Abstract
Presentation
Since early this decade, when video games first appeared on mobile handsets,
we have successively witnessed a rise in the number of developers, the
creation of mobile game subsidiaries by traditional video game publishers and
intensified investment by telecoms operators in a wide variety of business
activities (publishing, aggregation, distribution, platforms, licensing,
etc.). 2001 saw the arrival of downloadable games and November 2003 marked a
radical change with commercialisation of the n-Gage, a connected console with
game cartridges.
Since then, three developments have prompted the mobile gaming sector to move up a gear:
- The value chain has organised itself into a predominantly narrow
structure, with smaller enterprises making way for companies with the
financial capacity to shoulder development in this sector.
- Consumers have learned to extend their use of handsets beyond simple
telephony. Technological advances have furnished mobile phones with new
functionalities previously only available on dedicated devices.
- Mobile operators have managed to preserve the integrity of their business
models in spite of a lack of transparency in their offers.
For the time being, operators are still the sole point of contact for gamers,
via their billing services, but opportunities for mobile Internet business
models are now very real.
Growth of this sector is conditioned by tight technical constraints concerning
latency, speed and handset capacity in terms of storage, computation and
display.
IDATE presents an analysis of the mobile gaming market' s organisation: state
of existing offers, player positioning and changes in the value chain
(publishers, developers, distributors and mobile operators), editorial
strategies, and business and pricing models. The report explores the expected
technological and economic challenges, along with the market' s development
prospects up to 2010.
Key questions
- What are the key factors for development of the mobile gaming sector?
- What are the predominant editorial strategies and types of content
available?
- Does the technological advancement of mobile networks foresee a mass
market?
- What are the challenges for publishers, developers and distributors of
mobile video games?
- Telecoms operators versus distribution portals or aggregators: what
services for gamers?
- What are the decisive factors in a mobile gamer' s ecosystem? What profiles
are identified?
Who should read this report?
- Developers, publishers and distributors of video games
- Assess the mobile gaming market' s potential
- Understand the value chain' s organisation and relevant business models
- Mobile operators
- Analyse competing offers
- Assess commercial development prospects
- Equipment manufacturers (consumer handsets)
- Understand changes in the mobile gaming market
- Estimate the market' s long-term potential
- Investors/analysts
- Examine the competitive landscape and regional differences
- Anticipate new trends in the video gaming ecosystem
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
- 1.1. Market for digital leisure on mobile phones
- 1.2. Video games on mobile phones
2. Technical problems of mobile gaming
- 2.1. Decisive handset components
- 2.1.1. Memory and storage
- 2.1.2. 3D display
- 2.2. Mobile gaming and the network
- 2.2.1. Telecommunications standards
- 2.2.2. 3D/3G, a couple with a future?
- 2.3. Development technologies
3. The industry and its markets
- 3.1. Industrial organisation
- 3.1.1. Production process
- 3.1.2. The value chain
- 3.1.3. Categories of mobile game publishers
- 3.1.4. Business models
- 3.2. Mobile gaming markets
- 3.2.1. Characteristics of the main mobile gaming markets
- 3.3. Great content diversity
- 3.3.1. Online gaming
- 3.3.2. Editorial strategies
- 3.4. A favourable environment
- 3.4.1. Gamers ready for entertainment
4. Likely challenges and changes
- 4.1. Challenges along the value chain
- 4.2. Market outlook
1. Distributors
- 1.1. Index Multimedia
- 1.1.1. Company profile
- 1.1.2. Catalogue
- 1.1.3. Commercial partners
- 1.1.4. Manta direct-to-consumer service
- 1.2. Samsung Fun Club by Samsung Electronics
- 1.2.1. Company profile
- 1.2.2. Catalogue
- 1.3. Nokia N-GAGE
- 1.3.1. Company profile
