Our deeply thoughtful and hygienic CEO Simon (hey I'm writing this post at 1030pm in the office so I get to choose the adjectives) recently presented at Mobile Game Forum event here in Hong Kong...

*switching to first person*
My topic was about the interesting trends were happening in the world of mobile games, both from gameplay and retention perspective as well as monetization... drawing from what's happening in the East as well as West (we're pretty well located in Hong Kong to see both sets)
The list I came up with was a mix of maturing and emerging ones:
1/ the rise of idle tap clicker games
2/ auto-play and where it goes
3/ games as spectator sport - esports
4/ adaptive pricing and balancing
5/ smarter live ops tied to monetization
6/ classic genres adapted smarter to mobile
7/ extending meta gameplay
8/ subscription and VIP programs
9/ faster player feedback and art a/b testing
10/ life beyond the RPG bloodbath
If you're interested in that sort of thing, my slides are below: