Comments on: The Limits of Mobile Phone Gaming http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/ Phil Steinmeyer's rumblings on the game biz, programming, and life Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:58:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Richard http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-7165 Richard Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:28:17 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-7165 Mobile games should be designed with the handset in mind, not retrofitted from consoles. Most of the complaints against mobile phone games relate directly to this. Unfortunately, the stakes are very high, and the carriers are both very selective and relatively unsophisticated in their understanding of games and gamers. Therefore, in their desire to play it safe, they have tended to include brand names over playability. As a developer, the key to game sales is twofold: use a licensed brand and port widely. Game quality remains less important, although this is arguably changing. Breaking the carrier stranglehold may or may not help. Developers still need to reach an audience, and the carriers provide the best vehicle for that. D2C is immature but beginning to break out. Unfortunately, billing usually still involves the carriers, so you don't increase your slice of revenue but now have to pay marketing costs to get your games noticed. At MobileRated.com, we are using a different model, and offer games for free. This stimulates market growth if the games are good enough to entertain. Offering free trials and demos, or games with embedded advertising provide potential revenue streams. Ratings and reviews help our customers determine which content is relevant to them and which should be ignored. In the end, I hope that quality games will rise through the froth of a very crowded mobile games marketplace. A major shakeup is yet to come, and many mobile developers won't be here two years from now. Mobile games should be designed with the handset in mind, not retrofitted from consoles. Most of the complaints against mobile phone games relate directly to this. Unfortunately, the stakes are very high, and the carriers are both very selective and relatively unsophisticated in their understanding of games and gamers. Therefore, in their desire to play it safe, they have tended to include brand names over playability. As a developer, the key to game sales is twofold: use a licensed brand and port widely. Game quality remains less important, although this is arguably changing.

Breaking the carrier stranglehold may or may not help. Developers still need to reach an audience, and the carriers provide the best vehicle for that. D2C is immature but beginning to break out. Unfortunately, billing usually still involves the carriers, so you don’t increase your slice of revenue but now have to pay marketing costs to get your games noticed.

At MobileRated.com, we are using a different model, and offer games for free. This stimulates market growth if the games are good enough to entertain. Offering free trials and demos, or games with embedded advertising provide potential revenue streams. Ratings and reviews help our customers determine which content is relevant to them and which should be ignored.

In the end, I hope that quality games will rise through the froth of a very crowded mobile games marketplace. A major shakeup is yet to come, and many mobile developers won’t be here two years from now.

]]> By: StGabe http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2671 StGabe Thu, 13 Jul 2006 20:15:30 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2671 Yet another mobile developer chiming in .... There is movement towards other models. Right now carriers take big cuts and getting on the carrier "deck" is crucial to making sales. However, for a lot of markets (non-BREW) it is very easy for people to download games directly to their phone and there are separate distribution models popping up. Presumably in parallel with increased phone performance we will see increased attention to interfaces, screen size and increased interest in a deeper market as users become more sophisticated. That would hopefully mean buying games directly from your web browser instead of the carrier deck as well as solid reviews of mobile games. It may mean some "try before you buy". Right now our games are all pay-to-play (with prizes) which is an interesting model for mobile. It's a model that fundamentally fails if you can't keep the user's attention and so licenses can only get us so far. We'll see where it goes. I don't think the market is that great right now (for indies) but there is room there and it will change over time. Yet another mobile developer chiming in ….

There is movement towards other models. Right now carriers take big cuts and getting on the carrier “deck” is crucial to making sales. However, for a lot of markets (non-BREW) it is very easy for people to download games directly to their phone and there are separate distribution models popping up. Presumably in parallel with increased phone performance we will see increased attention to interfaces, screen size and increased interest in a deeper market as users become more sophisticated. That would hopefully mean buying games directly from your web browser instead of the carrier deck as well as solid reviews of mobile games. It may mean some “try before you buy”.

Right now our games are all pay-to-play (with prizes) which is an interesting model for mobile. It’s a model that fundamentally fails if you can’t keep the user’s attention and so licenses can only get us so far.

We’ll see where it goes. I don’t think the market is that great right now (for indies) but there is room there and it will change over time.

]]> By: Tom http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2558 Tom Tue, 11 Jul 2006 01:51:52 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2558 Matt - I agree about folks needing to make titles that are designed from the start for mobile, and not just bringing over titles from other platforms. However, I strongly disagree about a try before you buy model on mobile. With such a short attention span on the mobile consumer, you're going to find a great majority of people that will download a demo will play it for 5-10 minutes, at which point the demo expires, and then they've gotten their quicky gaming fix and put the phone back in their pocket. The next time they want to play something, they go out and download another demo and repeat the process. My guess is that we'll see something like the 3% conversion on the web, but we definitely won't see a 33x multiplier in downloads to even it out. I think we need user reviews/ratings, screenshots, and other assorted information built in to the browsing process so consumers can make a more qualified buying decision and have the ability to make some form of a value judgement about the title they're thinking about purchasing. Until that happens, the only information they have available is a Top 10 list (which they perceive as user rating), 16 character title name, and a short text description. Under those conditions, it's no surprise that the carriers only go after recognizable titles ... big brands and platform conversions. There's a great deal of improvements that can be made before we start getting into try before you buy. Matt -

I agree about folks needing to make titles that are designed from the start for mobile, and not just bringing over titles from other platforms.

However, I strongly disagree about a try before you buy model on mobile. With such a short attention span on the mobile consumer, you’re going to find a great majority of people that will download a demo will play it for 5-10 minutes, at which point the demo expires, and then they’ve gotten their quicky gaming fix and put the phone back in their pocket. The next time they want to play something, they go out and download another demo and repeat the process. My guess is that we’ll see something like the 3% conversion on the web, but we definitely won’t see a 33x multiplier in downloads to even it out.

