This does not mean the N-Gage has been completely disappointing, as Nokia is able to use the N-Gage software platform to expand its entrance in gaming. “We learnt that people want to play games on all devices. As such we are integrating the gaming software into Series 60 phones.”

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To reach this $55 billion sales prediction for the global video game industry, the market would have to grow at an average rate of 16.5% from its 2004 level of $25.4 billion. PWC defines the video game industry to include software, subscriptions and advertising, while excluding hardware and accessories.

Asia-Pacific will see substantial growth of 18% annual growth to raise its video game sales to $23.1 billion in 2009. The United States will see annual growth of 12.9% to reach PWC’s $15.1 billion prediction for the market. EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) will see the largest growth with an annual average of19.1% to increase its 2004 total of $6.0 billion to $14.3 billion in 2009.

While the market is growing, the pieces of the industry are beginning to shift. The PC game market will decrease from $771 million in 2004 to $655 million in 2009, and that is with the strong support from Latin America which is still seeing moderate growth. Console mobiles are showing substantial growth prior to the next-gen fixed console launch and will continue to remain strong. Outside of the more standard game market, mobile games on cellphones will see significant growth thanks to new innovations, with the U.S. along growing from $281 million in 2004 to $2.1 billion in 2009.

The 50 page full report can be purchased from PWC for $95.

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In addition, Player X has added SEGA veteran Nick Alexander as Chairman of its board of directors and Fox Kids Europe founder Ynon Kreiz as a non-executive board member.

As mentioned in our reporting of the company’s annual report, Tiger still has a sizeable war chest for the release of the Gizmondo. The question is will it be enough to compete against the PSP and DS.

We have only spent a limited amount of time with the Gizmondo, but it is a nice device that more than competes with its rivals. However, few consumers know of the brand, and the “awareness” battle will be a difficult one and one that will likely be decided based on “buzz”.

However, with total losses of more than $328 million ($11.1 million in 2002, $8 million in 2003, $99 million in 2004 and $210 in the first six months of 2005), investors are looking to see results of the new Gizmondo releases. The company has $71 million in cash or current assets (easily convertible to cash) which should provide the company time to see how the Gizmondo does on the market, given that the large development costs are likely over.

The Gizmondo is a nice device, but it is entering a very competitive market with much larger players. These latest versions compare much more closely with Sony’s PSP, with its own pluses and minuses. With all considerations, it will be difficult for the company to sell enough units to breakeven, but the possibility does exist. While Sony and Nintendo are focusing almost entirely on gaming, Tiger Telematics has opened the device up early to other types of applications.

At the very least, it is good to see someone trying to shake up the mobile console market. Nintendo took a bold step with the DS, but there is always room for innovation.

For those that are interested, the full year results filing can be found online here.

Gameloft has shown quick growth in the past year mostly due to its growth in mobile gaming, which generated 96% of the total 134% in revenue growth. The company’s total workforce also increased from 432 employees in June of 2004 to 1,375 employees in June of 2005, of which there are almost 1,200 developers.

While total revenues have grown, total operating profits have decreased from 0.8 million Euros for the first half of 2004 to 0.6 million Euros for the first half of 2005. Analysts attribute this to the companies focus on developing a solid foundation for future growth and development efficiencies. Overall, Gameloft is in a good position to target the continued growth in the mobile gaming market.

Jamster! has received quite a bit of attention in the past for being both widely successful and widely controversial. Youths know the company as a frequent advertiser in magazines and on MTV in Germany. Parents know the company because of the charges that regularly show up on the phone bills they pay for their children. The company was sued earlier in the year for allegations of signing consumers up for monthly subscriptions and recurring charges without proper disclosure.

Jamster! Guardian should go a long way toward answering the critics. Parents should always discuss the cost of purchases, whether mobile or fixed, with their children, but this new service gives parents additional control. The service should be offered in the UK this week and will be rolled out in other countries before the end of the year.

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.

Werd Interactive, based in Huntsville, Alabama, has begun offering a new Neo Retro brand specifically to target the low cost casual game market. All Neo Retro titles will be initially prices at $1.99 USD and are available directly from Werd Interactive’s website. Initial game releases are available for Nokia, Motorola, SonyEricsson, LG, Samsung and Sanyo handsets and include:

• Flipper Flip – A simple and engaging puzzle game. Flip the colored tiles. Match 3 colours in a row to make the tiles disappear.
• Meteor Storm – A classic arcade shoot ‘em up. Dodge left and right to avoid the meteors and shot as many as you can.
• Neo Blackjack – A simple, fun and easy-to-play Blackjack game.
• Neo Poker – The world’s most popular card game is back.

