NY Games Conference - Mobile Gaming

The opening sitdown of the conference started with a very detailed breakdown by the NPD Market Research Group. They provided a whole host of numbers regarding whats up and whats down in the market right now. Since the topic of discussion here is mobile gaming those are  the numbers we are gonna focus on.

Overall the iPhone as a platform is booming. Gaming has it's rightful place in the top 10 of what people use the phone for ( came in at #9 ). But how much money is there to be made off of this? While apps on the store are numbered well past thirty-two thousand how many people are making money in such a crowded marketplace? The overall answer : some but not many.

The key reason being that consumers don't seem particularly interested in spending a lot of money on mobile games. In fact the vast majority of games played by the users ( 78% ) are free titles. Which when compared to the amount of free games versus games you have to pay for really emphasizes that fact ( only 24% of games on the marketplace are free ). To add further complications for developers trying to break in is that the average price a user paid for a game was barely over a dollar. 

But not all is bad news for the iPhone. There have been varying degrees of success by a lot of developers despite the challenges. Also mobile gaming as a whole has been garnering a lot more attention. A good example would be this years TGS ( Tokyo Game Show ) in which mobile games attended in nearly double the amount compared to the previous year. On top of that is the realization that the platform is more prevalent in people's lives. A good example would be that a single family might own one xbox360 but each individual will have their own phone they might purchase games on independently.

So where does that leave us?

The Good:
 - With an ever growing user-base and "limitless" potential for growth, mobile gaming is on the rise quickly
 - The rise of smart phones has opened up the once simple cel-phone to become a multi-purpose entertainment device that can run serious games
 - With apple's 70/30 split on profits, developers get access to a major market without a lot of cost to them. Good potential to make a lot of money!

The Bad:
 - Its hard to break into the spotlight to attract attention to your particular product
 - Users don't seem ready to dish out a lot of money on games for their phones
 - Games in general had the lowest average cost of all apps on the phone ( ouch )

So there you have it! Keep in mind though that the mobile market in general is still in an infancy stage. Developers are only now realizing the seriousness of the platform and soon users will look at cel phones as more than just a communication tool but  as gaming platform as well. Once those connections are made perhaps then will users be ready to spend a bit more and we will see an even larger rise of the now fast expanding mobile gaming market.