Mobile Games to Outsell Console Games in 2006?

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=19139' target='_blank'>http://gamesindustry.biz/content_pa...e.php?aid=19139</a><br /><br /></div><i>"In a speech delivered at the Leipzig GC Developer Conference, I-play's Stephane Labrunie has declared that mobile gaming is set to overtake console gaming by the end of the year. According to Labrunie, mobile gaming "is the definition of a true mass market; it's not a niche market, as is console gaming." To support this argument, Labrunie pointed to the fact that 48 per cent of mobile gamers are female, while 58 per cent are aged between 18 and 34. Although he conceded that the market "will take time to grow", Labrunie stated that "This market will sell more games on mobile than traditional consoles in 2006." He went on to quote figures which forecast sales of 1.8 billion game-enabled handsets by 2008. By 2010, the number of paid downloads per year is set to reach 1.7 billion, while gross revenues will rise to US$ 5.9 billion."</i><br /><br />Well, there's no doubt that the number of mobile devices in the market far outweighs the number of consoles. Fact is, though, not all mobile device users play games. Heck, some don't even know they can play games. I don't doubt the potential of the mobile gaming market, but I just feel Labrunie has his hopes up a little too high with his "2006" prediction. What do you think? Do PDAmill, Astraware, et al. have a reason to grin this year? Note that the article discusses game sales, not general game downloads (so freeware doesn't really count).

[Jason Dunn]

Seems unreasonable to me - sure, there are a lot of phones out there, but the reality is that vast majority of people just use them for phone calls and text messaging.

[Pdaholic]

I agree, he's a bit overly optimistic. I will say, though, that I play more games on my PDA than on my computer simply out of convience. If I'm bored, it's usually when I'm away from home, and those are perfect times to whip out the PDA and play an old-school SNES game.

[JD Silver]

I agree that the proposed sales numbers are way too optimistic. On the other hand, my gaming habits have changed within the the last few years, and I now prefer gaming on the PPC to the PC. Most phones lack the horsepower and the screen resolution to provide a decent animated platform...for the moment.

[Janak Parekh]

Well, don't forget that carriers like Verizon let you install apps on their (dumb) phones, but only via paid download. Those count as sales, I think, which may skew things in favor of the mobile space a bit. I can tell you I see a lot of people with those $2-downloaded games on their cell phones...

--janak

[Menneisyys]

The vast majority of these sales are Java games for "dumb" phones. That is, these figures have nothing to do with Pocket PC sales.