The industry continues to talk about pulling in the mass market, but few companies have been willing to breakaway from standard practices to lower the entry point for new mobile gaming customers. Werd has taking an innovative approach the business model that still protects its premium brands. The company may not be known by all, but they have been around since 2000 and have taken a step that the market has yet to see from the “big guys”. Congrats to them for trying something different. Sometimes it that one spark starts a fire.

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.

Glu currently publishes original titles and entertainment based on major brands including Atari, Cartoon Network, FOX Sports, Nickelodeon, PopCap Games and Twentieth Century Fox. This investment from Time Warner will likely give Glu more ready access to content licenses from Time Warner, which could drastically improve sales.

The Technology Suits issued a call earlier this year for more innovation in the location based gaming arena, and Blister has answered the call first for the United States. Several of us here also know the Blister team quite well and are happy to see their progress. Now a little about the games:

The games are now available to Boost customers for a monthly subscription of $5.99 for the first month and $2.99 for each additional month.

Swordfish starts by using the phone’s GPS technology to find schools of virtual fish around the player. Players begin by casting for fish and may need to move between 25 yards to approximately 100 yards to find the closest fish, while adjusting line length. According to the screenshots, the game uses data from NAVTEQ and offers a map of the area showing the fish to help in searching. After having played various beta versions of this game, we can assure you that this is a great simple game that is sure to have you handing your phone to your friends to see if they can beat your score.

Torpedo Bay places the user in middle of a naval battle with health and extra ammo located around the player. The player can use the phone’s location technology (GPS for Boost) to locate the closest health and ammo. The game then becomes a strategy game of firing (using “< ” and “>” to rotate your weapons) at your enemies while trying to resupply your battleship. Torpedo Bay again delivers on providing a truly unique experience to mobile gamers.

Swordfish, Torpedo Bay and Undercover 2: Merc Wars (released in Europe) show that the developers, carriers and consumers are finally beginning to open up to the opportunities of location based games. These recent releases also demonstrate how location based gaming crosses game genres and begin take mobile gaming in a direction that really uses the uniqueness of cellphones.

The NPD Group invited a balanced group of teens (13-17) and adults (18+) to complete the survey and received more than 8,700 responses, including over 6,700 from current wireless subscribers.

Key findings from the study included:

• 50% of U.S. wireless subscribers own a phone capable of downloading games
• 27% of wireless subscribers play games on their phones, including purchased downloads, free demos and pre-loaded games
• About 1/3 of those that play mobile games buy the games themselves
• About 2/3 of those that play mobile games only play demos or free pre-loaded games
• 6% of current non-gamers show an interest in playing games on their phone over the next 12 months
• The average mobile gaming session is 11 minutes in total length
• Consumers who play games on other devices (e.g. consoles, PC, laptop) are twice as likely to play on their cell phone
• 60% of kids between the ages of 13 and 17 are likely to be mobile gamers
• 23% of adults are likely to be mobile gamers
• Mobile gamers generally spend more money when buying their handsets; an average of 57% more
• Mobile gamers are generally “heavier users of their mobile phones” than non-gamers, using 48% more wireless minutes and spending 22% more than average
• The dominant purchase model in the U.S. is single downloads, as opposed to subscriptions
• “Compared to typical wireless subscribers, mobile gamers are twice as likely to be African-American, Hispanic or Asian”
• The most cited reason for playing mobile games is “to kill time or alleviate boredom”

While we would like to see more information regarding the demographic and economic split of the sample size, these high-level results and the overview of the full report, “Mobile Games: Who’s Playing”, are quite interesting and shed a good bit of needed light on the U.S. mobile games industry.

According to Ziff Davis Media’s annual “Digital Gaming in America” survey of more than 1,500 randomly selected U.S. households, nearly a quarter of all video game players watched less television than last year and expect to cut their viewing time even further this year. The study also showed that 76.2 million people in the United States play videogames, up from 67.5 million a year ago, representing an increase of 11.4%. The increase in gaming follows strong sales of portable gaming systems and reductions in the prices of current-generation video game consoles.

