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Press release:
Finnish mobile game developer Critical Force develops the mobile esports shooter game Critical Ops. They have reached over 38 million downloads with one million daily active players. Critical Force has recognized the explosive success of the Battle Royale games on mobile devices. The company thinks that the success of shooter games on mobile will lead to a positive outcome for Critical Ops.

Here’s how the company sees the current situation and differences between Battle Royale games and tactical first person team shooters like Critical Ops:

Similarities
Critical Ops gameplay is based on an existing PC experience, so it is very much in the same boat as the Battle Royale games. It’s all about taking that experience and tweaking it so that it feels as smooth as possible on mobile without losing the fun and challenging elements.

With the success of Battle Royale games there is going to be an increase of players that are more familiar with the control schemes on mobile that are inherently different than on PC. This can lead to a larger influx of players to Critical Ops who are familiar with shooter games and the controls. In a while players may be looking for a more fast-paced, fair, balanced and highly competitive shooter.

Game design
The vast levels seen in Battle Royale games cause challenges to network traffic and the graphics engine. The developers must think closely how to send and show the optimal amount of data and graphics to the players.

There’s a lot more going on in the Battle Royale games. Inventories with different items, vehicles, building mechanics, etc are all things that come with the genre. All this simply requires more development in many aspects.

Battle Royale games are primarily developed PC first. This is a disadvantage for the mobile experience because game session lengths for Battle Royale games are the same on PC, consoles and mobile. This is extremely demanding for mobile phone batteries. Critical Ops has shortened session lengths from its’ peers in the PC platform somewhat but have been keeping an ear for the community who seem to want a bit longer sessions.

Esports
It’s interesting to see when the Battle Royale games will make their debut in the mobile esports scene where Critical Ops is one of the pioneering and strongest games.

Although the Battle Royale ruleset doesn’t lend itself to esports quite as well as traditional team-based shooters, anything very popular is bound to attract competition. The watchability and overall randomness in Battle Royale games is the biggest question mark in regards to them being esports.

Pretty much any game can be played competitively, whether it’s actually 1v1 or a single player game. It’s not so much about the game itself, it’s about the meta built around it.

Mobile shooters growing
The success of mid- to hardcore gaming experiences will make the mobile more serious alternative to the PC and consoles as a gaming platform. It helps putting the mobile platform as a proper gaming platform in the market.

Battle Royale games will introduce plenty of people to mobile shooters and also win over some skeptics. This bodes well for mobile shooters as a whole, as the genre’s massive potential is recognized by an increasing amount of players.

Veli-Pekka Piirainen, CEO of Critical Force concludes: “The massive onslaught of Battle Royal shooter games to mobile is a very good thing for us. It shows that shooter games can rise to the top of the sales charts. It also brings many new players to shooter games on the mobile platform. In the long run, we will benefit from it because at some point players will get burnt out playing Battle Royal games and they will start looking for more challenging and skill based alternatives like our Critical Ops game.”

Critical Force
Critical Force is a game developer from Finland focusing on competitive multiplayer games for mobile. The company’s first game is a mobile FPS title Critical Ops. It has been downloaded over 38 million times and over one million people play this pioneering mobile esports game every day. The company received a $4.5 million seed investment from Korean game publisher conglomerate NHN Entertainment in 2016. Critical Force has offices in Finland and South-Korea. Critical Force was also awarded the best Finnish game developer of 2016.