"Instant gratification" is winning, but quality can trump - Eno
The late, great Kenji Eno believed that the "instant gratification" offered by mobile games could only be beaten by making games people would set aside time for.
In a 2010 interview belatedly published by Kotaku, Eno expressed his thoughts on mobile gaming, which was even then dominating the Japanese industry and has only grown internationally in the intervening years.
"Anything that will allow you to access what you want ten seconds after you think of it will win,” he said.
"Instant gratification, quick and easy accessibility, things you can use to kill time in an instant - these sorts of things are what are winning now. I don’t really like these kinds of games, but everyone makes their own choices, for better or worse.”
It seems Eno might have fallen in the "worse" camp, because when asked what kinds of games he'd make if he had the choice, he seemed ready to go back to making hardcore adventures, like his horror titles D and Enemy Zero.
“I think adventure games are ‘displaced’ compared to modern day games. If that’s the case, then I’d want to make something even more displaced," he said.
"It’s because people make half-baked games that users think ‘In this day and age, why do I have to sit in front of the TV for 2 hours? It’s better to make a something that’ll make people think, ‘I’ve got to take time this weekend to play this game.’ If you keep trying to make something ‘quick and easy,’ you’ll never beat the mobile market.”
Kotaku has squirrelled out and translated several other interesting comments from the lauded creator, so do click through and have a read.
In addition to his hardcore adventure games, Eno was something of a pioneer of accessible gaming; he designed Real Sound after learning that visually impaired players were interested in his games. He passed away in February at the age of 42, of heart failure related to high blood pressure.