Global mobile games market to grow 78% in 2005

Source: Telecompaper

The onset of mass multiplayer gaming, a widening gaming demographic, greater playability, and increased adoption of mobile services in emerging markets point to a fast expanding market for mobile games, according to a new report from Juniper Research. “With console games, customers are obliged to make the commitment to purchase a fairly expensive piece of hardware. The beauty of mobile is that it provides a potential global audience of several hundred million 2.5G users who already have that hardware in the form of their handset,” said report author, Dr Windsor Holden.

Dr Holden added that developers and publishers were now recognising the need to expand the demographic beyond the core gamer.

“Many of the mobile games released thus far have been first person shooter (FPS) and sports simulations. These staple genres of console and PC have attracted a similar calibre of gamer to the mobile, namely young adult males. Consequently, the rest of the mobile audience was largely ignored. Increasingly, we’ll see a wider range of lifestyle games aimed at audiences beyond the core gamer.”

“Furthermore, in a number of emerging markets – most notably India – games console, PC and indeed fixed broadband penetration is negligible. Any games market which develops in these countries will see a substantial proportion – possibility even the majority – of their revenues derived from mobile services.”

Other findings from the report include:
• Total value of global mobile games market to rise by 78% during 2005 to nearly US$5.6 billion.
• The value of the North American market expected to increase tenfold over the next five years to US$4.1 billion.
• For mass mobile multiplayer gaming to become a reality, data download costs must fall, while the average purchase price of games will rise to reflect this.
• More than one-third of games revenues to be derived from rentals and subscriptions by 2009 rather than download.