. As for how this could affect the future trajectory of each of these industries, only time will tell.