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GDC 2007: Mobile Games? People play those? photo

The scary thing about the Mobile Game Industry is that they seem no more sure of its ability to succeed than the gamer who reacts apathetically to it. I was curious about the real deal, so I checked out a seminar today called "Are We Having Fun Yet?" The name itself gave me the giggles, so I thought it might be worth it to see if the developers themselves could explain to me why I should be playing mobile titles.

Our host was Mark Stephen Pierce, CEO of Super Happy Fun Fun (got to love any company with the nuts to use a little meth addict face for the logo). They put out an award winning game called 3D Tilt-A-Whirl where you actually tilt the phone in your hand to control the pinball. Kind of a neat concept, right? So why is all of America clamoring to buy a Wii to go bowling, but less than 10 percent of gamers can be bothered to download any mobile game that isn't Tetris?

Per Mr. Pierce, in 2004 the top mobile games were Tetris, Bejeweled and Pac-Man. Fast forward three years later. The three top mobile games of 2007? Tetris, Bejeweled and Pac-Man. Wow. It's grown by leaps and bounds, hasn't it? According to the numbers, 7 million people play a game on their cell phones once a week. It makes me curious as to who these people are, because I don't know one gamer who plays anything other than Tetris on their bus or subway trips. Do you?

Mobile developers are aiming for a very simple customer with a short attention span. There's nothing wrong with that, but the very same consumer likely to be attracted to these games is likely to forget about them 5 minutes later. How to capture and keep the attention of this demographic is anyone's guess, and it looks like the developers themselves are still trying to get their finger on it.

For now, mobile games are the equivalent of staging a musical in a graveyard. They're trying hard to make it happen, but it seems to always be struggling to get to the next level. Do any of you actually play mobile games? If so, what games are so much fun that you actually want to play them more than once? Most importantly of all, do any of you think that mobile games can overcome the crappy medium of a cellular screen?


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32 comments | showing # 1 to 32

plyr3005's Avatar
plyr3005 at 03/06/2007 16:24
Bounce, by Nokia. I play it when i'm bored, usually during bus rides. It's fun and it ctually got me hooked. I beat it in a week. I wish nokia could make downloadable levels...

Also, Anderatti Racing (sp?) which was a decent F1 game. (it sucked)
blu3steel's Avatar
blu3steel at 03/06/2007 16:26
I hate mobile games. Every time I hear about mobile games I cringe.
xtofuconsumerx's Avatar
xtofuconsumerx at 03/06/2007 16:27
I play mobile games as a very last resort.
scottus's Avatar
scottus at 03/06/2007 16:28
i will admit, I play them. Much easier than sneaking my ds into the crapper at work.
Natedizzle's Avatar
Natedizzle at 03/06/2007 16:31
LG phones are garbage.
demonelite's Avatar
demonelite at 03/06/2007 16:34
The only good mobile phone game other then Tetris is Doom RPG, but my hands ache after 5 mins of play time :(
BluDesign's Avatar
BluDesign at 03/06/2007 16:35
I think the iPhone has the potential to break phone gaming to the next level, but that's largely due to the fact that this phone is basically a small computer loaded with OSX. Code your game for OSX and you're done, I'm guessing. Doubt it's that simple.
Chris Taran's Avatar
Chris Taran at 03/06/2007 16:37
I can't wait till these companies realize that this fabled mobile phone games market they think exists is a figment of their imaginations.

NO ONE [u]WANTS[/u] TO PLAY GAMES ON THEIR PHONE!

Just because this market seems viable in Asian territories doesn't mean the America's (and possibly Europe, but really I have no idea what they want) want anything to do with it!
Chris Taran's Avatar
Chris Taran at 03/06/2007 16:38
Okay, so underline bbcode doesn't work :)
BritiniMartini's Avatar
BritiniMartini at 03/06/2007 16:39
I played em when I was in school to make the time pass. It's fun for when you're trying to kill time like at an airport or something. I just wouldn't play anything on my phone other than at times like that. It hurts my fingers after a while. Plus I ran up my bill pretty bad once by playing some family feud game. Damn it's addicting.
Gameboi's Avatar
Gameboi at 03/06/2007 16:40
I love video games as much as the next person, but playing them on my phone just doesn't interest me. If I want to go mobile, I'll use something that was designed for games, such as the DS.