The Digital Gaming in America study is conducted by Ziff Davis Media Game Group, producers of leading print and online brands Electronic Gaming Monthly, Computer Gaming World, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine and 1UP.com. The study reveals a number of surprising shifts in gaming habits and consumer preferences in 2005.

The study lends credence to observations that consumers are increasingly turning away from television and towards videogames for their entertainment. The Digital Gaming in America study found that 24 percent of gamers reduced their TV watching over the last year, and a further 18 percent expect to do so in the next twelve months. Video gamers are generally spending less time watching television this year compared to last year: they watched 16 hours per week in 2005 versus 18 hours per week in 2004, representing an 11.1% decrease. Furthermore, among core gamers, High Definition Television (HDTV) viewership increased to 18% in 2005 versus 7% last year.

“We’re seeing a broadening of the gamer base as gaming goes more mainstream, and simultaneously a heightening of intensity among core gamers,” said John Davison, Vice President and Editorial Director of Ziff Davis Media Game Group. “We’ve see this expansion reflected in the discussions among our gaming community members on 1UP.com. Portable gaming in particular appeals to a more diverse audience, while the new high-definition capabilities promised in next-gen home consoles has raised core gamers’ expectations for high quality gaming.”

In 2004, video gaming overtook PC gaming for the first year ever. The strong growth in video games continued in 2005. This year, 62.6 million households played video games and 56.6 million played PC games, versus 54.5 million and 52.3 million, respectively, last year. According to the study, this year core gamers will spend an estimated $5.6 billion on gaming products, also up from a year ago.

One of the leading trends impacting the videogame market is portable gaming, which continues to grow strongly. According to the study, 40 percent of video gamers are likely to purchase a portable gaming device in the next twelve months.

Habits of a Portable Gamer

According to the study, 86% of video gamers own a cell phone this year, which is up from 70% a year ago. Of these individuals, 48% play games on their mobile devices. The high proportion is due mainly to the advancement in technology of cellphones and their ability to play multi-functional video games with improved graphics.

Other highlights include:
* Over 42% of gamers purchase games for their cell phones
* Mobile gamers spent an average of $13 in the last 60 days on mobile
games for their cell phones
* Mobile gamers spent 19 minutes per gaming session
* Text messaging is the most popular option on cell phones (77%),
followed by color screens (71%) and downloadable ring tones (67%)
* Arcade (57%), Card (44%) and Puzzle (37%) games are the most popular
games on cell phones

Methodology
The Digital Gaming in America 2005 study was conducted by the Strategy Group, an independent research company. One thousand five hundred and fifty eight people were polled, randomly, nationwide from May 2005 through July 2005.

Full text of press release

Kurt Uhlir, Chicago-based technologist and IGDA Mobile-SIG Chairperson, believes that innovation and a better understanding of location technologies and source material by game developers has been the barrier, but that wall is falling…

The mobile games industry did see a few early pioneers brave the location frontier with titles such as BotFighters from It’s Alive (now owned by Swedish games company Daydream Software), Portuguese developer Ydreams’ Undercover and France-based Newt Games’ Mogi Mogi, along with several academic proofs, such as CitiTag, from the UK’s Open University.

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Official company announcement

The argument can be made that the Zodiac simply tried to do to many things (similar to the claims around the N-Gage). However, Tapwave simply took too long to roll out this device and it simply could not compete with newer devices in terms of power.

Two years ago, experts predicted that by 2005, 3D games on mobile devices would be everywhere. They were premature – yet recent stirrings suggest the sleeping giant is finally waking. The article includes quotes from Kurt Uhlir – IGDA Mobile-SIG Chair and Chicago-based technologist, Thor Gunnarsson – Ideaworks3D and David MacQueen – Screen Digest.

Link to PDF of full article, courtesy of the magazine’s editor

The mobile gaming market is projected to expand with the introduction of 3G mobile technology in China.

China’s has over 363 million mobile phone users, according to statistics released at the end of June by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

The rapid development of online gaming is also a driving factor leading to the rising popularity of mobile phone gaming.

When contacted by GameDAILY BIZ an EA representative would only say, “We do not comment on rumors.” Superscape could not be reached for comment in time for publication. However, while EA had nothing to say about the potential acquisition a source close to the situation told us that there was “absolutely no truth” to the reports and that no such deal was actually in place.

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