Smartphone storage space is the new turf war for mobile game makers

From Tokyo to San Francisco, mobile game studios have sparred for years to captivate a fickle audience, fostering an overlooked problem — the average title has become so huge that players can no longer fit more than a few on their phones.

Japanese games publisher Gree Inc. expects an impending reckoning over escalating costs and ballooning file sizes, as developers pack their games with increasingly intricate graphics, voice acting and larger storylines, all to get players spending. That’s creating a winner-takes-all situation that could winnow out smaller studios in coming years, Gree Senior Vice President Yuta Maeda said in an interview. The situation will only get worse as console veteran Sony — no stranger to space-hogging hits — prepares to invade the mobile arena.