Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Thursday, February 24, 2005
Branded or non-branded games?
I definitely vote for branded games, as you have no way to try the games out before you buy (except by borrowing someone else's phone). At least not today, but DRM will hopefully be able to deal with demo versions later. Hence, trust and recognition are key factors.
At the same time I must say that the mobile content that is currently best priced is games. I bought Chessmaster from Gameloft for $3 (that is supposed to use the same chess engine as the PC version; I can't beat it in any case), and they also have Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Might & Magic and other Ubisoft-branded titles (they are part owned by Ubisoft, so it's not surprising). Of course these games are much simpler than the PC versions, but you still get a lot of bang for the buck.
Comment from EA: "Trip Hawkins, who founded Electronic Arts and 3DO, now runs cell phone game maker Digital Chocolate. He believes the right way to snare gamers is with novel games that use the cell phone's interactive features, tapping its e-mail, camera and messaging capabilities."
"Cell phone games are expected to grow from $345 million in revenues in 2004 to $1.5 billion in 2008 in the United States alone, according to market research firm IDC."
"In the cell phone market, video game publishers will have to justify their existence, Hawkins said. Since phone games cost so little to make -- often three months of work by a half-dozen programmers and artists -- he believes it will be easier for cell phone carriers to bypass game publishers."
The error in this thinking is that carriers will not make any games, so who will?
"He said a game publisher that doesn't focus on creating unique games that exploit the social nature of cell phones may be nothing more than a middleman waiting to be cut out of the action."
Read: network-enabled games... What about a mobile version of Sims?
Finally (strengthening my theory): "It's hard to get someone to start playing a new kind of entertainment without a hook like a brand,'' said P.J. McNealy, an analyst at American Technology Research. "In the long run, it may be unique content that wins. In the near term, it's about branding.''
Yahoo! News - Two visions for cell phone games
At the same time I must say that the mobile content that is currently best priced is games. I bought Chessmaster from Gameloft for $3 (that is supposed to use the same chess engine as the PC version; I can't beat it in any case), and they also have Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Might & Magic and other Ubisoft-branded titles (they are part owned by Ubisoft, so it's not surprising). Of course these games are much simpler than the PC versions, but you still get a lot of bang for the buck.
Comment from EA: "Trip Hawkins, who founded Electronic Arts and 3DO, now runs cell phone game maker Digital Chocolate. He believes the right way to snare gamers is with novel games that use the cell phone's interactive features, tapping its e-mail, camera and messaging capabilities."
"Cell phone games are expected to grow from $345 million in revenues in 2004 to $1.5 billion in 2008 in the United States alone, according to market research firm IDC."
"In the cell phone market, video game publishers will have to justify their existence, Hawkins said. Since phone games cost so little to make -- often three months of work by a half-dozen programmers and artists -- he believes it will be easier for cell phone carriers to bypass game publishers."
The error in this thinking is that carriers will not make any games, so who will?
"He said a game publisher that doesn't focus on creating unique games that exploit the social nature of cell phones may be nothing more than a middleman waiting to be cut out of the action."
Read: network-enabled games... What about a mobile version of Sims?
Finally (strengthening my theory): "It's hard to get someone to start playing a new kind of entertainment without a hook like a brand,'' said P.J. McNealy, an analyst at American Technology Research. "In the long run, it may be unique content that wins. In the near term, it's about branding.''
Yahoo! News - Two visions for cell phone games
