Mobile games not all fun and games

What’s plaguing the mobile gaming market? Pretty much the same headaches that have been there for years.
Mobile gaming continues to struggle to move beyond what publishers have dubbed the “golden nickel”-the 5% or so of mobile users who pay to download and play games on the go. And speakers at Tuesday’s educational summit on gaming pointed to familiar hurdles such as discoverability, a lack of innovation and a dizzying array of mobile carriers, networks and devices.
“It seems that people want games, but I don’t know that they know they can do that on a mobile device,” said Motorola Inc.’s Stephen McDonnell. “I think (the market will gain momentum) when you receive the same sort of input from your mobile device as you would on Google or Amazon.com.”
While carrier decks remain the most valued real estate in mobile content, they generally make poor showcases for mobile games. Vast catalogs of games can be uninviting and, often, intimidating. Vendors are afforded one line of type to lure would-be customers and generally can’t promote their offerings using screenshots or other images. And while some publishers say carriers have placed too much importance on branded titles-at the expense of better, more innovative games, they claim-those high-profile names are crucial in making gamers out of non-gamers.
“People see the game (on the deck) and say, ‘I can’t see the game, I don’t know what it is, so I’m not going to spend my four or five dollars” to get it, said Travis Boatman, VP of worldwide studios for EA Mobile. “People see Scrabble and they know what it is.”
Developers are hoping to spur the market by thinking beyond traditional console-type games, incorporating phone cameras or GPS functionality to create uniquely mobile games. Others, such as Digital Chocolate Inc., are taking a more social networking-type of tack, allowing users to communicate with others and meet fellow gamers. And Apple Inc.’s iPhone may usher in a spate of unconventional titles that leverage the device’s touchscreen.
But many developers are shying away from building innovative, complicated games, McDonnell said, because most users aren’t even biting on the simple stuff.
“We’re getting to a point where we should start to see more sophisticated types of games,” he said. “I don’t blame developers for not going it, because users aren’t pulling on it.”
But an increasingly fragmented handset market remains the biggest hurdle for mobile game developers. Game makers produce titles for dozens, or hundreds, of models, taking into account each phone’s capabilities. And those can differ even on the same handset, according to Boatman. But developers are forced to build lowest-common-denominator games for low-end phones, then employ sexier features such as 3-D graphics and rich audio for more advanced devices.
“It’s a challenge,” said Nokia Corp.’s Paul Whitaker. “I don’t see it going away tomorrow. There’s no silver bullet, but it’s something that all of us have to work hard at.”