The Wall Street Journal is running
an article on cellphone gaming: specifically about how cellphone games are distributed and the economics behind them.
The article takes the opinions from a panel at a wireless industry conference last week in San Fransisco. The panel
were asked for their advice on a wide range of issues: from how to deal with oversaturation of the wireless gaming
industry to the problem of marketing games to consumers via cellphone carriers.
As one attendant put it "You are seeing a kind of dot-com madness [in the wireless gaming industry]" as larger publishers scramble to acquire smaller start-ups. However, the perception that wireless gaming is a quick and easy way to make big profits is misguided. Despite the fact that a cellphone game only costs around $150,000-$250,000 to create in comparison with the WSJ's figure of $15-$20 million for an Xbox or PS2 game (in fact it's more like $900,000-$1.8 million. The WSJ's figure is a very high figure), successful cellphone game publishers like Jamdat (publishers of mobile games like Bejeweled and Tetris) are posting disappointing financial forecasts.
Then there's the problem of getting the games to the consumers. Currently the most effective (and therefore most popular) way of getting games in front of cellphone users is via a carrier's mobile-deck. The "deck" is an area on the carrier's wireless homepage or interactive area where games can be downloaded by users. Game publishers bid for space on the "deck" creating an inherent bottleneck for the wireless gaming industry. However, the industry is still in its very early days; as another attendee put it "I still think we're in chapter one [of the mobile games market]."
[Via WSJ paid subscription; sorry no free link]
