GDC Mobile’s founding chairman Robert Tercek has attacked the “colossal failure of merchandising” that's stifling the creation of a long tail in mobile gaming.
Speaking about the history of mobile gaming’s first 10 years this week’s GDC event, Tercek said that games are not a priority for networks and that this has resulted in limited portal menus that leave no room for older titles.He believes this, along with a compressed cycle of rapid innovation in mobile that de-stabilises the market, has stifled growth. He said: “$2.5 billion is a big number and something that we should be proud of. But why isn’t it more than that? Why isn’t it $18 billion? It’s difficult to believe that five years ago, people were saying that today’s mobile games market would be worth more than the PC and console games market combined.”
Despite this, Tercek is optimistic. He believes Nokia’s new N-Gage activity will help drive innovation and that DIY marketing, outsourced games service, the continued rise of the Brew signature solution, free games and the rise of India and China will help push industry revenues past $7 billion by the end of this decade.
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