As we come to the end of 2013, it's time to look back at the events that dominated the last 12 months in mobile gaming.
We've asked the industry's great and good to give their take on the last year, as well as predicting the trends that will come to pass in 2014.
Ben Cousins is the GM of Scattered Entertainment, the developer of free-to-play shooters The Drowning and Lawless, both of which launched in 2013
Pocket Gamer: What do you think was the most significant event for the mobile games industry in 2013?
Ben Cousins: Candy Crush and Clash of Clans exchanging the top grossing position on iOS for the entire year.
This further cemented that free-to-play is the only way to dominate the charts, showed a change in the center-of-gravity for western mobile game development away from the US to Europe, and it proved that we're now in the era of multiple-hundred-million-dollar mobile games.
The landscape looks extremely different from two or three years ago.
What was the most significant event for your company?
Our team at DeNA's Scattered Entertainment studio in Sweden launched two games - The Drowning and Lawless - this year.
Both games reached top ten or higher positions on the worldwide App Store top free charts, proving that there is an extremely large appetite on mobile for the previously unexplored genre of high-end, large-download, free-to-play shooters.
We have validated our studio's goal and we'll continue to work in this area.
What was your favourite mobile game of the year?
Candy Crush Saga. I spent more hours playing this game than any other game on any other platform during 2013.
People describe this game as rather casual, but if they say that they clearly haven't played it for long. When you get later into the game (I gave up at level 149) it gets extremely difficult, strategic and tremendously unforgiving.
It starts feeling like a very dark game. The opening toll of the bell when you launch the app starts to feel marvelously funereal.
People also describe the game as a rip-off of Bejeweled, which really proves they have no understanding whatsoever of the importance of metagame. Great work from King!
What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2014?
I imagine a couple of things could happen. First, we could see the same two mobile games continue to dominate the top grossing charts. This will mean that we will have our first billion dollar mobile game in the west, and we'll truly be in the era of mobile mega-companies.
The second thing that could happen is that we'll find a new unexpected super-hit in a new category, and people's understanding of what a mobile game is will be once more completely redefined.
The other idea that excites me is the possibility of an Apple TV or smart watch and a proper commercial launch for Google Glass.
All three have the potential to upend the industry once more - opening up new opportunities for new app developers and publishers.
What's your New Year's resolution and what resolution would you enforce on the industry?
My resolution is to build upon our learnings at Scattered Entertainment on The Drowning and Lawless with our team's upcoming core gamer-focused free-to-play mobile sci-fi shooter.
Everything is moving along quite nicely with the game's development. It has another new control paradigm and an innovative new metagame, and I'm looking forward to sharing more details about the game next year.
What resolution would I like to enforce on the mobile industry? Make more games I want to play! I'd like to see the metagame design of something like Candy Crush attached to genres that I like to play - shooters, platformers, driving games.
I love console games, but I don't have a slot in my schedule that allows me to play them. I want to be able to reach for my Retina Mini and play something free that works on that device, but has the appeal of a console game.
