Lenovo shuts down Legion Duel lineup after pushing out just two gaming phones
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Lenovo shuts down Legion Duel lineup after pushing out just two gaming phones
It looks like Lenovo is not pursuing gaming phones for the foreseeable future, with an official statement confirming the cessation of its gaming phone operations and product lineup.
Technology publication Android Authority reached out to its Lenovo spokesperson to confirm rumours about the shutdown of Lenovo’s Legion gaming phone line, and received this statement in response from its spokesperson:
“Lenovo is discontinuing its Android-based Legion mobile gaming phones as part of a wider business transformation and gaming portfolio consolidation. As a leader in gaming devices and solutions, Lenovo is committed to advancing the gaming category across form factors, as well as focusing on where it can bring the most value to the global gaming community.”
The last time Lenovo made a gaming smartphone to accompany its existing Legion gaming lineup was the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2, which came out nearly two years ago. It featured twin cooling fans, virtual keymapping, and a pop-up camera to assist mobile gamers in high-intensity, fast-paced gameplay.
Prior to that was its first gaming handset, the 2020 Legion Phone Duel. Lenovo gave the phone 5G compatibility, starting from its first gaming handset.
What’s the future of mobile gaming like?
With gaming-centric companies like Lenovo and Razer possibly stopping just after two gaming smartphones, does this mean the mobile gaming industry isn’t all it’s cut out to be?
Not quite. Non-gaming smartphone makers like Nubia and Xiaomi have gamer-centric phone launches, like the Redmagic 8 Pro and Black Shark 5 Pro, respectively. There are also existing high-end and premium-grade handsets capable of performing up to gaming spec, even if these alternatives don’t carry optimisations like virtual keymapping and cooling fans.
Our handset variety is further bolstered by Singaporean mobile game spending in the last few years. According to Data.ai's State of Mobile 2023 report, gamers based in Singapore spent a total of US$354.3 to US$370 million in 2022 (gross spending, Android and iOS) across the eight game genres the service tracks. This was a similar amount spent in 2021, despite mobile gaming spend falling by 5% worldwide between 2021 to 2022.
Approximately 42% of all that 2022 in-app consumer spending in Singapore was done on RPG mobile games (like Genshin Impact, Lineage W, and others).
Source: Android Authority
