There is flood of mobile and smart phones in the market now a days. And games are one of the most downloaded category for any smart-phone. So, as there is rise in the number of smartphone and mobile, so there is rise in the games being downloaded for these devices.
With the availability of cheap smartphones supporting Android, mobile gaming industry would definitely be looked at with a lot of interest. In 2010, the gaming industry was worth around $67 billion. In this, mobile gaming had a share of 15% which accounted for around $10.4 billion. But the equation dramatically changes, when we look at 2011 and further forecast it’s growth. For 2011, the mobile gaming would exceed $74 billion and this figure would reach to $112 billion by 2015.
By the above estimates, the mobile gaming would constitute around 20% of the gaming market share which would make it around $22.4 billion. If you look at this figure, you would realise that, it is more than 100% growth for mobile gaming when compared to 2010 levels.
“As the popularity of smartphones and tablets continues to expand, gaming will remain a key component in the use of these devices. Although they are never used primarily for gaming, mobile games are the most downloaded application category across most application stores,” said Tuong Nguyen, principal research analyst at Gartner. “For this reason, mobile gaming will continue to thrive as more consumers expand their use of new and innovative portable connected devices.”
Gartner defines Gaming ecosystem to include : Hardware, software and online gaming.
Gaming environment is constituted by following objects:
- Gaming console manufacturers such as Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.
- Handheld video game consoles such as Nintendo DSi, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Game Boy Advance etc.
- Notebook and PC gaming software.
- Software which are dedicated to game consoles and platforms such as Xbox 360, Playstation 2 and 3, Wii etc.
- Mobile gaming including tablets, smartphone and mobile gaming platform.
- Online gaming used for social and casual segment.
Here are some points to ponder over relating to gaming environment:
- Maximum revenue comes from gaming consoles like – Xbox, Kinect, Playstation etc. For 2010, more than two-thirds of gaming revenue was collected through gaming consoles.
- For years to come, in-app purchases, micro-transaction and virtual good purchase would drive the gaming industry.
- In future, gaming would be used as a medium for advertisements.
- The same game would be made available in all the platforms. Very recent example for this is that Angry Birds is now available on iPhone, Android, Google Chrome and WP7.
- Softwares would lose some of its market share to mobile gaming in years to come.