Until today, most games available for purchase on cellphones all release at fairly close to the same price. While the price level differs depending on the country and carrier, carriers generally set the price for games and attempt to offer games at an initial price of around $5 per download or $3.50 for a monthly subscription. Prices for a given title will sometimes be lowered over time, but prices have appeared to care more about the brand of the game than the fun of the game.

Industry analysts, including The Technology Suits, have long predicted that the mobile gaming market will begin to segment titles based value, complexity and features, as in the fixed game and mobile console (GBA, DS, PSP) parts of the industry. Casual games and puzzle games are fun, but most of these games are relatively easy to create, and there is significant competition for this space. For example, every carrier is constantly approached with new versions of Texas Hold’em and Tetris style games.

The mobile game titles that have done a better job of maintaining higher prices are the more advanced casual games, such as Jamdat Bowling, and known branded games often tied to fixed game titles or movie releases. As phones and networks have advanced, consumers have begun to see more advanced mobile games such as Quake Mobile (by Pulse Interactive) and the location based multiplayer game Undercover 2 (by Ydreams).

The fixed game industry has long maintained pricing segmentation between new release AAA games, older AAA game, value games and casual games, with continued healthy grown in all segments. The mobile game market will move towards its own segmentation in the future, but many companies have been unwilling to make the first move until today.

Nintendo has been the single most dominant force in mobile console gaming with its various GameBoy models and the newer DS (no offense to our Sony comrades, but you are still new to the area). However, we have heard almost nothing from the company in the mobile non-console market (e.g. cellphones).

Nintendo has corrected that and taken the first step into mobile content outside of core gaming devices by creating Nintendo Mobile. Nintendo Mobile will begin by offering sounds and graphics related to the Super Mario series and upcoming Nintendo games, but we can only hope that mobile games will soon follow.

Consumers on NTT DoCoMo will have the first access to the new offering on October 17th, with releases on KDDI on October 20th and Vodafone on November 1st. Some content will be free, but most initial content will be available for a subscription of ¥210 ($2) per month.