BOSTON-The mobile gaming experience is expected to improve dramatically during the next two to three years as 2.5 generation networks are deployed and Java-enabled devices proliferate, increasing the number of installed mobile game users to 100 million by 2006, said Strategy Analytics Inc. in its new report, “Critical Challenges for the Mobile Gaming Market.”
The research firm still questions, however, just how people will pay for the wireless gaming experience. Wireless devices are not optimized for absorbing gaming experiences, and networks are slow and expensive to the end user.
“Gaming is a bipolar activity. People either play games very frequently, or very infrequently,” said Nitesh Patel, analyst with Strategy Analytics’ Wireless Internet Applications Strategic Advisory Service.
Patel said he sees the youth market (16- to 24-year-olds) as the prime audience for operators and wireless portals.
David Kerr, vice president of Strategy Analytics’ Global Wireless Practice, said the nature of wireless games will change dramatically in the near future.
“Turns-based games mandated by existing networks and devices will increasingly give way to more visual and satisfying action games. This will occur as manufacturers provide a packet paradigm in which larger color displays are commonplace,” Kerr said.
