Revenue from mobile games slipped nine per cent during the second quarter to 30 June 2007, compared to an 11 per cent rise during the first - bad news for a market which constantly portrays itself as under-exploited. The figures come from market analyst firm iSuppli, which attributes the drop to the fact that only a small …

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Monday 12th November 2007 17:05 GMT moylan

not really surprising

when i got my first smart phone a nokia 3650 i bought about 10 games which i played quite a bit. after a year when i bought a new phone i couldn't just transfer those games over. like a lot of people i change phones every year or so. i'm not going to pay a yearly fee for these games no matter how good they are.

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Monday 12th November 2007 17:05 GMT Anonymous Coward

There's a good reason they're slipping.

The reason is: mobile games are shite.

Really.

I decided I'd try one recently so I downloaded Sim City, expecting to get a bit of nostalgic gameplay from the original. What I got was a naff waste of pixels that took all the great parts of Sim City Original and threw them out the window. Then shat on them. Then stamped on the pieces, giggling insanely while it masturbated all over my phone.

The other couple of games I tried are absolute tat as well. I wasted a fiver on them. Never going to do it again.

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Monday 12th November 2007 17:05 GMT Arif Rashid

Mobile Gaming, Pah!

Mobile gaming (as in gaming on your mobile) is really a joke. The games out there for mobiles are all well and good, but most people dont buy games to play on their mobile, they got their mobile to make calls. The only people who really buy games are children and (hardcore) gamers. Both of these groups are more likely to have already purchased a dedicated gaming machine, instead of relying on a device that normally has a screen size smaller than a watch display. The only way more games are going to be shifted is if the price reflects what their main target audience (kids) can afford, which can only mean reducing their prices.

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Monday 12th November 2007 19:50 GMT Anonymous Coward

Not really a surprise

While some pretty good content is available, it is usually overpriced. This is due to a number of things.

Mostly the fact that you beloved operator takes between 50-60% of the price, leaving the content high and dry. Then you have to consider the data plan, and the quest to have your handset configured.

As for transferring your games... sorry not possible. It may be Java, but the manufacturers release such flaky implementations that the file you downloaded will only work for one type of phone.

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Monday 12th November 2007 19:50 GMT Anonymous Coward

Waffle

"The only people who really buy games are children and (hardcore) gamers."

Complete Rubbish.

Mobile games do sell, and they do make bucks, they're just making less millions than they were the previous quarter. It's a fickle market - anything involving people parting with money is, as they have bills to pay and other influences reflect their habits as consumers.

A good hint that it's not children nor hardcore gamers that are buying mobile games, but people with outside responsibilities such as bills and mortgages.

The demographic for mobile games is varied, but is comprised of a great many casual gamers - the opposite to hardcore gamers. You'll see more businessmen and women (generally) playing mobile games than you'll ever see kids, who are more interested in playing crap music on their speakers at the back of the bus.

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Monday 12th November 2007 19:50 GMT Joe K

I used to enjoy mobile games....

..till they got such long loading times(along with fucking unskippable pubisher logo-wank screens) by the time you can start playing your bus has shown up or your shit has hit the water and its wipe time.

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Monday 12th November 2007 19:50 GMT Sampler

Windows Mobile FTW!

Using SCUMM VM I have some nostalgic moments replaying Day of the Tentacle or the First Two Monkey Islands - windows mobile devices lend themselves to such games due in part to the large screen and also to the stylus driven interface which makes point and click games rather literal.

Does pass the time on the bus or train (or toilet) and is a bit of an untapped market as most mobile games are shite in comparison to free flash games online - which don't take too much work to get on the windows mobile - which having an open platform means you can do just that with the code - unlike a certain iFlop recently released on these shores.

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Monday 12th November 2007 20:01 GMT Daniel B.

Maybe...

I'd think that maybe it is because the mobile games industry is as bloated as the videogames one back in '83? Too much videogames, too expensive, and lots of crap games.

I've checked a lot of them, and I think the good ones would boil to Doom RPG and a Castlevania port. I've had no problems transferring them though, some low-level utils are capable of extracting the jars for re-installation elsewhere.

Oh, and I should mention I paid something like $3 for "Pacman", but got something called "Pecman" instead. It was a pacman "clone" with lots of bugs and very, very ugly. Sadly, the game was actually made by a software company; I wonder if Namco would mind other companies ripping off their games, but then again, it's "pecman". Ugh.

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Tuesday 13th November 2007 14:37 GMT Anonymous Coward

IMO

for hard core gamers, mobile games are very frustrating to play.

You can replace a controller or a keyboard/mouse with todays mobile standarts.

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Wednesday 14th November 2007 16:57 GMT Anonymous Coward

In-Game Ads

One reason game sales are down is in-game ad supported games. At http://www.mobilerated.com you can get free games. Some are totally free but many have in-game ads. If you don't like the ads but like the game, you can buy the game which removes the ads - you don't need to re-download the game to do this.

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