Mobile games to outsell console titles by year's end?

Yeah right, Mobile Games FOR FREE maybe "outsell" console titles...

So he's saying the smallest segment of gaming will grow faster than segments that have nearly hit saturation?

Brilliant spin.

I can't believe I paid 7 dollars for a watered down version of Metal Slug controlled by a number pad..
I really can't find any enjoyment in cell phone games that aren't puzzle. And even those wear off very quickly.

I hear that the punch out clone is its killer app and I really want to get it...but still, this is a rediculous statement.

I'm not spending $8 on Lil' John's Crunk Golf...or that Bob Marley game...

Hell, I'm not even spending $8 on Sonic the Hedgehog or Ragnarok Online Mobile.

Cell phone games suck to high heaven.
They are terrible. It's a non-market pushed by a bunch of analysts and wannabe game developers.

Outsell by the year's end? With 2 console launches by the Holiday Season? Mark this one under "Friggin' Unlikely"...

Of course, we're talking the possibility that cell phone titles priced at $3-$8 might someday outsell console titles that retail generally between $30-$60.

If cell phone games become more sophisticated and therefore require more development time, their retail prices will have to go up. If cell phone titles are suddenly $25, I have severe doubts that as many people will buy them on a whim.

Maybe we'll be seeing a cellphanboy.com blog soon.

Anyone else think it's kinda funny that the photo shows Mario Bros. being played on a Sony Ericsson phone? :P

Talking about "cell phones" as if it were a single platform is where they are making their big mistake. Not every game is available on every cell phone. My phone, a Palm OS Treo 650, while powerful enough to run pretty much any cell phone game you could throw at it, doesn't offer many games and the ones it does offer aren't compatible, with say, a Windows CE phone, or a Symbian phone, or etc. And it's very confusing because gaming sites have done a piss poor job of explaining this. "On Mobile: The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion!". Okay, on WHAT mobile? What carrier? What phone models? It's a confusing mess.

All the new smart phones are quick enough to run nes and snes emulators anyway...and I can't imagine the new wave of flip phones etc. can't be far off.....so there's really no point in buying phone games

If he's stretching the definiteion of "mobile" to include the DS and PSP, then maybe this statement is technically feasible. However, something about two new consoles in 2006 and half a dozen established ones leads me to believe that if only cell phones are included (as implied), then this individual is talking out his posterior.

If console games are a "niche market" then cell phone games are what? I doubt mobile games will ever sell more games then console games. Are they counting every "demo" game that comes with a new cell phone purchase as a sale? I have tried playing the demo of Pac Man on my phone I gave up after 30 sec. and never thought of playing it again. On my last phone I played the demo of Bejeweled for about the same amount of time and my older phones didn't have any games on them.

"just 5 per cent have actually downloaded a game"

That number seems high to me... Does downloading a demo count? I can't see 5% of mobile phone owners buying a mobile game.

Have any Joystiq bloggers or readers ever bought a mobile phone game? If you have bought a mobile game do you plan on buying one again? Have you bought more then one game?

If they can't even sale mobile games to gamers the casuals will be even a harder sale. Also buying a game but only being able to play it for a set amount of days before you have to rebuy it is bad business (I know not all games do this but many do.)

This is definitely just a dream at the hands of greedy companies who want to release horrible versions of already-poor games with terrible controls on a miserable screen. And charge you for it.

It's a nightmare for the rest of us who actually care about games being, you know, good.

Fortunately, it is just that; a dream.

outsell consoles in terms of total games sold? I can see that. But I don't see the mobile phone games business turning over any hefty profits either at a loftly $2 per game.

I have a Motorola E815, and I've purchased the following games so far:

- Boggle (Very Good)
- Call of Duty 2 (Bad)
- Dark Castle (Average)
- Double Dragon EX (Good)
- Family Guy (Very Bad)
- King of Fighters M2 (Very Good)
- Metal Slug (Bad)
- Might and Magic (Good)
- Street Fighter II (Very Good)
- Wonder Boy (Good)

Honestly, I just get so bored at times (especially at work) that I'm completely willing to pay up to $6.99 for a shitty cell phone game.

Notice that I've purchased ten games for my current phone (and I even purchased games for my previous phone), so I've probably shelled out $75-100 for cell phone games. Overall, they're nothing to write home about, but some of them (especially KoF and SF) are pretty good.

Well let's do our math here shall we class?

There are approximately 1.5 BILLION+ cell phones in use on the planet and exactly several million next gen consoles.

Console games cost between $20 and $60. Cell phone games cost a few bucks.

Console games are more often than not planned purchases. Mobile games are typically purchased spontaneously in a moment of boredom.

Console games often require lots of money ($hundreds of thousands to $millions) to create. Mobile games are frequently quick and dirty little ports of old games and/or knock-offs.

Yeah. The mobile game market is way bigger than your fanboydom.

Cell phone games are bought regardless of their quality, theres no mainstream way to rate or review each title, but then its hard to get quality games on there. Although, while its still russian roulette to see if the game you downloaded is any good, you never have the same expectation of quality like the what you expect of console games.

And while it may very well outsell console games by a huge margin, it can't be held to the same standard, or compared side to side.

All, keep in mind he's speaking at a European conference. American cell phones are way behind the technology curve, and there's also a significant difference in how cell phones fit into people's lifestyle; they're far more ubiquitous in Europe than they are in the US/Canada.

