Atari founder Nolan Bushnell believes mobile games are over. Speaking to All Things D, the industry veteran said he wouldn't want to make a mobile game in a market flooded with existing titles.
"All the money's out. Do I really want to do a mobile game that's one of 300,000, where discoverability is everything? You really have to have a little more sizzle on the steak," Bushnell said.
Bushnell explained that most games, inherently, have a half-life of two years or fewer. Those who have been successful in this space, like Zynga and Rovio, he argued, were able to do so by getting in early and trying new things. This led others to follow suit, in turn broadening the base to extreme levels, he said.
As for what technologies Bushnell believes will be the "next big thing" for games, he said Google Glass and Oculus Rift will steal the show.
"I think the next big game opportunity is Google Glasses [sic]. If I told you all my ideas for it, I'd have to kill you," he said. "And the Oculus Rift. The game business reinvents itself every five years. The last five years have been the days of mobile gaming and shortform gaming, exemplified by Rovio with Angry Birds and Zynga with FarmVille. And that is over."