The market for the development of games specifically for mobile market for phones has been thought of over the last few years as having huge opportunities without a lot of risk.
It’s been a region where the current gaming industry giants have been able to dominate taking EA Mobile’s 28.8 percent market share in the period that ended March 26, 2006 as per M:Metrics Inc.’s study of U.S. mobile phone users as well as permitting smaller studios that aren’t well-known to develop games that are profitable this is now nearly impossible for smaller companies that do not have the money to sustain the cost of each generation of console release.
The market for mobile games is seen as a market that’s yet to be completely tapped, but one where independent game developers can be able to succeed and become imaginative and creative when it comes to the games they decide to create. In this article we’ll review some of the advantages and disadvantages of creating games for this huge and ever-growing market.
Pros
The main reason why mobile game developers believe there is a lot of potential to create games specifically for the mobile phone market is the fact that the market potential for these games is unparalleled in its size. According to CTIA’s survey results on the wireless industry the estimated number of 207.9 million mobile phone users on their own, which is amazing when you consider the actual number of people living in that part of the United States is hovering at approximately 298.9 million right now.
If you take that number to a global scale then you’re looking at an audience that is expected to increase to 2.5 billion by the end the year 2006, and 3.5 billion at the end of 2010 according to research of the wireless networks strategies service from Strategy Analytics. In case you’re wondering the population currently of the globe is estimated at 6.5 billion as of today as per the International Programs Center, U.S. Bureau of the Census.
They are the bases that every console maker would want and you don’t even have to scratch a hole in the overall picture to create an application that is bought, downloaded and played by millions of players.
The advantages of attempting to tap into that enormous market are bolstered further by the incredibly affordable costs for developing games for mobile phones when contrasted with PC and console game development. This is a hurdle that’s almost impossible for smaller businesses when it comes to the development of console games especially when the next generation of devices are involved.
As the mobile phone gaming tech is akin to the technology of the beginning of the 1990s when videogame consoles, it’s also one of the rare places in which you can still find games created by small teams consisting of just a handful of people as was the norm in the “good old time” according to certain. Smaller teams provide more creativity and control for the people working on the game as well as much less costs for the people who are financing the game. If the name of your father is Bill Gates or you happened to make money by selling your shares of Google and Google, it’s not likely that your parents, you or friends have enough money to support the creation of a game for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s PlayStation 3 or Nintendo’s Wii.
The lower development costs can also be beneficial in other aspects in game creation. It allows businesses that are both small and large to take more risk in the kinds of games they want to develop . It also gives them the chance to being more imaginative when it comes to game mechanics and genre and also its characters and the story. Companies in the game industry are usually reluctant to make a risk with innovative IP’s (Intellectual Properties) because of the revenue needed to make money from console games. Therefore, the new trend is to depend on sequels of games that have already been marketed with a good brand and a large user base, or to create new games that are based on well-known and developed characters, stories and licenses.
If a game is being developed for an console, a business may feel the need to go out and purchase a license for an existing game that they’re working on in order to promote it and perhaps limit the creative things the game’s creators may want to accomplish with the game, simply because they perceive the challenge of marketing an untested IP as one they do not want to over. It’s much simpler to market and test games that are inspired by well-known and beloved characters, stories and licenses. If you’re not convinced then ask yourself, when someone releases an unlicensed football title that’s better than the EA’s NFL exclusively-owned football teams Do you think that it has the chance in the face of EA’s Monolith? It’s unlikely regardless of how excellent of the football game it could be.
Since the expenses are considerably less to create games that are suitable for this market, game developers can choose to staying with what they’d like to create and are free to play with their hearts because it’s easier to be profitable. Therefore, there isn’t enough of a reason to solely rely on a license purchased or an already established franchises to be able to justify making whatever game they would like to create.
Cons
There are 207.9 million mobile phone users within the United States and 2.5 billion globally However, it doesn’t mean that there are a lot of people who are likely to download new games, or even to pay for and download the latest games. According to M:Metrics Inc.’s study that just 24.2 percent of U.S. subscribers played any game using their mobile phones over the three months of the study, with just 8.3 percent of them downloaded a game as well as a meager 2.7 percent who downloaded games on their mobile game during the last month.
Although the number of games downloaded by 6 million may seem impressive however, it’s important to remember that there are a lot of mobile games available on the market, so the percentage of each game’s share is very small. It’s true that the number of subscribers is huge in number, gaming on mobile hasn’t fully embraced mobile gaming. It’s growing however, and clearly, it shouldn’t be overlooked.
Another disadvantage in creating game for the market of mobile phones is the fact that there are more companies to contend with and they have total control over the market. Instead of having to deal directly with Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo in the console world , or almost no one within the PC world, when developing games that are marketed to mobile phones, you’ll have to depend on the choices made by the service providers such as Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Cingular, and Nextel.
In addition The operators also have more control over the games they are sold to their customers because the majority of users buy services directly through their wireless provider. Although it is feasible to download game on the Internet which aren’t provided by their service provider, the majority users have a tendency to purchase and download games which are offered by their service provider. As with console manufacturers they also have high standards for the games that they offer via their services, which typically means that they will work on the majority of the phones that customers utilize.
This brings us to the next issue and that is that there is an astronomical amount of mobile phone devices that can be supported and markets are so fragmented, it’s essential to make sure that as many devices are supported as is humanly feasible. This has led to an environment where the engineering cost for developing games for mobile phones is significantly higher in relation to the overall budget of the game as compared with PC or console games. Your game not only require the appropriate mobile phone’s software platform that includes BREW and J2ME are the most popular choices in the present and also accommodate all of the phones, which have various screen sizes, input capabilities and limitations to their processing power. Making a game that functions great for the T-Mobile Sidekick II and then making sure that it’s functional on other phones is an arduous and daunting task.
The inability to process data of a lot of devices and the fact even the latest models don’t have the same capabilities to the latest generation of handheld videogames makes it difficult for developers to create in the types of games they are able to create. It is generally limited to the same kind of games developed in the 16 and 8-bit timeframes, and ideas that require advanced 3D graphics, and many of the breakthroughs that resulted from this will probably be impossible to create. Therefore, even though you might be able to experiment but you might not have the capability to be as imaginative and creative as you would be if you had the power of computers or input devices that are available in new and upcoming consoles or PC games.
In conclusion
The enthusiasm for the development of mobile-based games has been massive and continues to grow and it’s not difficult to understand why , given the cost-effectiveness and the huge user base that exists. However, it’s not something that’s been proven to be true and isn’t an easy process or an assured gold mine. However, it’s one of the only places where independent game developers have a chance of having their games developed for, which is an opportunity which shouldn’t be overlooked by those who create games and the people who buy the games.
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