HAMPSHIRE, United Kingdom-The North American mobile game market will increase tenfold during the next five years, exploding into a $4.1 billion industry, according to a new study by Jupiter Research.
According to the report, a combination of a widening gaming demographic, better user experiences, increased adoption of mobile services and an increase in mass multiplayer games will drive the industry in the next several years. Jupiter predicted the worldwide market will increase 78 percent this year, reaching $5.6 billion.
“Many of the mobile games released thus far have been first-person shooter and sports simulations” that target young, male video gamers, said Dr. Windsor Holden, who authored the report. “Consequently, the rest of the mobile audience was largely ignored. Increasingly, we’ll see a wider range of lifestyle games aimed at audiences beyond the core gamer.”
The study also predicts that more than one-third of gaming revenues will be derived from subscription services and game rentals by 2009, but warned that data download costs must fall while game prices rise for the market to reach its potential.