European and Asian mobile gaming dwarfs the market in the US (if you visit the brew game developer site you can find the research I cite). I can't say I see the mobile game market overtaking consoles any time soon; but it's mobile gaming is a huge market nonetheless.

@knight37, Yes it's a confusing issue; but there isn't any kind of standardization. It can be frustrating, but it makes sense that the interoperability you talk about wouldn't exist. Palm OS is an operating system, as is Symbian, Win CE, etc. Do you expect to be able to play PS2 games on Xbox, or Xbox 360 titles on a Mac? I'm not saying that it's right, but it's the state of the industry.

It can be very costly porting games, even mobile games, from OS to OS, not to mention everything required to get them onto carrier's networks. The reason there aren't many games for your phone is because the segment of the cell phone market running Palm OS phones is quite low, so for many developers (especially the developers of the titles you've seen on other cell phones and possibly had an interest in) there's a good chance that they can't do it even if they wanted to because the return wouldn't be nearly good enough to justify all the extra development time (which would involve rewriting a significant amount of code)

cell games cost like $4, console games $50-60. and everyone has a cell phone. of course more cell games are sold.

i imagine everyone buys at least 1 game for their phone. i know when i get a new phone, i generally buy tetris or something similar, for those moments you get stuck at the DMV or likewise.

Mobile phones is a sorry excuse for a gaming platform. Outsell console titles? Um...no.

I admittedly would much prefer to spend the time on a long car ride using a mobile game than a console wasting time when I know I should be doing something else useful!

Well, OF COURSE cell phone games are going to sell better than console games! That's not hard when they cost a tenth of the price!

I will agree with Stephanie about one thing... cell phone games appeal to mainstream consumers, but not true conoisseurs of the hobby who know a quality game when they play one.

Cell phone games are just bling; something to show off to friends when you're not receiving calls. They have little more substance or entertainment value than a wallpaper or ringtone, and calling them video games is a disservice to the industry and an insult to hardcore gamers.

The N-Gage is the only phone that's even come close to playing REAL video games, demonstrating just how far cell phones need to go before they can be considered in the same league as dedicated consoles.

JR

I have a mobile console, it's called a Nintendo DS. I cannot stand playing games on a phone. They are so terrible. And whats the point when there are so many great games on the DS if you really want portable?

LOL @ cell phone games, bought one or two, and made myself swear I wouldn't spend money on crap like that ever more...

Other than N-Gage, there was also another portable out there: the PDA/game console hybrid. The Zodiac did suffer from a lack of games, but it still makes a good PDA anyway. Unlike the cellphone, the PDA is much more suited for gaming, both hardware and input-wise (example: the Zodiac input system is similar to that of the DS, except it has an analog stick instead of directional buttons. Most PDAs have directional buttons and 2 buttons on each side, which theoretically means that the MP:H control scheme can be duplicated on a PDA.)

Anyone going to take bets that either Sony or Microsoft will come out with a smart-phone/game console hybrid by 2010?

Is there really a super mario bros for the cell phones?

or is it just photo shopped in?

On whether or not mobile games will outsell console games, yes they will at some point (although not during 2006 as predicted in the article).

Now, will they overtake console games as the preferred form of interactive entertainment? No. What will happen is that cell phone games will emerge as a popular form of second tier
interactive entertainment, meaning they won't be the kind of game you'd prefer to play, but they'll do the job when there isn't a console or PC around to play a real game on. Not that this is a bad thing, I've read somewhere before that even on the PC right now, quick little embedded web games like Yahoo! Games or online poker are
more popular overall than PC games because they're easily accessible and low cost. They are a good business plan if you can get the userbase. But no gamer would ever claim to prefer them to loading up their favorite PC game, they're just something to kill the time when they don't have a game at hand, so they will never replace consoles, and probably won't even make a dent in console game sales. And I'd even go so far as to say that the revenue from console games will probably continue to exceed those of mobile games as well.

omg I have that phone, and I NEED THAT GAME. seriously, blake snow, where did you get that pic from?

I used to also think that all cellphone games were terrible... But then I finally bought 'Midnight Pool' and I was pleasantly suprised! It actually doesn't suck for a cell phone game, and it seems like they put a lot of effort into it. It's got some dumb parts, but I've easily spent over 20 hours playing it on the bus, which isn't a bad cost/time ratio for a game that was only $5(CDN).

-Matt

People keep saying that cell phones will outsell console games because there are more cell phones. That would be true, only if people actually were to buy games. However, many people do not buy games for their cells, nor are they going to ever. At work at least 50 people have cell phones, none of them have ever bought a game for them; most don't even know the full functions their cell phones carry.

While the cell phone market increases in Asia, the capitalization of say, China means that they will also buy more console games as income increases. You might say there is a lot of piracy that would hurt console sales, but then again most cell phone games can be downloaded for free...some sites offer emulators (such as Mario) that are not even for sale through legit sources.

In terms of being more valuable, not really...just look at things like XBLA and the upcoming online systems by Nintendo and Sony. I bought PacMan for $5 on Live instead of buying it for $5.99 from T-Mobile, and it sure beats the tiny screen. With Live Anywhere, there is a possibility of carrying over titles you bought on XBLA to your mobile devices, but it wouldn't count as a cell phone sale.

Sorry for the long rant, but in short, cell phone games can be cheap diversions, but they are no match for the games industry which is far more than "niche."

Did he say Console games a "niche market"? What an idiot....