Mobile gaming is about risk management. There are a lot of failures but the successes can be huge and pay for everything else. You try and try again until you strike the rich vein of players who are actually willing to sink money into virtual crap. Even with incredibly coercive game design and analytics - finding and engaging these users is hard.
Expectation must be adjusted. A lot of apps and even real world products should shoot for a short term profit and gain in before the majority of people lose the curiosity and become tired of it.
