The Biggest Mobile Gaming Disappointments of 2024

Reflecting on 2024, the mobile gaming scene was quite the ride. I won’t define what kind of a ride that is, because from different perspectives, it could be thrilling, challenging, or somewhere in between, depending on where you stand. It’s amazing to see how far the industry has come, with some games genuinely breaking barriers and redefining what’s possible. But let’s not ignore the other side of the coin. There are moments where big promises fell flat, or games we had high hopes for didn’t quite deliver. I term this as “disappointments”, which often spark conversations about what could be better, pushing both developers and players to set new standards. So, as I look back at this year, there are some big Mobile Gaming Disappointments of 2024 that I want to discuss.

Farewell to Mobile Gaming favorites

Ah, I start my “disappointments” article with this section, all the time. I felt why break the trend and disappoint. My fellow writers and I have been quite busy writing game launches, updates, announcements, and everything in between. But if there’s one thing that’s been alarmingly consistent lately, it’s the number of mobile game shutdowns that pop up once in a while. It’s almost like a bittersweet routine now, covering dreams that faded too soon. We’ve been busy, yes, but not in the way we’d like.

I discussed this section in my year-in-review, but again, want to give an overview of the goodbyes for the games and studios we saw. The number of closures has only grown, which is a little daunting to think about. What makes it stand out, though, are those games that only launched recently, say BATTLE CRUSH which suspended service just months after being released in June 2024. or just a couple of years ago, only to shut down so soon. It’s a tough pill to swallow, and you can’t help but scratch your head, wondering what went wrong.

Electronic Arts is sunsetting a lot of games next year too, with some reports counting up to seven of them, majorly from their subsidiary Glu. The Simpsons: Tapped Out and UFC Mobile 2 are also coming to an end, and the latter hasn’t seen a full-fledged release. Dead By Daylight Mobile showed a lot of promise when it got relaunched under NetEase Games, but just after a year, they announced their shutdown. Another exciting game that will only run for three years is Alchemy Stars, going down early next year.

Sony also had a disappointing announcement, with the shutdown of Neon Koi and Firewalk Studios. What made it even more disappointing was that, while mobile gaming is a priority growth area for its Studio Business, the company stated that its mobile efforts are “still in the very early stages.” Even Perfect World, known for big games like Persona 5: The Phantom X and One Punch Man: World, had a series of mass layoffs with both the CEO and co-CEO resigned.

There are a few more of them that are part of this section, but I would rather stick to these. The experience of game shutdowns is always tough for both developers and players. While there could be several reasons for these decisions, it’s clear that, with so many games being launched, it’s a challenging time for the industry to keep up that creative scale.

Mobile games in a nutshell: More bad, less good

I don’t have an exact number, but one thing’s for sure: so many games are coming out every day. If the app stores could speak, they’d probably be overwhelmed by it all. Every time you check, there’s a new game, many of them just copying the same ideas or following trends. The same “money-making” genres are getting launched and it is the same old copy-pasta of titles.

Sure, it’s great to have lots of options, but how many of these games stand out? It’s like looking for something special in a huge pile of stuff. Would we want to play the 100th Clash Royale rip-off again? The answer is no every time. For every great game, tons of others just don’t make an impact. It’s all about quantity right now, not quality, and it’s starting to feel a little tiring.

Right now, it feels like it’s all about pumping out quantity, and quality takes a backseat. And honestly, it’s starting to wear on us. We want fresh ideas, something new that’ll make us stop scrolling and say, “Wow, this is different!“ Instead, it’s just the same old recycled ideas, and it’s beginning to feel more like a chore than a thrill. It is not just the player requirement, but the industry needs it.

Dreams left in the dark: Games that never saw a full launch

Oh boy. This section wasn’t supposed to be here, but somehow this year has been worse in terms of shutdown announcements even before some of us tried and tested the game.

One of the biggest stories this year was the shutdown of Clash Mini. Supercell had officially announced that they were discontinuing development for the strategy board game, with servers set to shut down in late April 2024. It was a shock in the community, especially for the fans who had grown attached to the game. The announcement sparked a massive uproar among players. Despite the backlash, Supercell stuck to their decision, though they didn’t leave fans entirely disappointed for long.

As part of their long-term strategy, they revealed plans to evolve Clash Royale into a broader strategy platform, with Clash Mini set to return as a game mode in June 2025. While it marked the end of Clash Mini as a standalone title, the game’s legacy will find a new way to live on, although this is in the future so no guarantees on that too. Whatever the decision might be, I believe Clash Mini should have been continued as a standalone.

