Mobile gaming enthusiasts envision the day when they can play massive multiplayer titles that combine real-time interaction and pinpoint location capabilities with eye-catching, 3-D graphics.
For now, though, the most popular games in wireless are old and simple. And they weren’t originally built for wireless phones.
Tetris, which was developed in 1985 and first gained traction a few years later on the Game Boy from Nintendo Co. Ltd., continues to dominate the mobile market. The title consistently tops the mobile gaming charts in terms of downloads and revenue, according to both M:Metrics and Telephia, and is widely cited as the driving force behind Electronic Arts Inc.’s $680 million acquisition of Jamdat Mobile Inc.
Other top performers are nearly as venerable as Tetris, and just as easy to play. Pac-Man, another favorite of mobile gamers, was launched in Japanese arcades in 1979 and came to the United States a year later. Deer Hunter was a hit with PC gamers in the late 1990s, and PopCap’s Zuma was launched for casual online players several years ago.
Bejeweled, a Tetris-style game developed in 2001 by PopCap for online computer gamers, is also a wireless favorite, garnering 2.8 percent of all mobile gaming revenue in the second quarter, Telephia reports.
Of course, Tetris, Pac-Man and the others are a natural fit for mobile phones. The action is easy to control-Pac-Man can move in only four directions, after all, and there is no need for buttons to shoot ghosts or enter ludicrous speed-and concepts are easy to grasp.
Also, gamers are far more likely to opt for a familiar title when browsing carrier decks. Award-winning games such as Digital Chocolate Inc.’s WordKing Poker or I-play’s Skipping Stone may have garnered accolades from enthusiasts, but casual users are more inclined to buy mobile versions of Monopoly, for instance, or an arcade hit from 20 years ago.
“End users sometimes look for certainty and risk reduction when they decide to download games on mobile, especially so for the first-time downloader,” I-play Chief Executive Officer David Gosen said via e-mail. “Established brands and licenses give them that comfort of being a known entity and therefore have that advantage over original, made-for-mobile games.”
Perhaps the most important factor in mobile games sales, however, is deck placement. Even the best mobile games will fail to gain traction without high visibility, while top-shelf offerings consistently sell well-even if they make for rotten gameplay.
Operators have begun to take a long-term view when determining deck placement, though. High-profile franchises once dominated carrier decks, but quality is becoming a major factor in which games receive prime real estate. Success can breed success, then, as popular games remain at the top of the deck and continue to generate downloads.
Next-generation technologies and features will continue to draw early adopters and tech-savvy players to mobile gaming. But while developers push the envelope by building games that exploit the qualities of mobile phones-including portability, location functionality and, most importantly, community-one way to gain mass-market traction is to continue luring consumers with recognizable titles that are easy to understand and play but offer a challenging gaming experience.
“The key is to come up with games that appeal to the casual gaming, mass-market audiences,” according to Gosen. “A casual gamer is a casual gamer, whether on mobile or PC, and we shouldn’t get hung up on the concept of made for mobile.”
