Phone gaming stagnate in the US?

I often wonder if the people that make games for cell phones actually play the games or use the phones.

First of all, we buy phones to TALK TO PEOPLE. That's the main function. Currently, gaming gets in the way of that main function as it drains the battery fairly rapidly.

It's one thing to drain a game boy battery by gaming. That's a gameboy's primary function. It's totally another to drain your communications device with something that is not communication.

I just don't think cell phone game makers get that.

Worldwide is where the cell phone market is. EA has the pogo cell phone games division. Most cell phones people still use aren't up to playing games. Too many different companies carriers also make it a logistics nightmare.

Also ringtones, wallpapers for cellphones costing 4 bucks each have left a sour taste in people's mouths.

"I just don't think cell phone game makers get that."

Same is true for music, and video, and all the other functions cell phone makers are trying to cram in there.

The temptation is obvious - there are hundreds of millions (maybe as many as a billion) cell phone users worldwide. The cell phone market dwarfs the market for standalone game players and all other media players combined. You can't blame these guys for trying to tap that market.

But the obvious problem is just as you said; a phone is a phone, and that's all most people want to use them for. It's really no different than looking at the market for dishwashers, seeing that 50 million households already have one, and concluding that the best way to sell video games is to include a game download service with every dishwasher. Just because a lot of people have a particular device does not mean they want it to do everything under the sun.

And phones by their very nature (like every other specialized device) are not very good at doing anything other than what their original intent was. Too many buttons for playing games, not enough battery life, too small of a screen, just for starters. There's really no way around any of these or a myriad of other issues; Nokia took a stab at it with the N-Gage and look how that turned out.

A phone is a communication device. That's not to say all phones should ever do is enable voice chat, but any additional features need to be related to the core purpose of communications if phone makers expect those features to be used. Games do not fit into that model.

Bonus points for anyone who knows who the guy in the picture is and why he's important.

Maybe more people don't play them because they don't come on phones. I bought a Razr when they first came out, and with my $250 phone, all I got was a demo version of Bejeweled. You get more games on free Nokia's.

I think Jeff's reasons for cell phone gaming being inferior need a bit of distillation and clarification.

One, the tiny screen is a definite drawback. For the most part, a cell phone has a screen no larger than half the size of a GBA's screen. That's way too little for most games.

The button layout also hurts, but not because there are too many. The problem lies in that they're not laid out well for gaming. Even for something as simple as Pac-Man, they're too close together, leading to RSIs very easily.

I'd say that the battery life issue would hurt them, but I don't think it matters to people as much if you can charge the device in the wall (see the PSP - you don't see nearly the level of complaints about that system's battery life as you saw with classics like the Lynx and the Game Gear).

I personally think the biggest problem is weight. Face it, nobody wants to lift something heavy up to talk on the phone. However, for the most part, you're going to need to have some weight to a video game machine.

It might be possible to combine older hardware that you can reproduce with very little weight (like the Game Boy Micro) and combine that with a cell phone. But anything heavier than that (like the hardware for the NGage, or the DS or PSP hardware at the moment) would not be worth it as a phone.

People don't play cell phone games because the control is awkward on that small, narrow keypad. You know what needs to be done? Somebody needs to make a phone in the form factor of a portable game system! I think probably your best bet would be horizontal, like the Game Boy Advance. Add an SD Slot for music and larger games that won't fit in memory, an FM Radio, and you have yourself an awesome cell phone/game system that will just FLY off of store shelves!

....what?

All I want is Snake.

I have no use for $5 games I've never heard of, nor $8 copies of Pac-Man.

Snake was the perfect cell-phone game. Small, mindless, and above all, free.

Unfortunately, the entire industry has decided put its weight behind this cell-phone game industry, even if that means shovelware and absurd pricing, instead of what the market really wants.

Cell phone gameing is somthing I never really got into.

The entire gaming experience on Phones is feels more like an after thought. and I think thats the problem. compared to devices where gaming is the sole focus, phones dont cut it.

The controls always suck and are never comfortable, because there are no concepts of actual gaming in mind when the phone is being designed.

The games themselves are typicly of a quality that predates the NES. Theyre just too limited. The games that do have some decent graphics to them turn up short on gameplay, difficulty, or length. somtimes all three.

I think tbe best thing they can do for the Cell phone gaming industrsy, is release solitare.
its the only game that makes sense.
people only cell-game when they dont have acess to real games.

long train ride on the subway?
gonna be a while?
nothing to do?
looks like a job for Solitare!

Meh.

In the engadget iPod thread last week (where I ended up being very wrong on another issue) people kept saying the future of iPod is iPod phones.

I still heavily disagree with that. Mostly for the "why" question. I mean, if I'm on a plane ride and get stuck in the airport for a while, then stuck on the runway for a while, I'm killing time with music. If it's longer than expected and the battery on my iPod dies - oh well, no more music. If it's the cell phone, well, I'm screwed. Suddenly planning everything after landing becomes a nightmare of making change and trying to find public phones. No good.

Same with gaming. I'd rather have a dedicated gaming machine that does it well. If the battery dies, no real loss.

