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Developers urge promotion of mobile gaming
According to the Hollywood Reporter, both Verizon Wireless and Sprint call games "key drivers" of their data download businesses. "At Verizon Wireless, the leading provider of games for phones, customers have downloaded (but not necessarily purchased) over 30 million games since September 2002 and 12 million in 2004 so far. Verizon has a customer base of 40 million. At Sprint, the No. 2 provider, 5 million games were sold last year and 3.5 million have been sold during the first four months of 2004. While Sprint doesn't discuss revenue, the price tag of an average game is $4 and so the math is fairly easy. But at other large carriers, they're not playing games. Or at least the emphasis is elsewhere. "Games aren't big for us," said a T-Mobile spokesman. Both T-Mobile and Nextel declined to be interviewed for this column. Developers of mobile games say the onus on advertising and marketing the games they produce for the carriers is on the telephone companies themselves". While neither Verizon nor Sprint spokespeople were willing to hazard a guess as to why other carriers aren't as enthusiastic about gaming, Billy Pidgeon, senior analyst at The Zelos Group, which follows the mobile market, says it's simple. "Some carriers just don't get it," says Pidgeon. "We expect to see $230 million in game purchases and subscription fees in the U.S. in 2004, up from $77 million last year. And total U.S. market revenues will reach $616 million in 2008 at which time almost 30 million consumers will pay for wireless games." |
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