Mobile Gaming Changing

[admin]

Andy Nulman, CMO and president of 8-year-old, Montreal-based Airborne Entertainment, recently gave a keynote address and addressed the state of mobile gaming. An interview given about his speech was taken by GameDaily and offered some insight into why he feels that mobile gaming has pretty much stagnated before ever leaving the starting gate.

Discuss "Mobile Gaming Changing" here. Read the article.

 

[abboudc]

The mobile market is a different market than the console market, not just a smaller version. The mobile market skews much younger, and more towards casual games. Who wants to play a 40 hour rpg on a two and a half inch screen? Who wants to play 3 hours at a stretch?

The mobile market is about casual games and younger players playing while their parents are driving them somewhere. As a younger audience, it's also more price sensitive, no one's going to buy their 8 year old a $300 mobile game system.

Which is why the DS is crushing the PSP. Nintendo has mastered the mobile market, and has essentially controlled it since the introduction of the game boy in 1989 w/Tetris. I don't think it's changed much in the past 18 years....Nintendo continues to dominate, with casual games selling better than ever.

I'm not sure who Airborne Entertainment is, but they're not a relevant player in the space. They should be asking Shigeru Miyamoto or Mr. Iwata about the status of mobile gaming, as they've sold over 10 million DS's.

 

[Thunder18]

Good points abboudc. I remember a long time ago buying a Sega Nomad on clearance at Toys R Us. For those who don't know, the Nomad was a portable Sega Genesis. It played Genesis cartridges and even had an a/v output so you could connect it to a TV and had a player 2 controller port so that you could still play 2 player games. It was a great device, but much like most Sega hardware it was too little too late.

 

[abboudc]

Good points abboudc. I remember a long time ago buying a Sega Nomad on clearance at Toys R Us. For those who don't know, the Nomad was a portable Sega Genesis. It played Genesis cartridges and even had an a/v output so you could connect it to a TV and had a player 2 controller port so that you could still play 2 player games. It was a great device, but much like most Sega hardware it was too little too late.

The nomad was an awesome device, the only problem with it was it ate batteries like crazy. It would be a much better device today, with the new Lithium batteries

Unfortunately for Sega, they made a bunch of bad hardware decisions in a row...32X, Sega CD, Saturn.

 

[Thunder18]

The nomad was an awesome device, the only problem with it was it ate batteries like crazy. It would be a much better device today, with the new Lithium batteries

Unfortunately for Sega, they made a bunch of bad hardware decisions in a row...32X, Sega CD, Saturn.

Absolutely correct. I still have my Nomad and I wish I could find an new GameGear rechargeable battery pack because I lost the little adaptor that holds 6 AA's. What's really sad about Sega is that the best software always came out toward the end of the hardware's short life. I still have my Sega Saturn that I purchased at Target on Clearance along with a copy of Street Fighter Alpha. As far as I know, the Saturn was the only system of it's time which could reduce loading times by adding a memory cartridge. Those old Capcom fighters looked great on the Saturn.
The Dreamcast had quite a following as well though. Unfortunately, it was more of a cult following and wasn't enough to sustain the system for any real length of time.