Cell phones don't need more features. We can always carry something else with us. Instead cell phones need to worry about voice quality (which has diminished) and size. Don't cram a terrible 5 MP camera in the phone. The lens will always take terrible pictures. Just give me a smaller, higher quality phone!

I think BusinessWeek or Red Herring had an article on this a few weeks back. In the late 90s everyone was up on Bill Gates' idea of convergence. Everything had to be something else. It's not a phone, it's a phone and a toaster. It's not a car, it's a car and a mobile sperm bank. It's not a microwave, it's a microwave and an M1 Abrams Tank. Thankfully most executives are letting that go now. Crafting a product to two markets limits your buyers. Catering to one market and doing it well is where the action is.

Mosquito...

I completely agree with your post accept for one thing....

I LOVE the camara in my phone and don't think I'd ever buy another phone without one. Pictures, unlike music and games, CAN be used for communication. I have sent pictures of decorations while shopping to my partner asking if I should get it. I have sent pictures of my new puppy home to my mom. I have taken pictures with a friend I ran into that I hadn't seen in forever.

I don't think to carry a camara around all the time, but I DO have my cell phone.

Lastly, taking a pic takes all of 5 seconds. Gaming and music can take hours. That's a big factor.

In my opinion, if you're going to add features to a cell phone, it should be things like that you use in short bursts and make sense to use out and about.

GPS
Barometer (I'd really like to see this one happen. Campers best friend.)
Compass
Thermometer
Voice memo
Flashlight (I use mine as one all the time. hehe)

hmmmm....I think I just gave away some really good money making ideas. I won't ask for money if you say my name on TV. ;)

Phone gaming dead? Honestly, I don't see what the hangup could be.

There *are* cellphone games out there made for the more hardcore, Joystiq-reading gamers... you just have to know where to look. I recently wrote a feature talking about this exact subject, and running down six cellphone games created with a more "hardcore" gaming audience in mind. Give one of them a try:

http://www.modojo.com/features/20060609/85/

I make cell phone games and i understand where most of the posts are coming from. I personally don't play cell phone games in my spare time and i think only recently publishers have started to address the platform for what it is and not try to turn it into another GBA. I do, however, see the market improving in the next few years and becoming a solid counterpart to mainstream gaming. I think cell phone games have a future for two reasons.

1. They are not for you: Take all the hits Joystiq ever had and subtract it from the number of cell phone plans created every month and you are left with a huge number. Cell phone games are for "casual gaming" and will only succeed in that market. The market is small now but it has the potential to dwarf the entire console industry easily. After making games for three years for big publishers (EA, THQ, Sony) the best game i've been involved with is a tricked out version of hangman. The games are designed as impulse buys for people to play at bus stops and airports. I have tried to get my wife to carry a portable game system in her purse for years and she just doesn't want to have a game system. She doesn't seem to mind spending 5 bucks on a portable game for her phone though to pass time in between appointments though.

2. They are pervasive: in two years it won't matter if you get the cheapest(i.e. free), most craptacular phone. It will still have a screen with higher res than a GBA and likely have a 3D chip in. The phone technology for games piggybacks free on the technology used for the camera, the ringtone, GPS, etc. These other services have had success in the market and are going nowhere. In otherwords its like if all PCs came with video cards because MS Word needed it to run.

I've only recently gotten a phone capable of doanloading new games (ie it has a color screen and connect to the internet.

I tried to download Dance Dance Revolution for it. The download never came down after an hour of fighting with the thing. Finally I called up the phone company to get them to refund my money.

If there was a way to download some sort of exe type file then transfer the game to my phone via cable or wifi or something I might be more inclined to try again but the phone representative said that was not possible.

I have a problem with not owning some sort of "physical" version of any game (this also extends to things like Steam).

I don't mind the cost though I will ask why it costs 3 dollars+ and download bandwitch to get a 10 second ringtone when I can download the entire song via iTunes for a buck. I've been working on making my own ringtones but I've had poor results so far.

Anyway, they need to fix the way the service works if they want phone games to catch on better. Otherwise I'll stick with my DS, which I carry everywhere anyway.

Rich -
The guy in the picture is Santa. He's important because he gives toys to all the good boys and girls at Christmas.

I have a cell phone for mobile calling,
I have a DS for playing mobile games,
May the two never mix,
Let the Gizmondo teach all a good lesson

-Phantom N

I spoke to a group of developers and they seem to think developers who are into making Cellphone games are pretty much in the bottom of the video game industry.

martin cooper

Rich,
That is the guy who invented the cell phone for motorola...first thing he did was call the other guy at Bell labs...

his name escapes me though

I don't play cell phone games simply because they're too expensive. I'm sorry, but I'm not paying $11 for a short, low quality game I can only play on my cell phone.

There is a clear tendency that products like games and ringtones are more difficult to sell in the US than in Europe and Asia. It's pretty much because Americans see their phones as... phones, not multimedia devices, whereas more and more Europeans buy specific phones for their multimedia capabilities. That's why you may find that some of the best mobile games never reach America.