MARKET APPEAL
KEY TO MOBILE GROWTH
Copyright 2005 iFone Analysis Survey
[ February 9th 2005 ]
Games
with mass market appeal will continue to dominate
mobile entertainment downloads in 2005, according
to wireless entertainment publisher iFone. Big
name brands from outside the console gaming world
have proven to be the most popular downloads for
mobile phones over 2004. Both of the final ELSPA
Java download charts of the year were dominated
by such titles with Monopoly at number one in
November, followed by Tetris in December, each
game published by iFone.
Other
mass market appeal titles, such as Pacman, Trivial
Pursuit, Pub Darts and Pub Pool, have continued
to consistently enjoy significant positions within
the chart over the year, according to data submitted
by the five major UK mobile operators.
Conversely,
console conversion games, mobile versions of the
extremely popular games developed for any of the
major console platforms such as Driv3r, Colin
MacRae Rally 2004 or Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell,
have appeared to have less mass market appeal
when released in mobile format. A significant
number of these games have entered the ELSPA chart
at a high position, only to disappear in the next
chart as consumers vote with their thumbs and
download other 'non-gamer' games instead.
Morgan
O'Rahilly, CEO of iFone, commented, "Looking at
the ELSPA charts from the past year shows that
iFone and other mass-market games publishers are
succeeding in reaching the right audience with
their games portfolio. The market for mobile games
is focused squarely upon the casual gamer, who's
looking to kill some time while travelling or
waiting for friends, rather than the dedicated
gamer who would play console games. The games
are mass market appeal games that are not necessarily
intricate, but just have extremely well developed
playability."
O'Rahilly
continued, "We've seen a remarkable trend in that
the consistently charting games have been those
that are simple and easy to play such as Tetris,
Monopoly and the classic Atari games iFone has
developed. These mass market games have provided
operators with the highest revenues in 2004 and
this is definitely going to continue in to 2005
and further as iFone develops more and more games
with mass market appeal that casual users will
want to play."
|