Juniper paints rosy picture for 2019

The latest report, “Mobile & Handheld Games: Discover, Monetise, Advertise 2014–2019”, from Juniper Research forecasts worldwide revenues for tablet games will exceed $13.3 Billion by 2019.

Other interesting summations include:

–   Industry growth will be driven by improved mobile broadband penetration, convenience, improved storage and graphic capabilities.

–   The next year may be critical for smaller, independent games developers as greater funding will be required to achieve consumer awareness in a crowded marketplace with crowdfunding representing an increasingly popular option.

–   Strong growth in monetisation of smartphone games across emerging markets, with carrier billing deployments increasingly facilitating storefront payments in countries with lower banked penetration rates.

–   With micro-apps now being embedded in messenger services, these may serve as an additional delivery channel for games in the medium term, stimulating further growth.

–   A sister report titled “PC & Console Games: Trends, Opportunities, and Vendor Strategies 2014-2019”, predicts a shift to digital game software distribution and adaptation to elements of the free-to-play business model are inevitable due to declining sales.

–   Advertisements are becoming increasingly key in revenue generation, as only about six per cent of mobile games will be paid for at point of download in 2019.

–   Diversified gaming offerings have resulted in a sharp uplift in the scale and session length of social/casual games amongst wider demographics.