While a tiny handful of entrenched mobile game makers cement their place at the top of the industry, a small army of startups are throwing all sorts of ideas against the wall to see what sticks. And community may be the stickiest feature yet.
Community is nothing new in wireless gaming, of course. Since 2004, Sprint Nextel Corp. has let players compare scores, talk trash and compete head-to-head in its Game Lobby, and Digital Chocolate Inc. was founded five years ago with the goal of bringing social networking elements to wireless games. But many of the early efforts in connected gaming failed to draw an audience, attracting just a sliver of the already-small mobile gaming crowd.
“We were probably in the forefront of community; four-and-a- half years ago, every game we released we did a subsequent release months later of a separate multiplayer game,” said Greg Ballard, CEO of Glu Mobile. “You could create a personality and your power would go up, you could go to a leaderboard. It was actually very advanced and very sophisticated. And nobody cared. We would sell literally five or six of these multiplayer games.”
Alone or together
So Glu and the two other major players – namely, EA Mobile and Gameloft – found success with one-off titles that largely minimized or even eschewed social networking features in favor of a solitary experience. Indeed, pick-up-and-play casual titles seem a natural fit for mobile, allowing users to fire up a game, kill a minute or two and then quickly close down a session.
Some other players have found traction, though, by developing titles that are as much about community as they are about killing time. Digital Chocolate appears to have leveraged a lineup of community-based titles to grow steadily from a boutique shop to a solid, second-tier publisher. Exit Games, a Germany-based startup with an office in Portland, Ore., has gained traction with Neutron, a multiplayer platform that connects game developers, publishers and service providers with users playing on phones, PCs or consoles. The platform is used by Vivendi, Disney, Fremantle Media and others (including Glu); Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. next week plans to announce that the technology will support multiplayer offerings for the upcoming mobile version of DanceDanceRevolution.
That kind of cross-platform functionality could help mobile gaming grow beyond niche and into the mainstream, according to Tom Sperry, CEO of Exit Games USA. “As mobile devices and mobile networks have improved, game developers and publishers have been able to create more in-depth mobile games with community and multiplayer features that appeal to a mainstream, casual gaming audience even more,” Sperry said via e-mail. “Today’s games are true cross-platform games that allow any user to play mobile-to-mobile or mobile-to-PC, letting you connect with your friends regardless of mobile phone, mobile network or geographic location. This is mainstream appeal in its truest form.”
Sticking with the classics
Meanwhile, Cellufun, a New York outfit that launched in April 2006, has quickly emerged on the radar. The startup claims 1 million registered users and sees roughly 5 million unique visitors a month, according to CEO Arthur Goikhman.
And the company’s strategy contrasts starkly with the behemoths on the field: while top-tier publishers crank out high-profile licensed titles with eye-catching graphics, Cellufun’s products – all of which are developed in-house – largely consist of classic board games, virtual pet titles and simple casino offerings. Also, unlike the overwhelming number of games, most of Cellufun’s wares are Internet-based, not downloadable.
“Free mobile games is a pretty good carrot” to entice new users into the community, Goikhman said. “It’s truly free, and there’s a lot of social support in terms of people wanting to play games, join communities and then pull up the newbies. We’ve created a situation where casual kinds of players are really becoming addicts and are led down that path by the more mature players.”
The money trail
The problem for Cellufun and others, though, is turning traffic into dollars. Building a massive audience by giving away games and operating on a shoestring budget may be the easy part – especially when your gamers are spread all over the world.
“That’s a huge challenge for everyone in the space. CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) are very low, and the CPC (cost per click) model does not scale all that well,” Goikhman said. “But we’re developing a world traveler game, and we’re beating down the doors at air carriers, at credit card companies, trying to get them to advertise. Everything is developed with advertisers in mind.”
Revenue reminders
Of course, the simplest way to monetize gamers is to get them to open their wallets. And while Glu has experienced its share of turbulence over the last year, it remains among the few players who can turn mobile games into revenues. How much room is left on the field – regardless of the business models – has yet to be determined.
“I still think most people buy games because they want to waste some times by themselves,” Glu’s Ballard said.
“I think the dominant reason people buy World Series of Poker (a Glu game with multiplayer functionality) is to play poker against the phone. I still don’t think the thirst for community in mobile is driving people’s purchase decisions.”
