“Mobile is going to eat and destroy PC and console gaming”

• Mobile made up 55% of mobile games market revenue in 2024, according to market intelligence firm Newzoo.
• Stray Fawn Studio's recent cross-platform release has seen a third of revenue stem from mobile.

Mobile will “eat and destroy” PC and console gaming, says Azra Games CEO Mark Otero.

The founder, who was the former GM on $1.5 billion hit Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and has raised $42 million for his latest venture, was speaking during a panel at Devcom entitled ‘2026: The Breakthrough Year for Mobile Games?’

He said many mobile phones now are equivalent or more powerful than a PS4 or Xbox One. With mobile already generating 55% of games market revenue in 2024 according to Newzoo, the ability to make better quality and higher fidelity experiences will help spark further growth at the expense of PC and console, he said.

The panel discussed why mobile is still not perhaps considered on a par with PC and console by the industry - with some top awards shows appearing to favour the latter.

Moderator Per Strömbäck, MD at Swedish games industry body Dataspelsbranschen, jokingly pushed Otero on whether he thought in order to get more respect, the industry has to make more of those high fidelity games that “snobs” will like.

Otero said while he used to be “obsessed” with editorial reviews, it doesn’t matter what writers say about your game - the distribution platform is immune to the noise.

Surprise success

Philomena Schwab, the CEO at Stray Fawn Studio, said the studio recently launched Dungeon Clawler on mobile, having focused on making PC and console titles for the previous eight to nine years. 

After being inspired by a talk given by Midjiwan CEO Christian Lövstedt at last year’s Devcom on mobile monetisation - which you can read about here - Schwab said she was inspired to try mobile.

Previously, her concerns had centred on control schemes - the team focused on mouse and keyboard design - and monetisation, as the studio has traditionally focused on premium games.

Stray Fawn decided to release cross-platform title Dungeon Crawler as a premium game on mobile - unlike Midjiwan’s DLC strategy. To date, a third of its copies have sold on mobile, “and right now it’s going better on mobile than PC”.