With Mobile World Congress 2008 finally over and done, attention now turns to GDC Mobile 2008. The annual game development conference takes place in San Francisco next week, whether you're ready for it or not. Here's a primer.
"What makes this event different is that we're trying to address what developers are going to be doing 18 months from now--it's not a showcase for new products," says GDC Mobile chairman Robert Tercek. "If you develop games or interactive entertainment, you're betting your energy and time on the future, so you have to be really careful. If you pick the wrong platform, your company's in a crater." The other big difference, Tercek says, is that GDC Mobile is the rare trade show that emphasizes the needs and concerns of content providers, not mobile operators. "At other events, you're in the temple of the carrier--everything is calibrated to their preoccupations and business objectives. There's not a lot of frank and candid conversation. We bring together an empowered audience where people feel like they can challenge the speaker and the thought process."
According to Tercek, that kind of dialogue is the focus of this year's GDC Mobile event: The spotlight falls squarely on roundtable discussions, in particular on mobile gaming case studies that illustrate what worked, what didn't and why. There's also an emphasis on the international marketplace--Tercek says about half of the speakers hail from markets outside the U.S.
GDC Mobile 2008 will devote its attention to core subjects including mobile game design, production, platforms and programming, as well as emerging trends such as off-portal distribution, advertiser-supported gaming and social networking (e.g., the community-style games so popular on Facebook). Any or all of them may offer the solution to the economic malaise plaguing the mobile gaming sector.
"We are in a phase of creative destruction," Tercek admits. "The old business models still exist, but they're not growing. Off-carrier and sideloading aren't really a huge percentage of revenues, either. A big part of the problem is free games. In Europe, the free mobile gaming market is now twice as large as the premium market. More people are paying, but not playing."
Another major challenge: Porting and testing. Tercek says the cost of game development often equals the cost of porting, and while maybe only four or five handsets in an operator device portfolio yield the lion's share of mobile gaming revenue, developers are still forced to optimize their titles for all of the carrier's handsets in order to guarantee on-deck placement, the amniotic fluid of mobile content success.
But the great thing about gaming is that you're never actually dead--the reset button, and the new life that it promises, are always just a click away. "[GDC Mobile] is about what happens in the future, and the truth is that this is an exciting medium, with real innovation ahead," Tercek says. "The potential is huge." - Jason [1]
P.S. FierceMobileContent will not publish Monday in observance of Presidents' Day, but will return Tuesday with live coverage and analysis of all the news coming out of GDC Mobile 2008. See you in San Francisco.
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[1] mailto:jankeny@fiercemarkets.com