North America and Europe Playing "Catch-up" in Mobile Gaming

Consumers in Asia-Pacific (APAC) countries lead European and North American consumers more than two to one in the adoption of both single-player and multiplayer mobile gaming, according to a report from Parks Associates. In the APAC countries surveyed, 28% of consumers play single-player mobile games on at least a weekly basis, versus 13% in Europe and 8% in North America. Further, 7% of Asia-Pacific consumers play multiplayer mobile games on a weekly basis, versus 2% in both Europe and North America.
"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."
According to the report, 3D multiplayer gaming and casual PC-to-mobile gaming would both be good first steps in driving the mobile gaming market. The mobile gaming market could also benefit from innovations such as cross-platform designs that position a mobile phone as an extension platform to online PC and console games. Other innovations the report mentions include the integration of location-based services (LBS), social networking, and multiplayer mobile gaming.
"Leveraging unique characteristics such as always-on connectivity and always-with-you ubiquity is extremely important to the success of mobile gaming," Cai said. "Focusing on brands and franchise licenses alone is not a sustainable model."

Online and mobile gaming booming

Online and mobile gaming is booming and content providers (CPs) as well as telcos are all vying for a larger slice of this lucrative pie, according to market observers. Malaysian online gaming market was estimated to have grown by 46% and generated about US$8 million (RM30 million) in subscription revenue in 2005 from US$5.5 million in 2004, said International Data Corporation (IDC).
Online gaming market in the Asia Pacific raked in US$1.09 billion in subscription revenue in 2004 and is forecast to grow by 26% in 2005, with subscription revenue reaching some US$1.37 billion, it said.
Mobile gaming end-user spending in the Asia Pacific was estimated to have grown about 45% to reach US$1.4 billion in 2005, the ICT intelligence and advisory firm told FinancialDaily.
It’s big business indeed. Small wonder then that CPs and telcos are dishing out more products and services to tap into this market.
In the past few weeks, several Malaysian companies have announced that they are expanding their presence in the online and mobile gaming industries in Malaysia as well as the region.
DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd said on Jan 19 that it has formed a partnership with Nokia Pte Ltd to provide the world’s first mobile massively multiplayer online game (3MOG), which enables cross-platform online gaming between users of mobile phones and personal computers.
“The move is considered healthy for DiGi as it will provide new products and content for customers,” said Mayban Securities Research.
“This is also in line with the growing availability of more sophisticated hand phones that can provide the platform for the games service and the growing number of young customers that would be target market for online gaming,” the research house.
However, it does not expect a substantial take-up rate at this point, as consumers are expected to tighten their purse strings in view of high inflation.