Changing Mobile Gaming’s Retail Model

As unmistakable as the success of the mobile gaming industry is–we are after all talking a about a multi-million dollar industry here, and by all estimates it is still growing–there are still many improvements to be made. As it is, there is still an immense untapped market in consumers who have little or no experience with the whole mobile gaming paradigm.

This sentiment was voiced by no less than Kiloo executive Karl Woods, who has noted that while virtually all mobile gaming developers focus their attention on cornering the market on consumers who are already sold on the mobile gaming concept, they largely neglect all the millions of potential mobile gaming customers who have never even heard of mobile games, much less have downloaded, bought or even played with one. Woods emphasized that the retail model of the mobile gaming industry has to undergo some radical changes in order to draw in this tremendous untapped market. He has even gone so far as to say that focusing all their attention on what is essentially already a captive audience to the neglect of new markets who are as yet ignorant to the benefits of mobile gaming is a clear sign that the mobile gaming industry is badly askew with regard to its retail model.

Woods also believes that one of the major obstacles facing the industry is that more than 90% of all mobile phone users still have yet to download any game. He says that while the number of mobile gaming publishers and content developers who are entering the market is growing all the time, there has been no corresponding growth in the number of new users. He goes on to suggest that if more efforts were made to pull in the consumers who have no prior experience with mobile gaming, the industry would only benefit as a whole.

Karl Woods’ opinions on the mobile gaming industry holds more than a little bit of water. He is no slouch after all, having worked in a number of executive positions (among the companies he has worked for are Hands-On Mobile, Jamdat and THQ Wireless) before joining Kiloo. After having seen the growth of the mobile gaming industry first hand, he certainly knows what he is talking about.

Woods is not alone in his sentiments regarding the mobile gaming industry either. Travis Boatman of EA also shares the opinion that one of the best ways to attract new players to the mobile gaming platform is by offering them free game demos, sample game playing levels and even free games that are paid for by advertising. Both feel that this would serve as enough of an enticement to potential consumers to at least give mobile gaming a shot. Of course with the current focus of the mobile gaming industry into providing quality entertainment that is specifically geared for the technological capabilities of current mobile handsets, merely trying out those games would probably give them enough reason to come back for more.