There is an interesting interview regarding gaming platforms… Essentially, the mobile phone verses the various console platforms. The argument is not entirely off the edge, however I think the person being interviewed, David Gosen of I-Play, does gloss over a number of issues.

If we look at the mobile industry as a space, I think it’s very important that we continue to see it as a mass market, casual gaming environment. Today there are 2 billion global subscribers on mobile. The market’s going to be worth US$ 6 billion by 2010, and it will grow about 30 per cent to 35 per cent every year up until that point – so there is tremendous growth.

2006 marks the first time that there will be more touch points for mobile gaming than there will for console. In terms of revenues, of course, console’s far greater, but more games will be played on mobile than they will on console. So if you are a brand owner, if you’re looking to get your content out to the mass market; mobile offers tremendous scope to do that.

If you look at the console industry, over 300 million consoles have been sold in the last 25 years, while 800 million phones get sold every year. Which one’s mass market? It has to be the mobile device.

Mobile is not console, for a number of reasons. One is mass market. This is a mass market business, and although console’s been successful, it’s been successful for a pretty tightly defined niche of players. I think that’s perhaps starting to change, and will take time, but mobile is true mass market.

I-play CEO David Gosen – MobileIndustry.biz

Actually, he’s very right. While a lot of the gamers are screwing up their faces or just blatantly laughing at his comments, think about a few things first.

The most popular games are simple casual games. Pogo.com is doing exceptionally well because the games it offers are simple games that are easy to learn and very fast to get into the thick of. You can easily develop your skill and the investment in time verses the pay off in reward is at a most excellent level. Consider games like Jewel Thief, Minesweeper, Word Scramble or even Sudoku. We’re talking simple flash (or similar) games here. The market for these games far exceeds the market for any other game at the moment. This is the space where the majority of casual players are likely to be found.

These are also the games many women play. In fact, the majority of female game players can be found playing these types of games, especially the puzzle games.

But then there are many other people like myself. As an example, I have bought at least 8 games directly from Gameloft in the past 2 weeks. Why? Because no matter where I am, I always have my phone on me. Yesterday I went to the city. While sitting on the train, I was playing games on my cellphone. When I was out in the middle of the forest guarding a site out at Huia, I had my phone with me. Over Christmas when I’m guarding out in Kumeu, I’ll have my phone with me.

So I download, install and play games on my phone. Its small, easily fits in my pocket, is always where I am. It doesn’t have to have the best graphics. It just needs to be a compelling game that will entertain me. And this is what a lot of cellphone games provide.

If Pogo were smart, they’d start porting a lot of the games they provide to the J2ME platform. For example, multiplayer games are possible over GPRS/CDMA connections, or even using Bluetooth. Most J2ME phones using MIDP 2.0 offer some very compelling features as well as very impressive graphics given their computing power. You only have to look at some of the games available from Gameloft to see what I mean.

Do I think that mobile gaming will ever compete with PC or even Console gaming in terms of revenue? Not for a few years yet. But I’ll be brutally honest when I say that its rapidly becoming my primary gaming platform. Simply because its becoming rare that I have the opportunity to spend extended periods of time playing games. I’ve hardly had the opportunity to sit and play Guild Wars in recent weeks, and I’m contemplating playing WoW after Christmas.

But I think its safe to say that I will spend a lot more hours playing games on my cellphone than I will on the computer or consoles.

Then we hit the argument that includes the PSP and the NinDS in this debate. Let me just say that while I think they’re both great platforms, I’m able to get a game on my phone for US$3. I already own the phone. The PSP and NDS games cost an average of around NZ$40-$50. So even after I’ve spent the extra money to buy the Portable or the DS, I still have to go and spend a lot more money on games. For one DS/PSP game, I could get 10 games on my cellphone. Why’d I wanna do that again?

Heres one example…

The movie Open Season has spawned quite a few game offshots for all the various platforms. Open Season on the DS costs NZ$79.95 while the same game for my cellphone costs only US$3. :-) And don’t forget, I’d have to pay NZ$250 or so for the NDS itself in the first place.

So, sure, there is a lot more money to be made initially in Console gaming, but the simple fact of the matter is that there are a lot more cellphones out there than there are consoles or portable gaming platforms. If a game is a good game, it will sell, regardless of the graphics. The Wii proves that you don’t need the latest and greatest graphics capabilities. The popularity of sites like pogo.com and similar also proves that easy to play games are often more popular than complex games.

Having said all that, mobile gaming on your cellphone won’t replace consoles or PCs… Ever. However, it may replace the hand held market like the DS and the PSP in the future. Nokia’s N-Gage was way too early for what it was. It wasn’t thought out properly and they tried too hard to make it a proprietary platform like the DS and PSP are. Mobile gaming will be the killer platform because of J2ME… Develop once, deploy on a very large number of devices with minimal effort. Just look at what Gameloft is doing to get an example of that.

I’ll never buy a PSP or a DS. I simply refuse to spend that much money on a device that is so limited in its functionality. Everything a DS can do, I can do on my cellphone as well, and then some. Sure, the games might not be as complex or as long on my phone, but they’re still fun and they keep me entertained when I have a few minutes of time to waste. Oh, and I finally learned how to play BackGammon, I am getting much better at playing Poker and the Brain Challenge is actually a fun way to improve your brain’s agility. That doesn’t even include the arcade style games like Syberian Strike, Splinter Cell and others that I couldn’t resist. ;-)

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