Namelessted's Avatar
Namelessted at 03/06/2007 16:43
I think games on cell phones is an absolute waste of time. There is a gigantic market for mobile games, look at the fucking Nintendo DS. they sell shit tons of those things. And that is what people want. If anybody actually plays games, they are going to get a DS if they want to play anything outside of Tetris on the bus. That is just how it is, plain and simple. the cell phone will absolutely never have the same controls or processing power as a stand alone device.

I have argued similar points before. Companies just need to make cell phones a really good phone. I would fucking love it if my cell phone had a really nice speaker and microphone. That would be amazing if i could actually talk to people on a cell phone. But they are focusing way too much time on cell phones games and other shit.

I think any developer that is putting effort into cell phone games is a fucking tool and should be slapped. Cell phones are not of any significance in the game market. they need to spend their time working on DS titles or something else.
Toneman's Avatar
Toneman at 03/06/2007 16:44
I use my phone for phone things. Like, you know, making phone calls.
bhive01's Avatar
bhive01 at 03/06/2007 16:56
Prove it Toneman.
Toneman's Avatar
Toneman at 03/06/2007 16:57
You hear your phone ringing bhive? That's me, answer it.



HA! Fooled you! It wasn't me!
Topher Cantler's Avatar
Topher Cantler at 03/06/2007 16:59
It's so funny to me that they tout those three games as the top sellers when those are the ones that come pre-installed on every fucking phone on the market. All those numbers show are how many phones were sold that year. :P
bhive01's Avatar
bhive01 at 03/06/2007 17:02
Damn it was a telemarketer. You win Toneman.
disrupto's Avatar
disrupto at 03/06/2007 17:06
There is a gigantic market for things like the DS, but those numbers are tiny compared to the accessability of cell phones. They've sold like, what, 50 million DS and PSP units combined so far? Compare that to the one-billion-plus phones out there on the market, most of which can at least run Tetris, Bejeweled and Pac-Man.

The more processor-intensive mobile games can only run on a fraction of handsets anyway (ngage anyone?), and I think that's why Tetris, Bejeweled, and Pac-man always end up on top.
disrupto's Avatar
disrupto at 03/06/2007 17:14
I think for mobile games to get better, someone has to step in and really have a solid platform for developers. It looks like Nokia's trying to do that by incorporating n-gage into all of its phones:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12993

Apple's starting to do it too on their iPods and of course, the iPhone, but until there's some kind of real standard, we're just going to see more Tetris and Bejeweled.
Tondog's Avatar
Tondog at 03/06/2007 17:14
Ratchet and Clank: Going Mobile is pretty good for a phone game...
galagabug 's Avatar
galagabug at 03/06/2007 17:28
mobile gaming will take off once they come up with a better input mechanism that the shitty directions or numpad on your phone.

super happy fun fun is the only company to really move outside of that realm, and i'm honestly dissapointed 3d tilt a world isn't available on verizon.

cell gaming will never replace the console experience, but with increased storage, higher resolution screens, and more effort put in to graphic processing in every generation of phones, there's no reason the cell phone can't replace your handheld.
mattattaxx's Avatar
mattattaxx at 03/06/2007 18:19
Playing games on phones always feels so slow and tedious. It's like playing a new game on a crappy computer - It's just not fun anymore.
Tiff's Avatar
Tiff at 03/06/2007 18:34
While I for one don't play games on my cellphone (I mean, why bother when you have a DS. Psh.) I think its important to consider that the demographic these guys are aiming for are most likely the hordes of 'casual' gamers that have sprouted up with the dawning of the multi-functional mobile phone unit.

