The State of Mobile Gaming in 2010

A snapshot of where mobile games are at this year.

Three years ago, the Mobile Games Forum was a miserable affair, through no fault of its organisers.

The industry was in the doldrums thanks to flattening sales and fragmentation hassles, with many of the most talented developers talking openly about exiting the market.
 
In 2010, it's a different story. iPhone and its App Store have reinvigorated the mobile games industry at every level, including developers and publishers, but also handset makers and operators who are shaking up their own services and making games a priority.
 
The opportunities and challenges were chewed over at this year's MGF, but three areas in particular stood out as defining the mobile games industry in 2010.
 
Life beyond the iPhone
 
2009 saw a real gold-rush mentality around the App Store, with developers dumping J2ME to concentrate on iPhone, while publishers invested significantly in big-budget iPhone titles.

When games hit, they hit big, making millionaires out of several independent developers, while vaulting over the operators to become the biggest distribution channel for several major publishers.
 
However, 2010 is seeing a new awareness of the risks of putting all your eggs in a basket full of 140,000 other eggs.

“You can spend money, develop what is a very good title, launch it and then have that title absolutely lost among the pure volume of content that's out there,” said John Chasey MD of UK developer FinBlade.
 
Connect2Media CEO Eric Hobson put it more bluntly. “The App Store is going to be a killing zone for developers over the next 12 months, as the 98% of developers who don't make money disappear and die.”
 
For these reasons, more games firms are removing their iPhone blinkers and planning a serious push onto Android, BlackBerry and other smartphones in 2010.

Their app stores are less crowded, downward pricing pressure is less intense, and the platform owners are improving their stores and handset capabilities, while courting iPhone developers.
 
This includes the operators, who are launching their own app stores and giving games a new priority internally.

“You could argue that iPhone has taken those premium customers who've always bought content on operator decks to another channel,” said Jessica Gwyther, global content development manager at Vodafone Group.
 
“But all it's done is made us [operators and handset firms] work together on new devices and services coming that can create a similar standard of product and services for customers who don't want an iPhone.”
 
Android Market, BlackBerry App World and Nokia's Ovi Store will also enjoy an influx of rich, high-quality games in 2010. But looking beyond iPhone isn't just about mobile handsets.

Developers who've traditionally focused on the mobile space are also investing in porting their games to Facebook, to the recently-launched digital stores for Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS, and even console equivalents Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and WiiWare.
 
iPhone is still the lead platform for many mobile games firms, but it's no longer the whole story.
 
Marketing gets viral
 
Mobile games marketing was simple in the old days. It was a relationship thing: that relationship being with a limited number of operator games managers who had the power to guarantee prominent deck placement.

Even PR for games was an afterthought: securing sales was about signing brands, and then agreeing co-marketing campaigns with the operators to secure slots on their portals.
 
In the App Store world, it's very different. “You now have to engage with your customer on a regular, direct basis - you can't rely on those carrier relationships,” said Barry O'Neill, president of Namco Bandai Networks Europe.

“You have to engage on Twitter, and Facebook, and by doing proper marketing. We're moving from public relations into individual relations.”
 
That's a telling comment, and one that was repeated by TAG Games' Paul Farley at the conference.

“Rather than broadcasting to the masses, we're now talking to individuals - having conversations with our customers - and it's working for us. We don't have to talk to a million people. If we can talk to 20 or 30 people who are passionate about the game, they'll then take the message about our game to a much wider audience.”
 
Mobile games has the Web 2.0 bug, with developers and publishers now making heavy use of social media – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter – as well as spending more time liaising with games-focused websites and blogs before games are released.

Games firms may complain about the killing fields of the App Store, but they're also making the most of new technology to build buzz around their games and cut through the clutter.
 
The pricing question
 
The question of how much a mobile game should cost is also provoking huge debate within the industry in 2010.

There's widespread acknowledgement that the dive towards 99-cent price points (59p in the UK) is dangerous. It works for small independent developers who manage to have a massive hit, like Flight Control or Doodle Jump, but not for anyone else.
 
"We don't want to be led down a route where the consumer is deciding the price we sell games at," said Tony Pearce of Player X. "It should be the publisher and retailer".

This is part of the reason rival app stores, such as BlackBerry App World, are increasingly appealing for publishers - RIM doesn't allow paid apps to be sold for less than $2.99.
 
The cat may be out of the bag as far as cheap mobile games go, though, in Western markets. Meanwhile, prices are hardly likely to be higher in emerging markets.

"Look at a market like India: 97% of the market is prepay," said Patrick Mork from GetJar. Those people are not going to pay for content, and if they do, it'll be cents rather than dollars. We have to reinvent the business models in mobile, especially around mobile games."
 
For this reason, the industry is fascinated by 'freemium' models like those seen on Facebook, ...