Second screen experiences - using your tablet or smartphone as a "second screen" to display additional content while gaming or watching television - were expected to be the next big thing in entertainment. The tech dominated E3 the past couple of years with companies like EA, Microsoft and Sony all setting aside significant time to talk it up.
With more than six months of app data now available for analysis, are gamers actually adopting the trend? No, not really.
Xbox One SmartGlass
PlayStation App
As illustrated in the graphs above from App Annie, apps like Xbox One SmartGlass and the PlayStation App both got off to solid starts but interest quickly waned. Such activity isn't entirely unexpected from console apps, but what about a title like Battlefield 4 with a dedicated community and a wealth of content?
Battlefield 4 Commander
Yeah, not so much.
Simply put, gamers just aren't interested in second screen experiences. That's not really much of a surprise, either, as the technology didn't receive any attention during the major keynotes at this year's expo. It would seem that developers and executives are content with putting the fad in the rearview mirror.
Second screen experiences as it relates to PC games aren't exactly an original idea. For example, Logitech's G15 keyboard from 2006 featured an onboard LCD panel used to display information like ammo count, health bars and so on. It was a novel ideal but support was limited and the concept never really took off.