Is gaming's future mobile?
- 18 Feb 08, 19:08 GMT
I'm talking to a lot of people at the Game Developers' Conference this week about mobile gaming.
Games on your phone have been the "next big thing" for many, many years but the industry has yet to go truly mainstream.
I've just been talking to Michel Guillemot, the head of Gameloft, the world's largest distributor of mobile games, and I'll be writing up his thoughts in a piece on the 成人论坛 News website but I thought I'd detail some of the points he made. (Apologies for the audio on the video above - he was very softly spoken)
Every second two Gameloft titles are downloaded somewhere in the world. Last year the firm grew by 40% and its revenues topped $140m.
But Gameloft's rude health is not reflected in the industry at large: Mr Guillemot told me that 90% of mobile game publishers are losing money.
Yet he's predicting healthy things for the industry, propelled by new hardware, expanding services and a fresh attitude from carriers.
More immersive 3D games, real time multiplayer and touch controlled games are on the horizon.
By 2012 mobile phones will be able to play the kinds of games seen on consoles just two or three years ago, he said.
"The evolution of phones is moving five times quicker than consoles," he said.
So what do you think? Are you a mobile gamer? Can you imagine yourself playing games on your phone?
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Comments
I've been a gamer since the '80s and have owned hardware ranging from Sinclair ZX Spectrum to Playstation 3. I can categorically say now though that I have no interest in mobile gaming whatsover. The screens are too small and the interfaces too fiddly. Unless these improve massively I won't be joining the party anytime soon, but then big screens and dedicated controllers are hardly mobile are they?
With all these new touch screen phone's it can't be long until someone develops a phone compatible version of Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. I bet it'd be a big hit too!
More cerebral pursuits would be great for casual mobile gamers like me. Chess, PS2's "Buzz The Game"-style quizzes and old-school arcade games would encourage 40something oldies to stump up for mobile games. I know I'll learn to love my Nokia n95 8Gb once I get some games on it.
Note to manufacturers: stop obsessing with shrinking handsets - my phone is the size of a pack of cards - sufficiently sized to accommodate a decent screen. Any smaller and gameplaying would be useless.