Mobile Gaming to Exceed $6 Billion
According to iSuppli Corp., the worldwide mobile gaming industry will surpass $6.1 billion in 2010. This is a far cry from the $1.8 billion the industry realized in 2005.
iSuppli expects this big growth to be driven by the embracing of new technologies in the wireless handset and services realms, mostly in China and India.
Mark Kirstein, vice president of multimedia content and services at iSuppli, does see some potential hurdles for this growth. He points to lack of consumer awareness, difficulty in findings games, intricacy of downloading games, fees and lack of cost simplicity, piracy, and the cost and complexity of developing mobile games that are compatible across an assortment of mobile devices.
Electronic Arts seems to feel the same way, as the video game company has begun investing more heavily into the mobile gaming market, and more specifically, Apple.
Since September, EA has created 11 iPod games, which sell for $4.99 each on Apple’s iTunes online store. Tetris is their best seller.
Though there are obvious limitations and disadvantages inherent in games made for the iPod (i.e. awkward control with the click wheel, inferior graphics), the sheer reach of the portable music device could be the edge that it needs to keep up with other handheld devices, such as cell phones.
The consistent design and the ease with which users can purchase games on iTunes are advantages that the iPod does have over the vastly more fragmented mobile handset domain.
Sources:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/21234.php
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