Now that’s what I call a feature window.
Of all the major game publishers, 2K have been the most faithful ally of the premium mobile game. That’s not to say Tammy Wynette faithful. There’s no shortage of free-to-play games coming from 2K studios, but unlike EA (who haven’t released a non-F2P game since you could smoke in restaurants), 2K have been stocking their stall with a lot of good old fashioned pay-once-get-a-game fare.
Not all of it has been brilliant, deathless stuff. Bioshock‘s controls (as we predicted) demanded too much juggling for a touchscreen, Civ Rev 2 was lacking in ambition and Starships wore out its welcome too quickly. But those are missteps I’m willing to overlook for XCOM and Ace Patrol. Of all the AAA publishing houses, only 2K seem to realize that there’s a big audience for traditionally-priced games on mobile devices.
And that strategy seems to be paying off. On their Q4 earnings call earlier this week, 2K’s parent company Take Two called out mobile as an area of excellence for the group and suggested that they’re in the mobile games fight for the forseeable future. “As mobile devices (particularly tablets) become more powerful and increasingly ubiquitous,” said CEO Strauss Zelnick, “there will be even greater opportunities to leverage our portfolio and deliver triple-A entertainment experiences to an ever wider audience.”
In case you don’t speak CEO, that means Take Two want to bring more of their brands to life on mobile devices — and in a high-spec way. Could AAA games on mobile mean that we’ll see a full-fat Civ on tablets? XCOM lead Jake Solomon said back in 2013 that 2K and Firaxis were considering it.
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