Gameloft vs. Glu, who’s the number 2?

September 19th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

As our friends at QB report, it seems the heat is on between Glu and Gameloft about who really is the number 2 (as EA is the clear winner at the moment) in the world of mobile games. Gameloft has openly challenged Glu to make its numbers public so anyone can see if Glu’s statements about being number 2 are true.

The China angle

September 6th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

Following Steve’s post about the EU market, the Gamasutra guys have now focused on the Chinese mobile games market. The article is mainly aimed at Shanda’s position in the market, their key management leaving and why a company like Digital Red never really made it.

Karl Woods: Think of it like the crack cocaine model

September 4th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

MobileIndustry.biz has posted their part 2 of the interview with Karl Woods from Kiloo. Karl and Paul go into a deeper discussion on new ways to bring games to the public and activate the 90% of non-downloader’s. Now I am sure that my granny who owns a K700i, will never download a game, but as Karl said, there are plenty possibilities to grow the market with new ideas.

Interview with Glu’s Greg Ballard

August 29th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

MobileIndustry.biz did an extensive interview with Glu‘s Greg Ballard. The interview started off about the integration of Ifone into Glu, but also handles the departure of Enda Carey from Ifone to Telcogames. The only thing we miss though is what is going to happen with the Sonic license as Sega is busy creating their own distribution network. Ok, it’s no hard guess what’s going to happen. Still it would be nice to know something officially.

Karl Woods about shifting the industry focus

August 21st, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

Numerous stats have been gathered about our target consumer and even more importantly, about the consumers we don’t have. It’s said on multiple articles that just 10% of the mobile handset owners download mobile games. MobileIndustry.biz announced an exclusive interview with Karl Woods from Kiloo about how the industry should react and activate the 90% of the people that don’t download yet. Personally I don’t think we will get that far as I don’t believe my grandparents will ever pick up their phone for a quick game, however the current 10% is indeed a much to small audience to work on with the increasing number of games being released every month.

"Think of it like the crack cocaine model. You offer the customer a free rock, and they get hooked. That’s what we’re going to have to do with the 90 per cent. But everyone has to do it, the whole industry has to try and crack this, or we’ll just keep fighting over that 10 per cent." Said Karl Woods.

Methods of activating the non-downloaders means introducing various tactics according to Karl, ranging from free demo’s to ad subsidised gaming. We would like to add to this saying it’s maybe interesting to look at the purchase and connectivity issues that consumers face. Perhaps ideas like the Media Tower POS solution from Holland based Commodore Gaming can provide a smooth solution here. Anyway it’s fair to say that also this is an example of a market fighting to mature.

MobileIndustry.biz will soon release the full interview with Karl.

Quicklybored’s SuDoKu roundup

August 15th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | 1 Comment »

QB has puzzled, puzzled and puzzled some more in their struggle to find the best SuDoKu game available on mobile. The big winner? It’s Cellufun! Read the full post here.

Utilizing the handset as a tool for real life games

August 14th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | 3 Comments »

Recently Frank Lantz has written an article in the 16th edition of Vodafone Receiver in regards to what he calls Big Games. The article is really interesting for studio’s which are thinking about projects like pervasive multiplayer gaming. On the other hand, it’s also just a nice article to spend some time on to read. Some examples of games discussed are the famous ones like ConQwest and PacManhattan.

EA Mobile from $ 1 million to 33 million in a year

August 2nd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

EA announced stunning figures as their revenue climbed from Q2 2005 at $ 1 million to $ 33 million in Q2 2006. Of course when you count the fact that a year ago they didn’t own Jamdat yet, it’s simple to explain. Q1 2006 brought $ 15 million in revenue, but Jamdat’s revenue was accounted only for half of the quarter. Mobile accounts for 8% of the total EA revenue.

I-Play the 2005 numbers

July 26th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | 1 Comment »

We have received I-Play’s 2005 financial report from an anonymous source today, meaning we have some nice quotes to extend our previous coverage about I-Play declining it’s financial problems.

In this post, We will only pick up on the big numbers. Shares, options and expenses are limited as we don’t feel it’s interesting enough for the general public of this post.

The report kicks of by stating the acquisition of Ditto Studios and incorporating their financial results from the 9th of July onward. Also it states the ownership of the entire amount of shares of a company called Wireless Games Ltd. which has not started trading.

The revenue almost doubled from 6.2 million pound in 2004 to 11.9 million pound for 2005. The operating costs in 2004 where 8.2 million pound and increased to a massive 15.08 million pound in 2005. The loss before interest and taxation increased from 3.62 million in 2004 to 7.16 million in 2005. Looking at the consolidated profit and loss account, it shows the total loss carried forward in 2004 of 22.5 million pound has increased to 29.9 million pound. The number of employees has increased from 74 in 2004 to 155 in 2005.

The growth of the revenue is explained by the increase of j2me/Brew capable handsets in the market (natural growth) and the release of more titles and widening the distribution network. North America is now the companies main source of revenues.

The three main costs for the company where the acquisition of Ditto Studio’s, the development on the North American market and the rebranding to I-Play. Most of the operational costs where in Q1 and Q2. In Q3, duplication of resources where eliminated and the North American market got more efficient which made a sharp drop in operational costs. In Q4, operational costs where eliminated even more.

The report of the directors shows confidence in the company. With the cut down in operational costs at the end of 2005 and the climbing revenues during 2005 and sustaining in 2006, they feel the company is in a healthy state.

I-Play denies financial problems

July 25th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

David Gosen, CEO of I-Play, announced toward the press that I-Play has no financial problems and is profitable since the start of 2006. Mobile Media Magazine (Informa) however pulls out some pretty negative numbers. Mobile Media claims the loss from 2004 (3.62 Million pounds) had been doubled in 2005 to a staggering 7.16 Million pounds. Having investigated the results, Mobile Media Magazine shows most of the costs (15.08 million pounds) in 2005 where in the operating costs. This was only 8.2 million pounds in 2004. Some reasons for this are the rebranding from Digital Bridges to I-Play and the purchase of Ditto Studio’s. David Gosen also states that I-Play has never been in a stronger position. One of their successes has been their move into North America. If you want more details about this article, please visit Informa as the full article has many more details.