mobile gaming

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Last month’s scandal at Gamespot undoubtedly rattled gamers and loyal readers who turned to the site for objective reviews. If you’re not familiar with the story, Jeff Gerstmann, Gamespot’s longtime editorial director, was shown the door- presumably after giving a negative review for Eidos’s Kane & Lynch, which had spent a significant amount advertising on the site. Kyle Orland provides a great summary of the story over at Joystiq.

But what does this really tell us? We already knew that the interests of corporate sales & marketing and editorial departments can often clash. And in the age of marketing spin masters and PR gurus, it’s wise to take any “objective” review, post, or article with a grain of salt.

With the emergence of Web 2.0 and the collaborative web, we all become published reviewers (sometimes objective ones, and other times….). Online communities share ratings and commercially-untainted recommendations. Of course, it’s naïve to think that community-created reviews cannot be manipulated, however there’s something wonderfully honest and open about letting anyone with computer access and an Internet connection offer their opinion.

And at Playyoo, we take community input seriously (after all, we’re looking to you to determine who wins it all in the Playyoo Games contest).

When you browse for games, you can sort by the community’s top-rated games. Or, take it to a deeper level, and limit your focus only to those games recommended by your friends (the ones you really trust). Or just take a peak at what your friends are playing for ideas. But remember- you can never know for sure if you’ll like a game until you take it for a spin yourself.

I’ve been known to be a picky eater- not horribly so, but let’s just say that if someone were to put food in front of me at random, there’s a chance I might not eat it. Why am I mentioning this? Well, here at the office we compare the new game stream feature to a sushi boat (that carousel conveyor that circles sushi dishes around). It’s a great visual image, and people (at least those who have been to a sushi restaurant) understand the feature right away.

But, game stream is actually not your ordinary sushi boat. A more accurate comparison would be a sushi boat where you called ahead, told the chef which types of sushi rolls you like, and that’s all they sent down the line. And- it would be just like the restaurant knew your food allergies, and made sure to never send anything containing crab, for example.

So, how does this work? When you sign up for Playyoo, you can personalize your game stream settings – and create the perfect balance of card, casino, shooting, action, puzzle, etc. that will satisfy your game appetite perfectly. If your main games are puzzles, but you might play a racing game or two- you can make this happen. 

And behind the scenes, Playyoo is working hard to make you’re your game stream will only present games that are compatible with the specifications of your phone. We know how frustrating it is to go through the work of downloading or checking out a game, only to realize later that it just won’t work. So with Playyoo, you can be sure that the games you see, are games you can play.

If you haven’t set your preferences yet, you can find it here (or you can find the link on the top right of the screen once you’ve logged in). So be sure to set your game stream preferences and pick your menu.

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.

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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