I think we need user reviews/ratings, screenshots, and other assorted information built in to the browsing process so consumers can make a more qualified buying decision and have the ability to make some form of a value judgement about the title they’re thinking about purchasing.

Until that happens, the only information they have available is a Top 10 list (which they perceive as user rating), 16 character title name, and a short text description. Under those conditions, it’s no surprise that the carriers only go after recognizable titles … big brands and platform conversions.

There’s a great deal of improvements that can be made before we start getting into try before you buy.

]]> By: Matt http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2426 Matt Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:43:09 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2426 Hi Phil, To be honest I don't believe that more powerful phones are going to improve the situation. The more possible it becomes to directly port inferior versions of console or PC titles, the more it will happen. The problem is, screens are not going to get a whole lot bigger, and controls are not going to get a whole lot more suited to games. Again, the focus here should not be 'how do I get this PC game to work well on a cellphone' but rather 'what new gameplay idea can I come up with that makes use of what a cellphone is'. Too many people seem to think that more complex is better, but that is not necessarily true. The context in which people play mobile games is not necessarily suited to 3D shooters and driving sims, good old fashioned puzzlers are a far better fit, and as luck would have it these are better suited to the limitations of the phone as well. On the marketing issue, sadly as you said the carriers/portals have the most control over this, and they are stuck in the trap of using existing big budget marketing (ie blockbuster movies or console games) to push products. Promoting unique, unlicenced games would simply cost them more money, which they are not about to do. Until there is a decent solution for downloadable demos that allow in-demo unlocking of full retail versions, I don't see this situation changing much. Hi Phil,
To be honest I don’t believe that more powerful phones are going to improve the situation. The more possible it becomes to directly port inferior versions of console or PC titles, the more it will happen. The problem is, screens are not going to get a whole lot bigger, and controls are not going to get a whole lot more suited to games. Again, the focus here should not be ‘how do I get this PC game to work well on a cellphone’ but rather ‘what new gameplay idea can I come up with that makes use of what a cellphone is’.
Too many people seem to think that more complex is better, but that is not necessarily true. The context in which people play mobile games is not necessarily suited to 3D shooters and driving sims, good old fashioned puzzlers are a far better fit, and as luck would have it these are better suited to the limitations of the phone as well.
On the marketing issue, sadly as you said the carriers/portals have the most control over this, and they are stuck in the trap of using existing big budget marketing (ie blockbuster movies or console games) to push products. Promoting unique, unlicenced games would simply cost them more money, which they are not about to do. Until there is a decent solution for downloadable demos that allow in-demo unlocking of full retail versions, I don’t see this situation changing much.

]]> By: Dave http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2418 Dave Wed, 05 Jul 2006 21:47:16 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2418 Phil, I pretty much agree with most of your points. But my favorite game I played last month was Doom RPG on my Motorola e815. Go figure... But yes, the biz of it sux. Download biz is much more open, cleaner, and more interesting. Phil, I pretty much agree with most of your points.
But my favorite game I played last month was Doom RPG on my Motorola e815. Go figure…

But yes, the biz of it sux. Download biz is much more open, cleaner, and more interesting.

]]> By: Some Guy http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2410 Some Guy Wed, 05 Jul 2006 19:38:14 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/122/the-limits-of-mobile-phone-gaming/#comment-2410 The physical limitations mean the games will be different, but not necessarily worse. A good cell phone game will not be like a good console game. Kinda like the Wii - you can't do straight ports to it. I don't really think the physical size of the screen is that much of an issue, but I could be wrong. There's a decent amount of money in this market, but it obviously doesn't compare to even a DS project in terms of advances. And it is definitely a "licensing ghetto," original titles don't have too much of a chance right now. That's because there's very little way to discover titles without buying them. Gamespot and IGN do reviews, and the larger companies are starting to advertise, but usually deck placement is as far as it goes. 3D games on BREW are pushing up the base price ($9.99 I believe), and they'll need to because it's going to cost a lot more to develop these games. You wouldn't believe features (and resultant increases in asset generation required) of upcoming handsets if I told you. So why am I, a former PC and console developer (who was good at it), in this market? Well, I still feel it has a lot of potential. There are more phones out there than all consoles and handhelds combined. With features like GPS and guaranteed connectivity, there's a potential for new types of games that aren't possible at home or even on a DS or PSP. And now that EA is on board, they're going to push the market to better meet its potential. I think cell phone games can and will be as compelling as console games. They'll just be different. I hope. The physical limitations mean the games will be different, but not necessarily worse. A good cell phone game will not be like a good console game. Kinda like the Wii - you can’t do straight ports to it. I don’t really think the physical size of the screen is that much of an issue, but I could be wrong.

There’s a decent amount of money in this market, but it obviously doesn’t compare to even a DS project in terms of advances. And it is definitely a “licensing ghetto,” original titles don’t have too much of a chance right now. That’s because there’s very little way to discover titles without buying them. Gamespot and IGN do reviews, and the larger companies are starting to advertise, but usually deck placement is as far as it goes.

3D games on BREW are pushing up the base price ($9.99 I believe), and they’ll need to because it’s going to cost a lot more to develop these games. You wouldn’t believe features (and resultant increases in asset generation required) of upcoming handsets if I told you.

So why am I, a former PC and console developer (who was good at it), in this market? Well, I still feel it has a lot of potential. There are more phones out there than all consoles and handhelds combined. With features like GPS and guaranteed connectivity, there’s a potential for new types of games that aren’t possible at home or even on a DS or PSP. And now that EA is on board, they’re going to push the market to better meet its potential. I think cell phone games can and will be as compelling as console games. They’ll just be different.

I hope.

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