Electronic Arts Inc. has bought its way to the top of the mobile game-making industry.
Thanks to its recent acquisition of Jamdat Mobile Inc., EA’s Mobile division owns the two most downloaded mobile games in the United States, according to the latest figures from M:Metrics. The blockbuster franchise Tetris-which Jamdat acquired wireless rights to last year for $137 million-was the most popular wireless title, accounting for 5 percent of all game downloads. Bejeweled, a longtime Jamdat staple, was the second most downloaded game.
The two games helped give EA Mobile a whopping 28.8 percent of the mobile gaming market in terms of downloads, nearly three times that of second-place Glu Mobile, according to the study.
But the prospects for mobile gaming remain cloudy, even as the videogame industry prepares for its red-carpet walk this week at E3 2006 in Los Angeles. M:Metrics recently called attention to a stagnating wireless gaming market in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The firm cited high prices and an overwhelming number of games on carrier decks as major barriers to uptake. The firm also noted a low rate of adoption among new subscribers; for instance, less than 1 percent of mobile users downloaded their first game in March, according to M:Metrics.
Adding further unease into the industry is a report from the Wireless World Forum released last week, which found that those who do buy a game usually don’t buy again. Less than one-third of the 177 million users who purchase one mobile game don’t buy another, according to the market research firm, which cites downloading difficulties and a lack of pricing transparency as top concerns.
Meanwhile, carriers continue to bulk up their game decks with flashy 3-D offerings and first-person shooters that often seek to re-create a console gaming atmosphere. But while such games can be impressive, they may not be engaging.
“Operators must do a better job at converting those that played a mobile game into a player of downloaded games,” said Seamus McAteer, a senior analyst at M:Metrics. “There is no shortage of new titles being launched on operator portals, many offering innovative game-play and superior production value, but these do not appear to be resonating with consumers.”
