A new Datamonitor report reveals 440 million people will be playing wireless games by 2006.
A forthcoming Datamonitor report reveals that revenues from the US, Europe and Asia Pacific mobile gaming markets will grow from an estimated $950 million in 2001 to $17.5 billion in 2006. The European market, currently estimated at $105 million, will grow to $4.2 billion in 2006. The US market will grow from just $20 million today to $3 billion in 2006.
Asia Pacific is currently the wireless gaming capital of the world, with 60 million gamers. In Europe, 41 million currently play games on their mobile phones or PDAs, compared to 22 million in the US. But by 2006, Europe will have over 150 million wireless gamers. In the US, the number will grow to 124 million.
The figures show that operators in Europe and the US are finally taking wireless gaming seriously. It has taken the dotcom correction and the threat of losing popular content to collapsing startups for them to open their wallets and systems. But now that they have, the industry is starting to thrive.
While it is certainly true that wireless gamers play games on trains and buses as a quick distraction, this is by no means their only use. The most popular time to play wireless games is on the weekends and in the evenings, suggesting that wireless users actually choose games over other activities.
mGaming’s compelling nature is particularly noticeable given that more than half of mobile gamers have Internet access and more than 80% of WAP phone owners regularly use the Internet. Their game playing represents a choice of using their handsets over devices arguably better suited to games.
The success of downloadable ringtones and graphics will be repeated with wireless games. By 2003, technologies such as Java 2ME, Brew and ExEn will allow people to download content for a small charge, providing operators with a lucrative revenue stream. Traditional developers will cash in on this by releasing downloadable wireless versions of popular console and PC titles that integrate with the originals.