- 1.3.2. Catalogue
- 1.3.3. Publishing partners
- 1.4. MediaPlazza
- 1.4.1. Company profile
- 1.4.2. Catalogue
- 1.4.3. Commercial network
2. Operators
3. Mobile game specialists
- 3.1. Gameloft
- 3.1.1. Company profile
- 3.1.2. Catalogue
- 3.1.3. Gameloft' s e-store
- 3.1.4. Distribution network
- 3.2. Glu Mobile
- 3.2.1. Company profile
- 3.2.2. Catalogue
- 3.2.3. Online game sales
- 3.2.4. Distribution network
- 3.3. Hands-On Mobile
- 3.3.1. Company profile
- 3.3.2. Catalogue
- 3.3.3. Online game sales
- 3.3.4. Distribution network
- 3.4. I-play
- 3.4.1. Company profile
- 3.4.2. Catalogue
- 3.4.3. Online game sales
- 3.4.4. Distribution network
- 3.5. Digital Chocolate
- 3.5.1. Company profile
- 3.5.2. Catalogue
- 3.5.3. The Mobile League
- 3.5.4. Distribution network
4. Players in the media world
- 4.1. Sony Pictures
- 4.1.1. Company profile
- 4.1.2. Catalogue
- 4.1.3. Distribution network
- 4.2. Cellfish Media
- 4.2.1. Company profile
- 4.2.2. Catalogue
- 4.2.3. Direct-to-consumer solutions
5. Mobile game companies
- 5.1. Vivendi Games Mobile
- 5.1.1. Company profile
- 5.1.2. Catalogue
- 5.2. Electronic Arts
- 5.2.1. Company profile
- 5.2.2. Catalogue
- 5.2.3. Online gaming solution
- 5.2.4. Distribution network
- 5.3. Konami
- 5.3.1. Company profile
- 5.3.2. Development of Konami' s mobile activities
- 5.3.3. Online mobile game distribution
- 5.4. Sega Sammy Group
- 5.4.1. Company profile
- 5.4.2. Catalogue
- 5.4.3. Sega Mobile website
- 5.5. THQ Wireless
- 5.5.1. Company profile
- 5.5.2. Catalogue
6.Methodology
List of tables and figures
- Table 1: Revenues from leisure on mobile phones
- Table 2: Flash memory
- Table 3: Telecommunications standards
- Table 4: Characteristics of 3G, Super 3G and 4G
- Table 5: Top 50 most downloaded mobile games
- Table 6: Top 10 best-selling mobile games in France, March 2007
- Table 7: Titles appearing in at least two of GfK' s top 20
- Table 8: Changes in the number of active mobile gamers, 2007-2012
- Table 9: Annual video game ARPU, 2007-2012
- Table 10: Revenues from mobile video games, 2007-2012
- Table 11: Video game software market - Japan, United States and Europe -
2007-2012
- Table 12: Index Multimedia' s main commercial partners in its mobile gaming
business
- Table 13: Samsung Fun Club' s mobile game catalogue in France
- Table 14: Ten best-selling mobile games on Samsung Fun Club' s national
sites
- Table 15: Nokia' s online N-Gage offer
- Table 16: Publishers present in the N-Gage portfolio
- Table 17: Examples of titles distributed by MediaPlazza Games, sorted by
genre
- Table 18: MediaPlazza Games' main commercial partners
- Table 19: Gameloft' s online mobile game service in France
- Table 20: Gameloft' s main game distributors
- Table 21: Glu' s online mobile game service in the United States
- Table 22: Main distributors of Glu Mobile' s mobile games
- Table 23: Hands-On Mobile' s online mobile game service in the United States
- Table 24: Hands-On Mobile' s main game distributors
- Table 25: I-play' s online mobile game service
- Table 26: iPlay' s main game distributors
- Table 27: Catalogue of mobile video games published by Digital Chocolate
- Table 28: Digital Chocolate' s main game distributors
- Table 29: EA Mobile' s online game service for the United States
- Table 30: EA Mobile' s main game distributors
- Table 31: Catalogue of mobile games featured on THQ Wireless' s website
- Figure 1: Revenue increases from leisure on mobile phones
- Figure 2: Mobile phone market
- Figure 3: Distribution of mobile phones, by category
- Figure 4: Price breakdown for a mid-range mobile phone, ex-factory
- Figure 5: Examples of Internet Ping between European cities
- Figure 6: Operating systems, development environment and mobile handsets
- Figure 7: Organisation of the mobile gaming industry
- Figure 8: Comparison between the mobile gaming and console/PC game value
chains
- Figure 9: Sales percentages, per category - France
- Figure 10: IOM: The World of Magic
- Figure 11: Changes in the number of active mobile gamers, 2007-2012
- Figure 12: Revenues from mobile video games, 2007-2012
- Figure 13: Video game software market - Japan, United States and Europe -
2007-2012
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