Mobile gaming is a one of the hottest topics this year. In fact it has taken off in the past few years and it grows at a fast pace going hand in hand with the continued growth of Smartphone sales, tablet sales, mobile Internet subscribers and app downloads. Thus we can predict a bright future for this industry. For that reason we decided to share 5 trends relevant for mobile game developers. Let’s take a look at them.
1. Mobile game revenues expected to double in 2011: U.S. mobile game revenues are expected to reach $1.53 billion this year, which is nearly double revenue as compared to 2010. This is one of the SNL Kagan findings reported by Tricia Duryee, the principal correspondent for ContentNext’s mocoNews.net. Duryee writes: “At that amount, the mobile industry will make up about 7.7 percent of the $20 billion U.S. games market. Looking further out, SNL Kagan anticipates mobile game revenues to top $7.81 billion in the next decade”. On global level, analysts from London-based digital media investment firm Digi – Capital predict that “online/mobile – game revenues will hit $44 billion and account for half of global video game revenue by 2014”, writes John Harrison, a freelance writer for Portfolio.com.
2. The Freemium Model has potential, but currently paid games rule the industry: Market research firm Mintel recently published a report on the U.S. mobile gaming industry. According to this report, on average potential revenue for freemium apps outweighs paid apps. Moreover, as reported byMashable, Mintel Senior Analyst Billy Hulkower writes in the report: ““Apple enabled in-app purchases from its app store in the fall of 2009, allowing many developers to utilize the “freemium” model, in which the app is free to the user and the game can be enjoyed as is, or enhanced with additional virtual goods. In-app purchases include additional characters, enhancements, powers, and game play levels. Where a paid game may generate revenue from the sale price of the game from $0.99 to about $2.99 or more, a freemium game can actually earn greater revenues in the long run due to its potential ongoing stream of revenue from in-app purchases. Games tracked across 21 iPhone game makers in June 2010 by market research firm Flurry earned on average $14.66 per user per year. GigaOm estimated in November 2010 that 34% of the top 100 grossing apps (all types) on the iPhone used the freemium model.” However, Mashable points out that despite the fact that freemium model sounds great in theory, still the paid games are the ones which rule the industry bringing 92.5% of U.S. mobile gaming revenue in 2010. The free (ad- supported) model seems to lose popularity in future. “With ad-supported games lacking umph in coming years and freemium apps providing higher potential revenue for publishers, it seems natural that publishers will continue to innovate into the freemium space in hopes of increasing profits. As a result, we may see a balancing out of revenue between paid and freemium apps in coming years”, writes Mashable.
3. Nvidia is allocating resources to better support the mobile sector: Nvidia specializes in the manufacture of graphics-processor technologies for workstations, desktop computers, and mobile devices. The company, based in Santa Clara, California, is a major supplier of integrated circuits used for personal-computer motherboard chipsets, graphics processing units (GPUs), and game-consoles. Tom’s Hardware, which provides latest hardware reviews, news and technology developments, reports that the company recognized a shift in the gaming industry, thus it allocates its resources towards that shift. “In an exclusive interview with Softpedia, Nvidia’s Senior Product PR Manager for notebooks and Tegra Igor Stanek said that Nvidia is now allocating resources to the mobile segments. According to Stanek, mobile gaming has gotten bigger than desktop PC gaming, as interest in gaming on the go – whether it’s on a smartphone, tablet or laptop – is on the rise. Much like it does with the PC sector (Epic Games especially), the GPU manufacturer is reaching out to mobile game developers to help them optimize their software for Tegra SOCs. Stanek points to the Tegra Zone app for Android as an example, indicating that consumers can find optimized games for their Tegra devices rather than sift through apps cluttering the Android Market and Amazon’s Appstore”, writes Tom’s Hardware.
4. Automaker creates giant hide & seek game using Google street view: Citroen + location-based apps + gaming. This is the creative combination that the French automaker – Citroen is promoting. It is called DS4Seekers and it gives you the chance to win a new Citroën DS4. What’s the whole idea behind? As Mashable reports: “You get points by hiding and collecting virtual DS4s. If you do that successfully, you get points. Since one point equals one prize drawing entry, the more points you get, the greater chance you have of winning. If you use the mobile app for the game (which doesn’t appear to be available to U.S. users), you double your points. The program, which launched earlier this month, uses Google Maps and Google Street View to find the invisible cars. If you’re within 1 kilometer of a hidden DS4, a location compass will show you which direction to go. Once you’re close to a hidden DS4, an onscreen pin will appear giving you the exact location”. Mini ran a similar program in Stockholm last year, reports Mashable. Thus we can see that location-based games are definitely an emerging category.
5. The rise of tablet gaming: Tablet gaming could be a huge market, disrupting traditional game hardware markets, writes VentureBeat. With more than 25 million units sold, the iPad shows its potential of becoming the next hot game platform. This trend is “helping Apple to swing developers back into its fold”, writes VentureBeat. Moreover, VentureBeat reports: “In our panel on the Rise of Tablet Games (moderated by George Jones of Tab Times), Julian Farrior, CEO of Backflip Studios, which has sold more than 100 million mobile games, said that current mobile games sell about 10 times more on the iPhone than they do on the iPad. Still, he is ”extremely bullish” because the iPad has higher average revenue per user (ARPU), higher advertising revenue, and a longer duration of game play. Backflip’s Army of Darkness Defense tablet game has a 42 percent higher ARPU with iPad users than iPhone users”. Moreover, according to Baudouin Corman, vice president of publishing in the Americas at Gameloft, sales per device are much higher on the iPad, thus Gameloft has more than 20 games on the iPad. “Mori at Glu Mobile, said there are more mass market gamers on the iPhone and more hardcore gamers and early adopters on the iPad. Every game Glu publishes for the iPad is tuned specifically for that platform. Mori said gamers play the iPad games for a longer period of time too. Strategically, Glu is focused on making use of the the iPad’s high-quality specifications for graphics and speed. He thinks busy users like himself play more games now than they ever did because the device is so easily accessible; it can turn on with the tap of a button and launch games immediately”, reports VentureBeat.
Gaming trends are changing. Today it’s all about being mobile, social, location – based…All these are interconnected and as we had an opportunity to see from the above presented trends, there are all getting incorporated in the game industry too. Thus, watch out the moves of your competition and try to learn from the same. If you are not able to change the rules of the game, or have impact on industry trends, then try to predict them on time and adjust to the same. Because mobile and tablet gaming are definitely the next big thing for game developers.
