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Power Players in Mobile Gaming

The latest information from The NPD Group indicates that the mobile games market in the US is healthy. Recognizing the long-term viability of this market opportunity, large traditional video game publishers like Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and others have been steadily expanding their presence in mobile games over the past year; however, barriers to future growth still exist. While the wireless carriers and pure-play mobile game companies are implementing strategies to address these industry-wide pain points, traditional publishers might just be best positioned to fight the battle and change the mobile games market as we now know it.

While there’s been solid growth in sales and a healthy increase in consumer penetration for mobile games, there are three primary hurdles that the industry must address, in order to realize greater gains:

Attracting and retaining customers – As with any growing business, adding new customers and keeping current ones happy is critical to future growth. NPD’s “Mobile Games: Who’s Playing” report noted that 61 percent of wireless subscribers have never played a game on their mobile phones, providing lots of opportunity for market expansion in a time when an increasing number of U.S. consumers are video gamers.

Reaching customers with promotions and information – The second challenge for the mobile games industry is to provide information on new and existing game titles to consumers in places where they are most likely to find it. Lack of information will prevent the more conservative mass-market consumers from buying mobile games. NPD’s research identifies a clear gap between product information sources for current mobile gamers, and the place that gaming intenders say they would expect to find information about mobile games. Current buyers rely almost exclusively on the handset menu and carrier websites whereas intenders expect to find information in a much broader variety of sources including advertisements, game reviews and other websites.

Creating inter-connected gaming communities – The third barrier to continued growth is the lack of an inter-connected, multi-platform game community. While some mobile-only game communities are beginning to pick up steam, they lack connectivity with the other platforms gamers use, including consoles, handhelds and PCs. Fostering an inter-connected community strengthens the consumers’ connection to games and others playing them, leading to more loyalty and increased sales.

Leading game publishers have the ability to develop and execute a number of strategies that leverage their core competencies and strengths. In doing so, they are able to begin to knock down barriers to growth. To succeed publishers must do a better job of targeting their existing customer base for mobile game marketing programs and distribution. Focusing on this group of consumers is the quickest and most efficient method of acquiring new customers, since this group of consumers is the most likely source to find others with a propensity to play mobile games.

In order to exploit and leverage every existing customer touch point, whenever possible publishers should tie mobile games into their physical packaging and marketing programs. That means not only targeting million-dollar marketing and advertising budgets, but also recognizing the power inherent in the millions of physical units moving through retail channels into consumers’ hands,

The final key for greater growth is to build multi-platform connected gaming communities that include mobile, console, handheld and the PC. These communities should provide gamers with a single destination to find information on games, maintain user profiles, upload high scores, and to play against other gamers. Publishers can drive gamers to these communities by leveraging their packaging and marketing programs.

While the established game companies have a clear path to success in mobile gaming, they must approach the market with a distinct understanding of the differences between mobile games and traditional video games. The first of these differences is the nature of mobile game play. According to NPD, the average length of a game play session on the mobile phone is just 11 minutes, which is unsurprising, since mobile game players cited “killing time/alleviating boredom” as the main reason they play mobile games. In addition, console gamers’ top choices of mobile games are puzzle and card games. All these facts lead to the conclusion that – unlike other gaming modalities – mobile gaming is not about the game itself, but about filling some free time in the day. That’s why traditional game companies cannot expect to be successful, simply by implementing strategies that port to a mobile platform top console and PC game titles.

The stage is set for traditional game companies to address the significant consumer issues in the mobile game market. These companies have existing relationships with current gamers who are the prime target market for new category growth. They also have the mechanisms in place to provide important information to these consumers, in order to persuade them to purchase mobile games. Finally, these companies also have the resources to build inter-connected gaming communities that incorporate mobile platforms with console and PC gaming platforms.

When all is said and done, traditional game companies should look toward building strategies that focus on mobile phones as just another platform in a multi-modal gaming experience. If they approach the market in this manner, with a clear understanding of the differences in consumers’ gaming activity on various devices, they will change the face of mobile gaming in the future.

-- Drew Hull, Research Director, Mobile Content