Shame, Chaos Rings trilogy was 2/3 games out by that time and excellent premium games. Stardew Valley would come a few years later. Infinity Blade would also have been a spectacle if you were on IOS. And of course, various console ports. 2012 was probably the peak of premium mobile games for me.

>Also, they made their blood money on Asian markets not here.

sure, but Asia took a while to adapt to mobile as well. Tencent and Netease were still riding out the flash Web hype with stuff like MapleStory and Dungeon Fighter in the very early 2010's. Think it was also the tail end of MMOs too.