Mobile Entertainment March_Issue 61 by Intent Media (now Newbay Media Europe)

01 ME61_Final

22/2/10

12:52

Page 1

FOR EVERYONE IN MOBILE CONTENT

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT

MARCH 2010 ISSUE 61 WWW.MOBILE-ENT.BIZ

Magmic

19/2/10

18:29

Page 1

3 ME61_Final

26/2/10

13:41

Page 1

CONTENTS MARCH 2010 | ISSUE 61

GAMES SPECIAL ISSUE

GATECRASHED

12 STATE OF PLAY The advent of iPhone and Android has turned mobile gaming on its head. ME visited the Mobile Games Forum to find out exactly how.

FEATURE

Days after Mobile World Congress ended and all those expensive stands got dragged onto the avenue to be smashed to bits, the GSMA revealed that attendance was up a little on last year. There was some scepticism at the 49,000 figure, but the FIRA seemed pretty busy to us. You have to wonder what that vast army of mobile delegates made of MWC 2010. I’d wager a good proportion of them were wildly excited. And a certain number were scared shitless. Without doubt, this was a watershed show. Most people we spoke to agreed that it was low key in terms of announcements: no new phones from Nokia, a bunch of solid but identikit touchscreens from Samsung and Sony Ericsson, and the unveiling of a vaguely confusing operator venture called the Wholesale Applications Community. What exactly was that all about? Well, no doubt WAC was prompted by the fact that all the action at MWC came (subliminally)

It’s an old truism that we overestimate the short-term effects of technological change and underestimate the long-term impact. The VoIP and IM panic five years ago passed when it became clear that GSM and SMS were safe. Well, they’re not now. 11 FLASH ALIGHT

14 PUSH THE BUTTON

Browser-based gaming flared briefly in the WAP days. Can Flash bring it back?

What are the big gameplay ideas and business models making the industry so excited?

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 5 OPINIONS

22 APPOINTMENTS

Let the ranting reign! ME gives airtime to its team and industry insiders for the letting off of steam.

Who’s arriving? And who are they passing on the way out? All the big moves documented here.

9 MONETISING MOBILE

24 SHOWS

ME’s new event in May is all about making money from apps. You should go. It’ll be brilliant.

What happens in Madras stays in Madras. You wouldn’t want the wife to know about that Vindaloo.

16 WE HAVE CONTACT

26 CHARTS

After years of multiplayer and networked gaming hype, it seems gamers are finding each other at last.

Go here to find out which bikini babe is currently topping the wallpaper charts.

20 MOBILE WORLD MEMORIES

33 DISCONTENT

All the talking points from the world’s biggest telco show. And a Japanese man flicking his eyes sideways.

If you’re included here looking ridiculous, we mean it as a compliment. It’s better than being ignored.

29 MARKETPLACE YOUR GUIDE TO THE MOBILE CONTENT INDUSTRY

www.mobile-ent.biz

from Google and Apple. They didn’t bother to actually book stands, but these two gatecrashers seem to be finally making good their promise to give the ancient regime an almighty kick up the backhaul. How many delegates did you see with an iPhone or Android pressed to their ear? Add them to Blackberry users and you’ve got nearly everyone. How fast things change. It’s an old truism that we overestimate the short-term effects of technological change and underestimate the long-term impact. I remember the panic about VoIP and IM five years ago, but it passed when it became clear that GSM and SMS were safe. Well, they’re not now. The momentum is such around Android that you can genuinely picture a future in which people buy SIM-free handsets, sync them with Google services and use wi-fi to connect most of the time. This needn’t worry us, in our little content corner. But for other sectors of the market it must be bloody terrifying. Stuart O’Brien Stuart.Obrien@intentmedia.co.uk Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 3

04 ME61 Monetising Mobile

24/2/10

15:57

Page 1

ho is a Mon ste ne e d b w k tisin y M ind g M o ob of ile con bile En fe ter ren tai ce nm en t

Wednesday, May 26th â&#x20AC;˘ BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London

How to make mobile apps pay their way

Conference & Dinner from ÂŁ199

An ME Event

For sponsorship information contact: Katy Grant on 01992 535647 or email katy.grant@intentmedia.co.uk For delegate booking information contact: Jodie Holdway on 01992 535647 or email jodie.holdway@intentmedia.co.uk

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

5 ME61_Final

26/2/10

14:04

Page 1

24 per cent

1.2bn

$15

Bugger the recession. This is the growth expected by content execs in MEF’s Annual Business Confidence Index.

