[HariVP]

The controls are wacky and performance is a joke compared to the PC or console.

[Mashiro]

I've never really been playing games on mobile phones other than a bit of Temple Run or Subway Surfer some years ago (actually this two games have proper phone controls for touch screen control).

However playing all other games that involve complex actions such as moving, jumping and possibly looking around and even shooting at the same time (GTA for example or a lot of other combat/shooter games) are horrible to play on mobile phones. I even used a PS4 controller but generally the support for controllers is rather poor and mapping of the controls properly isn't even always possible without root. Also the input lag of a PS4 controller on a Android phone is really bad compared to the actual PS4 console with its controller.

Performance is not a subject I'm going to comment or judge about. I only want to say that it depends a lot on the device power and how good the game has been optimized when it was programmed. I tried Grand Theft Auto on several devices and couldn't ever get it to work as well as on a computer. Other games work very well even on lowend devices.

Generally however I'm absolutely against gaming on phones or tablets. Although Temple Run, Subway Surfer, 2048 and similar games are a great deal if you want to kill times. As always such casual games are good no matter where and how you play them.

[deanhills]

I'd say from a practical point of view that it has to be much more fun to use a Desktop Computer for playing Games - you've got so much more space, and "power" over tools and you can really enjoy the games much more.  But then maybe there are Games and Games and Phones and Phones.  People have become so addicted to their phones, possibly there are games now being designed for use with phones.  Emphasis should be on the game has to have been designed for the phone and the other way round, as trying to play a game that has been designed to be played on a Desktop Computer with power tools, would logically not work for a phone, particularly a phone that lacks in specs and tools for playing the games that have been designed for a desktop computer.

[LightDestory]

Nowadays Mobile Gaming is the heaven for developers, you can develop a game without high standards and if it become popular you will get a lot of money thanks for in-app purchases. You don't need to look for a platform to publish it, you have already Play Store & AppStore, almost every API is already up and tested. I have to say that develop for Apple is the last thing I would wish for. I am an anti-Apple but I stop here my complains because it is not thread-related.

Every year we read news about "new plus ultra" smartphone dedicated to Mobile Gaming: Razer phone, ROG phone, BlackShark phone. But what makes them different?

• Additional accessories such as controllers and FANs (I am not joking, ROG phone has a FAN plugable to "cool" the back-cover).
  
• High refresh rate display: to 90Hz to 120Hz.
  
• Huge amount of RAM (12GB?! Are they crazy? I will not run a 4K game with such data to be stored on RAM during runtime).
  
• RGB
  
• Huge battery? Who are you kidding? A game phone without charger lasts for 1 hours or a bit more.
  

So... let's analyze the points:

• Accessories? Are they serious? I can buy a "not famous" controllers from internet at 20-30€. If you are a Xbox user like me you will have a usable controllers already at home. All the controllers works over bluetooth there isn't any special profile that identify a specific model. (Well, Xbox controllers have a hardware ID). The problems is the mapping. VERY FEW GAMES fully supports controllers input. Without root you can't use external software to map your controllers. MOREOVER Google is restricting the APIs that mappers uses to emulate the "touch of screen". THESE ACCESSORIES ARE OFTEN NOT INCLUDED ON THE PHONE BOX, THEY ARE A EXTRA PURCHASE.
  
• A useless feature that consumes more battery and stress the phone. Recently a news reported the "a famous game locked down the Hz frequency". Moreover only few games are suitable for this features, games such as racing. Other games doesn't display so much data and movements that needs a high refresh rate. We are using a _max_size_of6.8_inch_display, do you play games with your eyes sticked on the phone?
  
• My current phone has more RAM then my laptop that I use to develop and study. Why so much RAM? Android doesn't take that much. There isn't game with 4K graphics that needs to be preloaded on RAM to be played. Do you need 100 apps on background? If so, don't complain about battery life!
  
• RGB? No comment. I will tell the true: "RGB doesn't help to get more FPS". I hope this true will reach also the PC world. It is crazy that a RAM with a voltage of 12V... uses 8V  for RGB and 4 for the hardware.
  
• So, if you own a gaming phone and use it often to play there are 2 chances: 1) You live with a powerbank 2) You use fast charging. The main point is: gaming phone will kill your battery faster then normal. How many recharge cycles a gaming phone gets in less then a month compared to a "no gaming phone".
  

To resume gaming phone are a side effect of the big spread of mobile gaming. Their support is awful: razer phone and rog phone forums are FULL OF COMPLAINS due to lack of support after-market.

Speaking form my view as developer I can't say that I will not try to ship my projects to mobile, I need money and mobile games are a easy way to get them.

[GodLikeGill]

If we talked about this same topic few years ago , My answer would be very simple and straight forward which would be No , Mobile phones are not made for gaming , But now with the advancement in technology , So many companies are focusing especially on the gaming aspects in mobile phones , especially the gain in popularity of PUBG Mobile , which has gotten not only Children but adults addicted to games , Recently with ASUS ROG Gaming phones mainly focusing for gaming on mobile , not only the mobile phone themselves but so many accessories to attach to your phone to make your gaming experience better. Gaming on mobile is a thing now , and we prob don't realize but there are so many competitive tournaments for Mobile games , for example , Clash Royale , PUBG mobile , CoC , and many more we aren't even aware of, just take a look at PUBG tournaments people are going crazy for them , Millions of $Prize pool , Just like Gaming on any other console or computer , Gaming on mobile is taken huge steps and coming closer and popular.

[Rzarcasm]

The controls are wacky and performance is a joke compared to the PC or console.

I have personally never liked mobile 'phone' gaming, but I really enjoy gaming on the tablet. Candy Crush, Bejeweled, and other games that don't require much run very smooth and vividly. Love it!

Also I sort of like massively multiplayer online role-playing games on the phone because they are extremely interactive. Some of the offline games are fun and they require less battery juice, while these multiplayer games require a lot more in most cases.
I currently play:
GROW STONE ONLINE.
ORDER & CHAOS 2: REDEMPTION.
TEON
ARCANE LEGENDS
ARCUS ONLINE
DUNGEON HUNTER 5

[adgod]

Mobile phones *were* not made for gaming. But after the sudden rise of the battle royale genre and its low setup requirements, it has become for mobiles. Nowadays mobiles are being made for gaming. Who needs 4gb ram in their phones?

[tryp4vps]

I think it depends on how powerful your mobile phone is.

If your phone is relatively low-end, of course it cannot be used for playing complex mobile games. But now most average-quality phones can play many different types of mobile games smoothly.

[rudra]

i dont know if playing chess on mobile is gaming on mobile. haha

I tried playing a lot of popular games on other peoples request mostly, but for at most a whole day or two. I only love chess, go and monopoly.

I play on lichess and chess.com android apps when i feel like i need to unwind. Yes, i have some other chess related free programs for training and learning too. But never had much time to delve in them. Also I would like to mention that Lichess and chess.com handles rank and score a bit differently. Lichess is more forgiving to the new players as they use a normalized scoring and not the standard system. But chess.com uses the system used in real chess competitions. So if you have say 1400 rating on lichess, your real rating will be below that and in case of a 1400 rated on chess.com player against you, you will have higher probability to lose.

That is almost all the experience i have about mobile gaming so far. So from my point of view, yes, you can game on mobiles and it is great.

Heck, i sometimes develop sites on mobile with my bluetooth keyboard now.

[adgod]

@rudra that's what mobile games were meant to be, a mere time pass between work and not an actual platform for gaming.
Now mobile gaming is actually becoming a platform as newer and better hardware is introduced and popular titles are being ported to mobiles. It will also directly effect the sales of the android phone market.