Aw. Every time I visit Japan, it refuels my hope that the U.S. will someday have a mobile games market that supports the release of the solid, quality titles that Japan sees. It finally seems like we're getting devices with enough power to run these Japanese-quality mobile titles, but sales aren't reflecting that.
Juniper research says that mobile game sales have "flatlined across North America and Western Europe".
GamesIndustry.biz says that the market is expected to rise from $5.4 billion to $10 billion by 2013, but limited on-portal revenue share for publishers and poor game marketing is screwing things up.
"The revenue share offered by Apple to games publishers is incredibly attractive," said the author of the report. "The danger is that if operators do not respond with a similar business model, publishers faced with low margins may simply exit Java completely, thereby reducing consumer choice in the longer term."
I don't know if it's really the sales model that needs changing, though. It would help, but I think the quality of games is the problem here.
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
10:49 AM on 11.18.2008
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The problem, as I see it, really is the aggregation and coverage of the available technology. Mobile is really putting a mean value app on as many similar spec phones as possible. Once you get all those covered, you're figuring out what you can and can't get certified, and then, you can't really advertise meaningfully, compared to the investment.
And that's where Apple wins by their same playbook. They're designing the hardware, the firmware, and the app store. When all those parties are on the same page and running toward the same goal (or if nothing else, the same pocket), then you're free to advertise cheap applications on million dollar advertisements.
If the mobile game biz is ever going to touch the level of end user influence that Apple has, its got to start streamlining the process. Android and N-Gage are steps in the right direction. But its then a matter of scope. Until every phone comes with a truly standardized feature set, and every carrier deck cleans up its deck practices, people will continue to have no idea what to think of the mobile games sector, let alone realize that there are good things happening there.
But you know, when you're making $5.4 billion on selling games by name recognition and a 2 sentence blurb, who needs to try hard?
People will buy any old shit if its marketed properly or they think it's cool. Look at all the retro games on XBLA