The development market for applications for the mobile market for phones has been thought of over the last few years as having huge opportunities with the lowest amount of risk.
It’s been a region where the current gaming industry giants have been able to dominate with EA Mobile’s 28.8 percent market share for the period that ended March 6, 2006, according to M:Metrics Inc.’s research of U.S. mobile phone users as well as permitting smaller studios that aren’t well-known to continue developing games and make money which is now nearly impossible for smaller companies that do not have the money to meet 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 are able to flourish and be imaginative and creative when it comes to the games they decide to develop. In this piece we’ll look at the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile game developers in this huge and ever-growing market.
Pros
The primary reason 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 unmatched in terms of size. According to CTIA’s survey of the wireless industry it is estimated that there are 207.9 million mobile phone users on their own, which is remarkable when you consider that the number of people living in that part of the United States is hovering at about 298.9 million as of now.
If you take that number to a global level then you’re looking at an estimated subscriber base to grow to 2.5 billion at the end of 2006 . And 3.5 billion at the end of 2010 according to research of the wireless network strategy service from Strategy Analytics. In case you’re wondering the population currently of the world is estimated to be 6.5 billion, as of the present as per the International Programs Center, U.S. Bureau of the Census.
These are bases that every console maker would want and that you won’t have to even create a dent the overall picture to create an application that is downloaded, purchased and played by millions of players.
The advantages of tapping into this enormous market are bolstered further by the incredibly affordable costs for developing games for mobile phones when contrasted with PC and console game development. A challenge that is completely unachievable for smaller businesses when it comes to the development of console games especially where the next-generation 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 few places 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 mean more creative control for those who are working on the game as well as an incredibly low cost of cost for the person who is paying for the game. If you’re dad’s name’s Bill Gates or you happened to make money by selling your shares of Google It’s highly unlikely that your parents, you or even your family members have enough money to finance the creation of a game for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s PlayStation 3 or Nintendo’s Wii.
The lower development costs are also a benefit in other aspects in game creation. It allows businesses large and small and small to take more risk in the kinds of games they plan to create and gives them the chance to be more creative in terms of game play mechanics and genre as well as the characters and narrative. Companies in the game industry are usually reluctant to make a risk with the creation of new IP’s (Intellectual Properties) because of the revenue needed to make money from console games. The new trend is to depend on sequels to games that have already been marketed with a good brand and a large user base, or to create new games built on existing and well-known characters, storylines , and licenses.
In the case of a game that is developed for an console, a business may be compelled to look for and purchase a license to an existing game that they’re developing to help promote it and perhaps restrict the new things the game’s creators may want to incorporate into the game. This is because they view the obstacle of marketing an IP that isn’t well-known as one they do not want to attempt to overcome. It’s much simpler to market and test an original game that is built on well-known and adored characters, stories and licenses. If you’re not convinced then ask yourself, If someone launches an unlicensed football game better than the EA’s NFL exclusively-owned football teams are you sure that it’s even going to have the chance in the face of EA’s giant? This isn’t likely regardless of how great of the football game it could be.
Since the expenses are considerably less to create games specifically for this market, developers can choose to remaining with the exact thing they’d like to do. They also are free to stick to their guns since it’s less work to become profitable. Therefore, there isn’t enough of a reason to solely rely on a license purchased or an already established franchises for the purpose of making whatever game they would like to create.
Cons
There could be 207.9 millions wireless telephone users across the United States and 2.5 billion globally However, this doesn’t mean there are a lot of people who will download the latest games, or even purchase and download new 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 survey. There was just 8.3 percent downloaded a game and only 2.7 percent who downloaded games on their mobile game within the past month.
Although 6 million games downloaded may seem impressive but you need to consider that there’s an abundance of mobile games available on the market, so every game’s portion of this is rather small. However, the number of subscribers is huge in terms of size, gaming on mobile hasn’t fully embraced mobile gaming. It’s a growing market but, clearly, it shouldn’t be overlooked.
Another disadvantage in creating apps for mobile phones is the fact that there are many more operators to manage and they have absolute control over this market. Instead of having to deal directly with Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo in the world of consoles or nearly no one is in charge of the PC world, when creating games for the mobile phone market, you’ll have to depend on the decisions of the operators like Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Cingular, and Nextel.
In addition The operators also have more control over the games they offer to their customers since the majority of users purchase services directly through their wireless provider. Although it is feasible to download game on the Internet that aren’t available through the service provider, the majority of users have a tendency to purchase and download games that are available through their service provider. As with console manufacturers the operators also are required to provide quality games they’ll provide through their services, which typically means that they will work on the majority of the devices that their customers utilize.
This brings us to the next issue in that there’s an overwhelming amount of mobile phone devices to support , and this market has become so dispersed, it’s essential to make sure that as many devices are supported as is humanly feasible. This has led to an environment in which the engineering cost for developing games for mobile phones is significantly higher in relation to the overall budget of the game as compared to PC or console games. The game doesn’t just need to run on the appropriate mobile phone platform and BREW and J2ME are the most well-known options currently and also be compatible with all the various phones, which have various dimensions, input capabilities, screen sizes as well as limitations on their processing power. The process of creating a game that runs perfectly with Mobile’s Sidekick II and then making sure that it’s compatible on other phones could be an extremely difficult and challenging task.
The low processing capabilities of a lot of devices and the fact even the most sophisticated ones don’t have the same capabilities to the latest generation of videogame handhelds means that game developers are restricted in the types of games they can create. It is generally limited to the same kind of games developed in the 16- and 8-bit times and concepts that require advanced 3D graphics, and many of the breakthroughs that resulted from this will likely be unattainable. Therefore, even though you might be able to try new things but you might not have the capacity to be as inventive and creative as you would be if you had the power of computers or input devices that are available in today’s and future-generation consoles as well as PC games.
In conclusion
The enthusiasm for developing mobile games is enormous and continues to grow and it’s not difficult to understand the reason why with the affordable cost of entry and the huge user base available. However, it’s not something which is a sure thing or backed by any evidence, nor is it something that’s easy to implement and an assured gold mine. It is, however, one of the only places that independent game developers can have a chance of having their games developed for, which is an opportunity which shouldn’t be overlooked by the people who make games and the people who buy games.