Report: Mobile game growth pegged to discovery

Informa Telecoms and Media finds that the mobile game market is indeed growing, and will grow faster if end users could, you know, actually FIND where to purchase games on their phone. The group says that by 2011, worldwide games revenues will reach $7.2 billion. But to make that milestone, the industry must attract new users.

"Though mobile gaming has grown into a $2.4 billion business in 2006, it is not yet a mass-market activity," says analyst Chris Coffman. "The 5% of mobile subscribers who download mobile games today won't be the engine driving the next five years of growth in the industry. Mobile operators, content providers and others in the gaming ecosystem need to work together to make mobile gaming more attractive to the remaining 95%."

Again, it's not finding games that's the problem. It's finding games one actually wants to buy that's the issue. This is where one-day free previews come in handy, and better discovery solutions. And frankly, I think carriers should just axe about 60% of the games available today just to cut down on the clutter.

Read the full report:
- in the DigiTimes article