Executive Producer at Mojang to Windows Central: 40% of cloud Minecraft Dungeon players use touch controls exclusively, above the goal that was set

FarSight XR-20 · Apr 21, 2021

Discussing Minecraft Dungeons' Xbox cloud streaming success with David Nisshagen

Recently, we caught up with David Nisshagen, executive producer at Mojang, to learn all about a major new tool for Xbox devs.

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Discussing Minecraft Dungeons' Xbox cloud streaming success with David Nisshagen
Recently, we caught up with David Nisshagen, executive producer at Mojang, to learn all about a major new tool for Xbox devs.

Some tidbits :

Some games with touch controls are seeing 40% and above *Cloud* playerbases exclusively using touch:

About 40% of players that play Minecraft Dungeons do so on their phone with touch exclusively. That's 40% of players who never have to touch a controller. I was like, that's a dream number. That was above the goal we set for ourselves. And the coolest thing is we're not alone in this either.

Did you try Hellblade? Hellblade has seen similar numbers, great success with their work. Personally, I love how Hellblade's developer Ninja Theory took a different approach from Minecraft Dungeons, using contextualization. Hellblade is such an immersive game, and how Ninja Theory managed to take it and retain that immersiveness on a small screen, using contextual buttons, is impressive. Tell Me Why is another. If you haven't tried it, do it. Many of these games are seeing 40% and above playerbases exclusively using touch. It's impressive.

Precision:

(...)

Took seven weeks for Minecraft Dungeons to feel like a mobile native version (compared to potentially years for a full mobile native version), the game streaming team at Xbox can make a console game playable with a standard overlay on a phone in "literally like 10 minutes":

The game streaming team [at Xbox] have done a great job at making it easy. They have a term called "lift and shift" to describe how it takes literally like, 10 minutes to get your Xbox One game and make it playable with a standard overlay on a phone. We did come in a bit early, so we had some extra hoops to jump around. We had time zone challenges too, given that we're in Europe and Microsoft's game streaming team is in Redmond. These things were overcome fairly easily.

We landed in about seven weeks. If you compare that to doing a full mobile native version, it would take years potentially, and then you wouldn't even be able to do some things. You can't run a peer-to-peer server on a phone easily, it would drain the battery in minutes. The cloud helps circumvent these limitations, and it just works. It's really quite something.

(...)

On the shift with younger players that played mobile games growing up:

You touched on an interesting point when you said that the core gaming audience does tend to prefer controllers. Kids who are younger, they often tend to play with touch. To some extent that might be the sign of the times. We have an entire generation that has grown up with touch as the main input. That's the standard. For them, maybe controllers feel weird. That is something that is happening — a shift for players growing up. They've been playing games on their iPhones since the very first iPhone came out.

(...)

On that new audience:

We're in the early stages of understanding the potential market right now, but if you think of the number — the sheer number of these devices — there's billions of mobile devices. Billions. Suddenly, you can go beyond the combined install base of all consoles over history — there's still probably more phones out there. Being able to go and reach that audience is great. It's cool, right?

Zachary_Games · Apr 21, 2021

Absolutely brilliant.

If I was a publisher I would produce mobile mini games that could earn rewards for your console/PC version while on the road.

DontHateTheBacon · Apr 21, 2021

I'm getting old.

Deleted member 17184 · Apr 21, 2021

Wow, that's a crazy good number.

Vommy · Apr 21, 2021

DontHateTheBacon said:
I'm getting old.

Okii · Apr 21, 2021

Accessibility! Touch controls aren't for me but I love that so many more people get to play games that don't own or want consoles or PCs.

theAllseeingEYE · Apr 21, 2021

Hola,
Seems like Game Pass is doing way better on mobile than I assumed. 40% of Minecraft Dungeons playerbase sounds like a huge number.

I hope this has a snowball affect on games adding touch controls to Xcloud versions.

CaptNink · Apr 21, 2021

Gotta say, I really appreciate the touch controls. Feels great to whip out my phone and play some Minecraft Dungeons or Sea of Thieves every now and then.

Iron Eddie · Apr 21, 2021

That Minecraft deal looks like a steal now.

demondance · Apr 21, 2021

I've been playing a lot of games on my iPad recently, and while I still prefer controllers, I'm very impressed by how far touch controls have come. The controller stand-ins for touch feel much more natural than some of the early implementations that turned me off to the idea years back when iOS games were first taking off.

I still generally prefer games that have their own full touch implementation that doesn't pretend to be a controller at all, like Fantasian -- a game where the combat actually feels a bit more natural with touch. But a game like Monster Hunter Stories that was entirely built for traditional controls, the touch controls are pretty good, it doesn't feel like a tragedy that the game has no controller support.

I still wouldn't want to play fighting games or character action games on touchscreen controls. I'd happily play a lot of other genres on touch these days, though, as a secondary option.

Remeran · Apr 21, 2021

I would never have guessed that, touch controls are probably my least used feature on xbox.

