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Challenges and Opportunities in Mobile GamesBy Michael Juntao Yuan2005-04-13 
The Big Picture
The popular interests in mobile games, from the business end, arise from the huge potential market and the frustration of the high barrier of entry in the conventional console/PC game market. The Smart mobile handset is already the largest computing platform ever to exist and is still growing at explosive rates in emerging markets. MFORMA Group's EVP and CSO, Robert Tercek, said that in China alone, there are 300 million mobile subscribers -- more than the entire population of Europe -- and that number will grow to 500 million within the next two years. Entertainment and games are the leading applications driving the growth of the mobile data market. Perhaps the biggest reason for these numbers lies in the diversity of its users and the appeal to the mass market. According to Sorrent's VP of marketing, Jill Braff, most of the mobile game players surveyed in their marketing studies do not fit the traditional profile of lone commuters waiting for public transportation. In fact, most mobile gamers play at home several times a day even though many of them already own dedicated game consoles. They play mobile games while they are watching TV, SMSing, or otherwise multitasking. Very young kids can now have access to mobile games through family plans for wireless services. Mobile gaming is becoming a way of life for an entire generation of consumers. To recognize this from an older generation developer's point of view, look at today's teenagers: they are often more comfortable with slow text messaging than with conventional e-mail or voice communication. The diverse demography of mobile consumers makes the mobile content market a mass media market that might eventually rival or exceed the television market. It is a historic opportunity for developers and content providers. Nokia's game researcher, Greg Costikyan, explains mobile game developers' apparent enthusiasm from a different angle: Today's successful console and PC games require highly polished graphics and visual effects that are very expensive to produce. The barrier of entry to the console/PC game market has become insurmountable for most small independent developers. A console game could cost five million dollars to develop, plus several million more in marketing costs. With such high launch costs, most of the console games fail to make a profit. That has caused publishers to be extremely conservative about experimenting with new innovations in game plays. On the contrary, mobile games are still relatively cheap to develop, and independent developers can experiment with new "killer game" ideas. The cost to develop a mobile game is steadily increasing as the devices become more sophisticated and the advanced features, like Java 3D, become available. But for most serious developers, now is still a good time to break into the mobile game market. Overall, the big picture is that mobile gaming is still in its infancy and resembles the overall game industry in the early 90s. As a result, there will be boom and bust cycles to watch out for. Game developers are right to be excited about the opportunities, but should also remain aware of the risks. Tutorial Pages: » Thoughts from the 2004 Austin Game Conference » The Big Picture » Appeasing the Operators » Choosing the Right Platform » Porting, Porting, Porting ... » In Conclusion » Resources First published by IBM DeveloperWorks
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