When I'm on the train, subway, or in the airport waiting for my plane, I notice a significant amount of business gurus meddling their stodgy fingers all over their cellphone key pad, playing (guess what) Tetris, Bejeweled, or Pacman. I doubt the developers of mobile games are actually aiming for 'hardcore gamers'. I can only assume they're looking to attract the bored chumps who would much rather play a mindless game on their cellphone than, oh, i don't know, read a book. These are most likely the same folks that make 'classic hits' like Solitaire and Mindsweeper continually show up as default games on computers. These 7 million people, naturally, cannot be addressed as 'gamers' by any means.

Anyway...just a thought.
Husky Hog's Avatar
Husky Hog at 03/06/2007 18:51
OMFG IT'S COLETTE

Heard you talking about this article :P

i'm fuckin tight 8)
BlueJester's Avatar
BlueJester at 03/06/2007 19:39
Cell phones are not made for gaming. And the phones that are made for gaming (N-gage) are crap. Why spend time on a half assed game when I have much better and elaborate games on my DS?
Im OK's Avatar
Im OK at 03/06/2007 20:08
The mobile phone industry needs to leave gaming to the pros and just focus on perfecting those things that cell phones do best, like taking pictures, sending emails, scrubbing toilets, doing taxes, julienning potatoes, and giving handjobs.
Im OK's Avatar
Im OK at 03/06/2007 20:15
But seriously though, it is for games like these that the cell phone gaming industry, as a whole, truly needs to be tied to a stake and set ablaze.
BlueJester's Avatar
BlueJester at 03/06/2007 20:46
It's like when the psp said "HEY DOODS, I PLAY SWEET TUNES AND YOU CAN LOOK AT YOUR AWESOME PICTURES!!!" In reality though, we all know the psp is best at games. cell phones are good at calling people and tip calculators... not much more.
Tubatic's Avatar
Tubatic at 03/06/2007 22:04
Couple notes: The guys making the phones are completely different from the guys making the games. While the guys making the phones may want you to do sweet jumps on them, they're not going to put in the third cupholder that the guys making the games would like.

Also, its a booming market by shear numbers, as people have said. Mobile games industry isn't thinking about the hardcore gamer, and probably wont, since they have to realize they all have handhelds.

Plus, there are some good *ideas* on cell phone. Like the multiplayer Pirates game that came out and like 5 people played. Cool idea (pickup and play multiplayer shootout on boats), but not supported by the current technology (many networks just aren't fast enough to handle that much data?). Its a mater of getting them to work right.

And even, on top of that, mobile gaming media is a joke. When IGN is the best source for mobile gaming reviews, thats a sign that your industry is failing to garner a hardcore fanbase. not that its important or anything.

But also, no one's come in and really made the experience legit. Like Nintendo. If Nintendo dedicated time into a cell phone game, hyped it approrpiately, and made it work nice on any platform, then we'd have ourselves a viable "console" in mobile gaming.

And finally, Tetris works, Pacman and Bejeweled work on the crappiest phones, with the crappiest screensize, and the crappiest sound. From a design standpoint, they win. To make a confusing profound statement, Mobile Gaming doesn't have its Tetris yet.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 03/06/2007 22:35
It's a fine platform for casual gaming, but the vast differences between the devices and lack of a decent control scheme will always keep it niche.
daCuk's Avatar
daCuk at 03/07/2007 09:30
Mobile games?
Didn't they die with the N-Gage?

Geeez, mobile games suck just for the fact that cellphones have no dedicated joypads....
John Master Lee's Avatar
John Master Lee at 03/14/2007 22:26
You want to know why Tetris, Pacman and Bejeweled are the top games still after 3 years? Because the industry was so small when it started, and it's growing in leaps in bounds. Growing so fast that all these new people are signing up and buying games each month, and these top three games are the most recognizable ones they buy first. The mobile content has practically doubled from 1-2% of ARPU 3 years ago, to 2-4% 2 years ago, to 4-8% last year, and now nearly double that. But put that into perspective. Downloadable mobile content is still only about 10% of overall wireless carrier revenue.

So yes, I still ask the question who plays these games, apparently only about 10-15% of the people out there do. But is growing darn fast.

I guarantee you that once the industry gets big, you'll see some new games up in the top 10. Even some console games gone mobile.
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