Industry News

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According to Nokia it is based on:
- Snack Size Content
- Geek Culture
- Generation C
- Localization

Seems as we are perfectly positioned. Ok, localization is missing but it’s on our roadmap. And, please tell us what languages you do prefer.

Nokia Nseries | Entertainment Study: “The study carried out by The Future Laboratory, interviewed trend-setting consumers from 17 countries about their digital behaviors and lifestyles signposting emerging entertainment trends.”

With the launch of Playyoo beta, there’s definitely an excited energy at the office - coupled with the inevitable stress from long nights and one too many espressos. And all these frazzled nerves got me thinking about an older (well, 2003) study conducted by the Utrecht University on the effects of game play on the job. (you can read more about the study here).

Scientists followed a group of 60 employees at a Dutch insurance firm – half were allowed to play up to an hour of simple computer games like Solitaire a day, while the other group wasn’t so lucky. And sure enough, the employees that played felt better about their jobs and were more productive. So, a round of solitaire can help break up a long work day, give the brain a break from complex work, and help people be more effective (think recess back in elementary school).

So, go ahead. Take a time out from your hectic schedule and try out a game or two on our beta site. The experts say you should.

Thirty-five years ago, Nolan Bushnell and Atari brought us the world’s first successful video arcade game: Pong. I came across a short radio interview (PONG: The Ping Heard Round the World) with Bushnell where he talks about the “rebirth of casual games,” likening it those early days.

“The rebirth of the casual game structure is very reminiscent of the early days of pong where pong really was every man’s game and then it went to Street Fighter where you had to push 13 buttons with all 13 of your fingers and rip the spine out of somebody. Violent games lost the women; and the complexity lost the casual gamer. Now we’re coming back full circle to games that are casual that can be played over the Internet.”(and over mobile phones, of course)

Leaving aside any social comentary on violence in games… At Playyoo, we wholeheartedly support the rebirth of the casual game- and renewed interest in developing high quality games that anyone can pick up, play, and enjoy. Simple doesn’t have to be boring.

But where I might deviate from Bushnell (at least how Bushnell was portrayed in this interview) is that the resurgence of casual games does not have to be at the expense of their complex counterparts. It’s not an either-or situation. People have diverse preferences and ideas for entertainment. And individuals themselves are too complex to play one game type day in and day out. If I pull out a deck of cards to play solitaire, it doesn’t mean I don’t like playing Risk (I haven’t actually played Risk in years, but that’s not because of any card playing).

In short, the world is big enough to accommodate strong markets for casual, complex, and any other genre of games. The key is to make sure there are high quality games of all types to meet the wide range of preferences.

Well Jupiter makes it quite clear what is needed to boost acceptance and adoption. Their take is concerned with improving the browser software itself. Until that is done we try to improve user experience with the means available.
One of our main goals is to support exactly that via a socially augmented game selection process. By leveraging the experience of your friends plus your personal preferences we strive for an improvement of user experience. And even better we offer the mobile games for free on our platform. And, you can even create your own casual games and share them and your scores.

JupiterResearch Finds Creating Better Browser Alternatives Would Stimulate Mobile Internet Adoption: “The industry should focus on this reality. Inturn, they can double or triple current adoption levels and drive upusage by focusing efforts on those cell phone users who would bemotivated by a better user interface and more compelling experiences..”

The other day I downloaded a white paper from Juniper Research on mobile games. Juniper recently published a report predicting big things for mobile games. The research group believes today’s 5 billion mobile game market will skyrocket to 16 billion in 2012.

Here’s why Juniper has such high hopes:

Universality: There are now 2.8 billion mobile handsets (and growing), compared with just 324 million consoles (Sony PS2, PS3, Wii, etc.). [Note: the 2.8 billion is Juniper’s figure from the WP- according to a new post on Engadget Mobile, there are now 3.3 billion mobile phone subscriptions]

Low level of mobile game penetration: The total number of mobile phone owners actually playing games is still low - around 7% - meaning there’s a lot of room for growth.

Technological advances: The rollout of 3G networks around the globe offers new opportunities for connected, multi-player gaming, while more sophisticated handsets can offer more attractive graphics and a better gaming experience.

Shifting demographics: Juniper noted the growing number of female players.

Rise in casual games: Good news for casual game developers - Juniper attributes much of the growth in mobile gaming to the rise of the casual gamer.

Sure, the numbers are encouraging (and we’re definitely not going to dispute that there’s a large opportunity in mobile gaming) – but it’s going to take a lot of work to get to the promised land of 16 billion.

We’ve got to address some of the chief hurdles in today’s mobile game market: mobile games can be too expensive, too difficult to find; and, well, to quote John Carmack, “most of the games are just crap.”

At Playyoo, we’re doing what we can to bring mobile games to the masses. Free games, game creation tools, community ratings, and a game stream that will make finding cool games as easy as a trip to the sushi bar. Most importantly, we’re expecting big things from the Flash Lite developer community and we’ll keep sponsoring contests to spark everyone’s creativity and talent.

So, in short, we know there’s a big road ahead of us, but the future looks pretty good from where we are.
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