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you get the problem PC has (zillions of devices of different hardware/os configs) but at an even lower performance minimum. heavily limits what developers actually can do with it.
also doesnt help that more than half your userbase doesnt want to actually pay for the game.
Mobile games don't need to be technically impressive though. It's not like in PC/consoles where people want the most expensive high res 3D graphics.
I don't know if this is true for most, but for me, I just want a game that is simple visually but entertaining. The last thing I want is for a game to drain my phone's battery.
I've actually paid for a game. Had a good demo/trial and I paid for the full version. However, part of the problem is that way too many mobile games are trash. I'm not putting any money in unless I can try the game first.
PC has a similar problem. It's easy to find good games, but they're are still so many to choose from and finding one that fits what I like is still hard without a trial/demo of some sort. The 2 hour limit on Steam isn't enough time for a lot of games. Hell, I was just trying out a demo for a game right up my alley and I spent two hours just looking at all the options I had before I really even started the game. I think there's too much customization for my taste. It's cool, but that also means you can spend countless time trying to customize things to be optimal. I'll spend all my time tweaking things rather than playing.
yeah it should really be a "2 hours of playtime not counting settings fiddling and character creation if it's an RPG" or maybe just bump it up to 4h
though i'm pretty sure Steam is leading the demo renessance, the demo fest is a good show of that. And i've noticed many more games have demos nowadays, though it's mostly limited to indi games. I guess triple A with 20 franchise releases doesn't need to convince its fantabse to buy the game
If everything you say is the reason there aren't many good games then explain the flash game era
the flash game era benefited from an era where building a PC wasn't completely streamlined yet, and game distribution on desktop also wasn't streamlined (early steam was reviled and most users did not like it). Steam launched in 2003, and 2005 it went to allow 3rd parties. 2005 is also coincidentally when youtube was released, which marked the start of users moving off of well established sites like newgrounds to it over time, which flash ultimately died when mobile became more mainstream and neither google nor apple wanted to support flash. down the line.
2005 also marked the release date of the Xbox 360, which realistically was the first console where indie game development took off due to the Xbox Arcade. Also notice how paid mobile games was much more regular back during there was realistically like a few mobile phones in the market(when the iPhone 3GS was launched)
And most people want to play for a few minutes at a time and don't have a controller to play with when they're ready to play those few minutes.