carmack

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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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By Alexander Smith

When he’s not contributing to our blog, “Alexander Smith” is a well-respected journalist writing about the business of games for the industry’s leading trade publications, and the world’s most respected business outlets.  Stay tuned for more industry coverage from Alexander.

 

 

 

John Carmack has been pushing the boundaries of gaming technology since the Apple II. He perfected the 3-D graphics engine, and introduced the world to multiplayer deathmatch. His company, id Software, is currently completing their fifth generation of tools and technology—specifically designed to run games on next-gen consoles and high-end PCs and Macs.

 

And while Mr Carmack is one of the most technically respected game developers, the thing that excites him the most are games for cell phones. “I’m not a cell phone guy,” he admits. “I resisted getting one at all for years, and even now I rarely carry it.”

 

Mr Carmack recalls the time three years ago when he lost the previous, old cell phone. His wife bought him a new one. It had a nice colour screen, and came loaded with bad java games. He further recalls being almost morally indignant that “someone would make these really awful games on this platform.”

 

He recognized that the modern cell phone has more power than many of the earlier personal computers. Here was technology to push. So Mr Carmack’s next project was a cell phone game. It was a success, and now he has a new outlook on mobile games.

 

To wit, they are a proving ground. Major modern games take years to make, hundreds of developers, and millions of dollars. But the mobile scale allows for an individual to come up with a good idea, and execute on it without great risk.

 

Mr Carmack calls mobile games his ‘sneaky little plan’ for creating new properties, releasing them into the marketplace, and then developing them incrementally for larger and larger platforms with more complex development structures.

 

Besides the business, creative, and technical reasons, these games can be fun, too.