Mobile games were once the darling of the mobile content industry but were left in the corner of the party as people chased the seemingly sexier mobile music and video industries, and then were claims that growth in mobile games had stalled or even dipped…which was refuted by a number of games companies. The analysts are at it again: “M:Metrics, a Seattle research company, reported the number of subscribers playing games has hit a plateau in the past year. After seeing some solid growth in 2006, the number has stalled at about 5.4 million users in August, only slightly up from a year earlier and down from a peak of 5.7 million subscribers in December 2006…Seamus McAteer, a senior analyst, said mobile-game developers need to put out more games that resonate with users, who don’t seem enamored of the latest crop of games…”We’re at a time where the free ride is over,” McAteer said” in this San Francisco Chronicle article. The article implies that mobile games will be saved by new technologies, that “by using touch screens, GPS, high-speed data networks, bigger processors, cameras and motion sensors, game developers see a potential to push the mobile-gaming business forward creatively in a big way”. The thing is, the industry doesn’t really need creativity, it needs sales and it needs playability. There are some incredibly creative mobile games around (read the article for some examples) but they haven’t really sold that well. Along those lines, I-play has released the results of a survey which found that people who play casual games are more likely to play mobile games — 22 percent of casual game players said they played games on their mobile phones and 16 percent replied “sometimes”, with the combined 38 percent comparing favorably to the industry average of 20.5 percent. So which of these approaches is right? I think both are. From my point of view, mobile games suffer from being lumped into a single homogenous mass when the reality is that games and genres differ a lot. If we think about the industry as “games on a mobile platform” it becomes clearer…every gaming platform has both casual games, complicated strategy games, intense 3D action games and so on. It is not a progression from one to the other, the different genres exist perfectly happy side by side, often sharing the same customers. Rather than focus on what will be the next big thing in mobile games developers need to focus on what will make a particular title a success…and I think most of the big developers know that.
Games Once Again Slammed As Past Their Peak, But What Innovation Will Save The Industry?
Summary:
Mobile games were once the darling of the mobile content industry but were left in the corner of the party as people chased the seemingly se…
Hi James,
Nice article. I agree that developers need to focus on what makes a great game, and that most developers/publishers are doing just that. The larger point, however, is that we're in a prematurely flat market. Over 50% of Americans buy some kind of computer game – from Diner Dash on their work computer to Halo 3 in their media center. But only 5% of mobile phone users buy mobile games. If you believe that difference is endemic to the medium, run for mobile TV or mobile social networking or whatever.
But if you believe, as I do, that there are things we can do as an industry to make mobile games more accessible, we should work together to figure them out. That's why there's a continual call for creativity – on the content side, there's the hope that we could come up with the game that spreads the word. We need a similar emphasis on creativity from marketing and distribution, and we're starting to see that happen.
Instead of fighting over 5%, the industry needs to work together to serve the 50%. There was a great spirit of coop-etition in the first couple of years of mobile games. We need to rekindle that fire so that mobile games can reach their true potential.
In my opinion, creativity in the mobile industry is vital to its success. Take the Nintendo Wii, a revolutionary creative concept that has seen huge success around the world, and the reason for this success, innovation.
I agree with Matthew. It is time now for the distribution and provisioning methodologies to evolve. We need to inject some creativity into how we sell, promote, and distribute mobile games in order to capture a broader market spectrum than the measly 5%. How can innovative and original games succeed in the present market conditions? It is impossible. The present purchasing experience only amplifies the importance of a title and brand association and pretty much guarantees the financial failure of innovative, original games. This experience must evolve so that quality can make a stand against brand association. I think it will be community-driven services like the one found on Zed, for example, where word of mouth, game rankings, and a much richer purchasing experience can penetrate through the superficial power of the brand.
On the cutting edge technology note, developers can't start relying on the latest tech like LBS, GPS, motion sensors, etc. quite yet. Developers won't be able to make any money producing games that rely on latest technologies that have not yet been broadly adopted. Though, there is definitely no shortage of creativity and talent already, on the development side.