DALLAS—Mobile gaming is hot in the Asia-Pacific region; twice as many Asians play games on their phone as compared with users in Europe and North America, according to a new report from Parks Associates.
The report, “Networked Gaming: Driving the Future,” found more than one-quarter of APAC wireless users play single-player mobile games each week, compared with 13 percent of European consumers and 8 percent of North American consumers. More APAC consumers play multiplayer games as well at 7 percent vs. 2 percent in both Europe and North America, said the report.
“Cellular operators in North America and Europe are lagging behind their Asia-Pacific counterparts in mobile gaming, but they are starting to increase their focus on this area,” said Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, director of broadband and gaming at Parks Associates. “Large game publishers such as EA are also reevaluating market opportunities and investing heavily in the space, so with wider deployments of 3G mobile networks and the continued development of feature-rich handsets with gamer-friendly designs, these regions should be able to reduce the international gaming gap.”
The report notes the mobile-gaming market could benefit from cross-platform designs and the integration of location-based services.
