E3 2017 and beyond: iPhone, iPad and Android games coming soon

There were fewer than dozen notable iPhone, iPad and Android games at E3 2017, and even those are drowned out by big console and PC gaming news.

While everyone may have paid attention to Xbox One X announcement and the never-ending stream of PS4 trailers at E3, mobile games are just as important.

Why? Core and mainstream gamers alike are bound to play these mobile games – it's a $40 billion industry a year, according to analysts at SuperData Research.

Let's look ahead at some of the gaming coming to an app store near you in 2017 and 2018.

South Park's 'New Kid' meets 'New Phone Who Dis?' in an iOS and Android game coming – free to download – announced at E3 2017.

You team up with South Park characters, who are dressed as cowboys, pirates, cyborgs and gods in an irreverent single-player and multiplayer mobile game.

The PvP gameplay mixes real-time combat with trading card collecting, adding a bit of strategy. It arrives by the end of the year on iPhone, iPad and Android

And, yes the character voices will be done by character voiceovers by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. This isn't just a F2P cash-in mobile game – hopefully.

The endless snowboarding in Alto's Adventure just turned into an odyssey with the sequel Alto's Odyssey demoed for the first time at E3.

It takes scenic 2D landscapes of the first game, turns up the heat and delivers sandboarding gameplay in arid deserts. No snow? Snow problem for Alto.

The pace of Alto's Odyssey remains incredibly fluid and it adds new gameplay twists, like wall riding and grinding on moving hot air balloon rails.

Best of all, you can expect the Alto's Odyssey release date to be sometime this summer on iOS, Android and Amazon Kindle.

Microsoft: Pocket Edition isn't really new, but at E3 2017, Microsoft announced an exciting update for its sandbox video game: crossplay.

Coming this summer, crossplay means you'll be able to play Minecraft with others on Windows 10, iOS, Android, VR and consoles – well some consoles. 

While you'll be able to build with users on Xbox One, Xbox 360 (eventually Xbox One X) and even Nintendo Switch, Sony won't let crossplay happen on PS4.

This is a huge update for everyone else who has been restricted to specific platforms when Crafting. The floodgates open this summer.

It's time to retire Real Racing 3 for a while and try a new racing sim on iOS, and that's finally going to happen this autumn thanks to Codemasters

Grid Autosport is the mobile version of the realistic racer that already came out on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. It's just that its jump to mobile has been delayed.

That's okay with us because the first Grid Autosport trailer shows that developer Feral Interactive is trying to get this racing sim right on iOS. It's going to take a lot to match up to Real Racing 3 on the iPhone and iPad.

You can't get Left 4 Dead on iOS and Android, but soon you'll be able to play Dead Rivals on your phone and tablet thanks to Gameloft.

It's the first zombie-themed Action MMORPG on mobile, according to the game maker, with classes and customizable characters to pick from.

In addition to taking on zombies in PvP battles, Dead Rivals gets deep enough that the gameplay involves shelter building and weapon crafting.

We like the MMORPG angle of this zombie-filled game, and since Dead Rivals promises to include large-scale maps, it may last us longer than most apps.