While Clash Mini had a few glimpses for the majority of its players, a few of them were just puffs of smoke. Remember Operation Apocalypse from NetEase Games? The hype was surreal. The defunct Hyper Front was coming with a fresh look and some tweaked visuals, and we global players were looking forward to playing it. Well, the developers thought of this to be a bad idea, again, and put the game in the bin, having only allowed China players to try it.

NCSOFT’s Project M was also one of the games that got axed before it bore fruit. Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds was another title that wasn’t released, even though it has a lot of potential, leaving many disappointed they never got to try it. Limited access and an uninspired gacha-based system were cited as reasons for its downfall, but we never found out. Despite its mission-based runs and decent core gameplay, it failed to leave a lasting impression for sure.

Hey developers, if you’re reading this, here’s an idea: instead of giving up on those unfinished projects or ones you’re not sure about, why not share them with us? Let the global audience try them out. We’ll test, judge, and who knows, we might even love it. At the very least, we’ll have fun trying it, better than not playing the game at all.

When the hype didn’t deliver

Consider a movie or product you’re excited to buy. You expect something great, but when it arrives, it’s such a flop that you’d rather not talk about it. Similarly, with games, there are so many releases that at least a couple each month end up disappointing us.

Miraibo GO was one of these games that was believed to be a game changer on mobile. It was perfect on paper: Palworld-inspired brings an open-world survival experience among other interesting features. However, just after a month of release, it hit players with a shutdown notice. A copyright dispute with Nintendo, and it was all done. I tried and tested the game myself, and many aspects felt unpolished and unenjoyable. From clunky controls to lackluster graphics, the experience just didn’t capture the excitement it promised, so it fell short.

There are a few games that are still running, and despite having a strong IP backing, they ended up being flops. One such game that quickly came to mind is Age of Empires Mobile. Despite the strong brand behind it, the game failed to capture the excitement players were expecting. Apart from the presentation, everything else went wrong: from boring gameplay to mechanics that just didn’t feel engaging anymore. It was such a disappointment, instead of delivering the fun and depth that fans were hoping for, it felt flat and lacked the charm of its PC counterpart.

Another major mess of a release was COD Warzone Mobile. It’s almost comical how a giant like Activision couldn’t get it right since its release on March 21, 2024. Instead of gameplay highlights, the spotlight was stolen by an avalanche of complaints flooding social media, it’s been more of a circus than a celebration. Early players reported numerous bugs, with most complaints targeting poor graphics and optimization. The visuals were so criticized that even Arena Breakout, a competition, took a playful jab at Warzone Mobile on its poor optimization. The situation worsened to a level where the development team had to bring day one patch fixes. They are still fixing it, the game’s not Activision-level, to say the least.

One final game that was a disaster was Indus Battle Royale Mobile. If “all hype, no play” had a definition, this would be it. Sure, it had a unique approach with its gameplay mechanics, but everything else just fell apart. The graphics and visuals were subpar, and the character models and environment designs, and what we saw in the trailer never made it into the game. On top of that, the game suffered from poor optimization, making the experience even worse.

To make matters worse, the developers even struck copyrights on creators who posted “negative yet true” reviews, attempting to silence criticism. It didn’t help when the creators, SuperGaming, filed an FIR against a YouTuber over abusive content, adding even more controversy to an already disappointing release. If we had the Golden Raspberry Awards for games, Indus Battle Royale Mobile would have been a contender to win it. Still, waiting for good updates.

The workforce crunch in the industry

Won’t be sugarcoating this section. 2024 was another tough year for layoffs, with a significant number of people losing their jobs. Just like 2023, which was a disappointing year for layoffs, it turned out to be a disappointing year in this regard. I dedicated an entire article to this, covering layoffs across the gaming industry, not just mobile gaming. Each month brought more news of job cuts, and by the end, it became an exhausting trend to keep up with.

This year saw some major companies in the tech and gaming world making tough decisions when it came to their workforce. For instance, Microsoft reduced around 10,000 positions across various divisions, including gaming, as part of a larger restructuring effort. Unity also faced challenges, announcing two rounds of layoffs that affected over 1,000 employees. Even Sony, which is usually seen as a stable player, had to let go of more than 800 people while reorganizing parts of its business to adapt to a shifting market.

Not just gaming, but the overall tech industry has had an especially tough time, with huge numbers of job cuts happening throughout the year. Meta, continuing its focus on efficiency, cut more than 20,000 jobs across various departments. Google also had its fair share of layoffs, which has been going on every month now. Playtika, Twitch, and Discord are some other names that went through the same phase.

Looking forward to 2025

As the year comes to a close, it’s best to leave the negatives behind. Whatever challenges we faced this year should stay in the past. Let’s step into 2025 with a fresh mindset, ready for growth and positive changes. The coming year holds great potential for progress, especially in the industry, and just like I mentioned in my year in review, it’s bound to be a promising one. Happy New Year!

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