Gareth · Apr 21, 2021

Huge potential growth area for Game Pass, can see why they're adding touch screen controls to more games lately.

Grimmy11 · Apr 21, 2021

I reread that bit about 3 times. I assumed it had to mean 40% of the people who play it on Xcloud on a phone just use touch screen, not 40% of overall players just use touch screen controls.

That's an insane number.

Uzuzu · Apr 21, 2021

Yeah people on resetera are kinda dismissive of touch controls for games, but I don't think many realize just how good children nowadays are using touch controllers with video games (even if it feels 'bad' to us), that's basically been their default for their whole lives.

MinerArcaniner · Apr 21, 2021

Uzuzu said:
Yeah people on resetera are kinda dismissive of touch controls for games, but I don't think many realize just how good children nowadays are using touch controllers with video games (even if it feels 'bad' to us), that's basically been their default for their whole lives.

We merely adopted the age of touch devices.

They were born in it, molded by it...

Sanka · Apr 21, 2021

Mobile controls in action and movement heavy games are the only thing that make me feel old. Even if it works it's not really optimal and I'm always thinking in the back of my head "Ah, how comfortable it would be to use a controller rn".

Would probably have to play these games for more than a year to get rid of this feeling.

Biggzy · Apr 21, 2021

Uzuzu said:
Yeah people on resetera are kinda dismissive of touch controls for games, but I don't think many realize just how good children nowadays are using touch controllers with video games (even if it feels 'bad' to us), that's basically been their default for their whole lives.

Touch controls are not for me personally on the whole, but I was made aware how popular it is when I found out how popular Pubg mobile is. Microsoft is definitely on the right track in providing touch controls for Xbox games in the cloud because it just opens the market up for them.

The touch controls for Minecraft are actually quite well done to be honest. I have used them if I just want to do a quick mission on the go.

Hasney · Apr 21, 2021

It's always the first game on my XBox Game Pass app, so I end up booting it to get the rewards aha

Horp · Apr 21, 2021

Im playing it on PS4 with my son.
It's a better game than D3, fight me

kiguel182 · Apr 21, 2021

Just launched this to see how it looked and it really looks like a native touch game. It's really neat.

I hope other devs invest into their xCloud versions like this. Specially the ones that already have touch versions like Slay the Spire or Dead Cells

Liliana · Apr 21, 2021

Walken said:
That Minecraft deal looks like a steal now.

It's been a steal for many, many years, financially speaking.

One of the better gets in both company growth and financial gain.

CristianTheWriter · Apr 21, 2021

The cool thing about touch controls or just mobile streaming is being able to just quickly pick up your phone and pick and play. Definitely feel like I can play Octopath anytime without turning on the console.

Biosnake · Apr 21, 2021

That's very impressive and illegal.

JigglesBunny · Apr 21, 2021

Yeah, I'm definitely getting old. Touch controls for anything that isn't Tetris or 8 Ball Pool feel dreadful to me.

Kemono · Apr 21, 2021

gigantor21 said:
We merely adopted the age of touch devices.

They were born in it, molded by it...

We didn't use touch screens until we were already adults, by then they were nothing to us but obscured by our fingers!

RoKKeR · Apr 21, 2021

Holy crap. So 40% are streaming from cloud (Game Pass) AND playing via touch. That is insane.

I've said it before but bespoke touch controls really opens Game Pass to an entirely new market that doesn't play traditional console games. Think about all the people out there who play Fortnite, PubG, CoD all on mobile with touch.

The potential is massive.

Captain of Outer Space · Apr 21, 2021

Zachary_Games said:
Absolutely brilliant.

If I was a publisher I would produce mobile mini games that could earn rewards for your console/PC version while on the road.

They've done that for years, though now they just make real mobile versions and bring in as much money as possible from the mobile crowd.

headspawn · Apr 21, 2021

Horp said:
Im playing it on PS4 with my son.
It's a better game than D3, fight me

At least it's not just me thinking it, lmao.

Between the extremes of Minecraft Dungeons and Path of Exile, I have a hard time turning Diablo 3 on anymore... it's just ass out on both perspectives; I really hope Diablo 4 is a return to greatness.

Gareth · Apr 21, 2021

RoKKeR said:
Holy crap. So 40% are streaming from cloud (Game Pass) AND playing via touch. That is insane.

I've said it before but bespoke touch controls really opens Game Pass to an entirely new market that doesn't play traditional console games. Think about all the people out there who play Fortnite, PubG, CoD all on mobile with touch.

The potential is massive.

Yeah, it just clicked with me that this means at least 40% of people playing it are streaming it too. There's no other way to play it on mobile outside of streaming, right?

rras1994 · Apr 21, 2021

I've always said that the mobile game industry is by far the largest part of the gaming industry. There's nothing that stops mobile players from liking these games other than the fact that they haven't been available before. This data shows that traditional console games really have the opportunity to grow with the mobile market

larryfox · Apr 21, 2021

gigantor21 said:
We merely adopted the age of touch devices.

They were born in it, molded by it...

