"There was once a time when having a full-blown computer in your pocket was still a fairly novel concept, and game developers, publishers, and console-makers were all too eager to find ways to work their existing products and franchises into mobile apps. Some of these were terrible, offering cheap imitations of their big siblings and often charging exorbitant prices for microtransactions, but there were also a whole bunch that took a different approach."
"Much like Kinect functionality, DualShock 4 touchpad support, and motion-control spin-offs, the mobile companion app slowly went the way of the dinosaur. The catalyst for writing this piece came when I decided to load up the Battlefield Companion app. It was a great way to check statistics and fine-tune loadouts, saving time that could then be spent actually playing games like Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1."
"When Battlefield 4 released--broken as it was at launch--it even included a tablet-specific feature that let mobile players act as a commander, giving them a map-view perspective of the action while players on console and PC duked it out below. Was it an essential part of the experience? Certainly not, but it was an undeniably positive addition, and it no longer exists for little reason other than cost and resource allocation."
Mobile companion apps once paired intuitively with console and PC titles, offering features such as statistics tracking, loadout management, and tablet-specific commander roles. Early mobile tie-ins varied widely, from exploitative microtransaction-heavy imitations to genuinely useful tools that saved players time and supplemented gameplay. Battlefield's companion app allowed quick loadout edits and a map-view commander role that added value without being essential. Over time, companion apps and similar features like Kinect and touchpad support largely disappeared. Cost and resource allocation are common reasons for removing these conveniences, forcing players to handle management tasks in-game.
Read at GameSpot
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