Lmaoooo

Horp · Apr 21, 2021

headspawn said:
At least it's not just me thinking it, lmao.

Between the extremes of Minecraft Dungeons and Path of Exile, I have a hard time turning Diablo 3 on anymore... it's just ass out on both perspectives; I really hope Diablo 4 is a return to greatness.

Exactly, 100%, my thoughts.
But MC dungeons is legit good, not just better than D3

OgTheEnigma · Apr 21, 2021

I'm fine with it as an option, as long as it's not the only option. Touch is still a shitty input method for most games with real-time gameplay.

Deleted member 24079 · Apr 21, 2021

It's great to have control options but I find it hard to see what I'm doing sometimes because of my big hands . Very interesting data though.

cakely · Apr 21, 2021

It sounds like MInecraft Dungeons is a good fit for mobile.

I'm assuming the controls are simple and handle the limited real estate of a small touchscreen well.

Fiksi · Apr 21, 2021

That's very nice. I've been wondering how many are playing games on their phones via GP. 40% of MC Dungeons users being on mobile paints a much better picture than I imagined!

Boogolo · Apr 21, 2021

theAllseeingEYE said:
Hola,
Seems like Game Pass is doing way better on mobile than I assumed. 40% of Minecraft Dungeons playerbase sounds like a huge number.

I hope this has a snowball affect on games adding touch controls to Xcloud versions.

I'm actually stunned by this. I never expected so many people to play via streaming. What are those numbers going to be when IOS gets added? Even though there less ios devices they have a much higher spend per user then android.

Justsomeguy · Apr 21, 2021

That's absolutely seismic, what a huge percentage. Wow.

cakely · Apr 21, 2021

Question: Is Minecraft Dungeons on mobile a native app, or streaming?

theAllseeingEYE · Apr 21, 2021

Boogolo said:
I'm actually stunned by this. I never expected so many people to play via streaming. What are those numbers going to be when IOS gets added? Even though there less ios devices they have a much higher spend per user then android.

Yeah, me too. We hear so little about cloud gaming stickiness for Game Pass (while simultaneously watching competing services fail), that I was actually worried people might not be using it much.

Turns out I was completely wrong. I've noticed an ever increasing amount of games adding touch controls. It would be awesome to see a day where every game that gets added to the cloud offers a touch gaming solution.

cakely said:
Question: Is Minecraft Dungeons on mobile a native app, or streaming?

Pretty sure this is streaming number directly from Game Oass / Xcloud. I don't see an Android version of Minecraft Dungeons.

To add to this, Minecraft dungeons seemed to have been very successful on Switch. So if this is 40% of the entire playerbase across all platforms, that's an incredibly impressive number.

Yerffej · Apr 21, 2021

DontHateTheBacon said:
I'm getting old.

As am I. Have to remember there's a whole generation growing up now who are more comfortable on mobile than using traditional controls.

TheGhost · Apr 21, 2021

Just give me that iOS access already.

Jasonofindy · Apr 21, 2021

cakely said:
Question: Is Minecraft Dungeons on mobile a native app, or streaming?

I'm pretty sure it is streaming only. (Specifically, the One S version right now.)

panda-zebra · Apr 21, 2021

Grimmy11 said:
I reread that bit about 3 times. I assumed it had to mean 40% of the people who play it on Xcloud on a phone just use touch screen, not 40% of overall players just use touch screen controls.

That's an insane number.

It's an impossible number. It has to be 40% of people playing via xcloud, which is a fair number, if I was using xcloud I wouldn't be syncing up a joypad to my phone, I'd be going for the games with touch controls that suit the device.

Mecha · Apr 21, 2021

Cupcake Knight · Apr 21, 2021

Playing Nina Gaiden Dragon Sword had turned me off of Touchscreen gaming.
And I can't play real games on my. Only enjoyed YMBAB.

cakely · Apr 21, 2021

ZhugeEX said:
The folks at Xbox reached out and let me know there was a miscommunication during the interview. That first quote in the OP should say that 40% of cloud Minecraft Dungeon players use touch controls exclusively.

Well that's an extremely important distinction.

40% of the players streaming Minecraft Dungeons are using touch controls, not 40% of the entire Minecraft Dungeons playerbase.

TechnicPuppet · Apr 21, 2021

It's going to get really interesting when this UI is thought about as a game is being designed and not afterwards. Plus the tools improving, experience and best practice being a thing.

You can imagine in a year or two that the games should appear as practically native.

FarSight XR-20 · Apr 21, 2021

Mecha said:

I asked the title to be updated !

ThisThingIsUseful · Apr 21, 2021

Uzuzu said:
Yeah people on resetera are kinda dismissive of touch controls for games, but I don't think many realize just how good children nowadays are using touch controllers with video games (even if it feels 'bad' to us), that's basically been their default for their whole lives.

Not my nephews. They needed my hello big time with Sonic 2. :p

Executive Producer at Mojang to Windows Central: 40% of cloud Minecraft Dungeon players use touch controls exclusively, above the goal that was set

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