...mobiles sold last year, says Gartner – and Nokia sold 441m of them for market share of 36.4 per cent.

The price of the ultra-cheap Vodafone 150, launched by the operator to target consumers in India, Turkey and Africa.

OPINION

IN BRIEF TapMetrics tapped up

Android alert MWC was hijacked by Android this year, with Google dominating the conversation and the device line-up. It’s a good bet to eclipse iPhone, says Brad Rees… he Mobile World Congress – home turf for the world’s operators – was invaded by Androids this year. The show surrendered the keynote slot to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who proclaimed that the mobile universe was now sufficiently evolved to accept higher life forms into its ecosystem. Imagine the perplexity of the mobile vets in the audience when Mr Schmidt put mobile at the heart of the search giant’s future plans of cosmological domination. He outlined how his ubergeeks are working on the Mobile First project and how they will AdMob into the Google mobile offer. But generally, Schmidt rejoiced at the arrival of the fully-converged mobile device, with the computing power, interconnectivity and cloud capability to change things forever. “The phone is where these three all interconnect. If you don’t use the power of the cloud you will fail,” he said. The cloud. It’s the perfect subject for any techy dinner party, although in this context its mention may have killed some of the appetites in the auditorium. Schmidt name-checked Facebook, Spotify and Google as the catalysts of the stepchange. There was little mention of network operators, except for a reference to new ‘Google phones’ that will be coming out soon on Orange and T-Mobile. What a capitulation by the operators. Just three years ago Vodafone’s then global CEO, Arun Sarin, portended that the sector must be careful lest Google “eat the mobile industry’s lunch”. And with his successor Vittorio Colao disclosing one in four of the handsets on the Vodafone network was now ‘smart’ and that smartphone shipments had risen by almost 40 per cent year-on-year in its most recent quarter, you can see why Google has got its knife and fork out. In no time at all, Android is beginning to dominate the device space. New handsets appear almost weekly, and nearly all have some form of wi-fi capability, giving them the ability to bypass the mobile network. HTC is

now the premiere iClone manufacturer. Its Desire handset may sound like a 1990s’ disco diva from Runcorn, but it is actually one of two hero phones the Taiwanese manufacturer is parading for Google. Eric Schmidt mentions the need for computing power and that’s precisely what the Desire delivers with a whopping 1Ghz of CPU. The laptop I’m writing this article on doesn’t boast that. The UI has been improved on this device too, mostly due to the Leap View function, which enables users to make all seven homescreens visible with one touchscreen swipe. It’s like the ability to view your visited websites in one window, using Google Chrome. In my opinion, the HTC Desire, Nexus One and others have the potential to surpass the influence of the iPhone. While the iPhone is great for the elevator pitch in the lift with the boss, crucially, Apple does not and will not support Adobe Flash on its iPhone or iPad products. From an advertising and creative perspective, this has meant that a colony of iPhone app specialists have formed and are also winning most of the pitches for mobile microsites in Agencyland. But in the online world, the language of big budget agency creative is Adobe Flash, in all of its guises, and this is precisely where Android hits the sweet spot. Even though Nokia has been offering full internet phones for a while now, it’s the Google proposition that resonates longer. So Google is busting a move into mobile in a big way and the operators have real cause to be concerned about future revenues. Google has powerful friends and not necessarily only in this galaxy. The NASA Space Act Agreement in 2006 formally established a relationship with Google to work together on “challenging technical problems, ranging from large-scale data management and massively distributed computing, to humancomputer interfaces”. The operators are about to get a great big rocket up their arses. Brad Rees is CEO of Mediacells

The HTC Desire, Nexus One and others have the potential to surpass the influence of the iPhone. While the iPhone is great for the elevator pitch in the lift with the boss, Apple does not and will not support Adobe Flash on its products.

www.mobile-ent.biz

Millennial Media has bought mobile analytics startup TapMetrics for an undisclosed sum. It’s the latest example of consolidation in the ad market. Analytics firms Flurry and Pinch Media recently merged, while in the advertising space, Apple bought Quattro Wireless, and Google is in the process of buying AdMob.

GoPayforit re-named UK-based billing specialist GoPayforit has re-branded as ImpulsePay. The firm says the change marks a new stage for the company after the success of its Payforit-based service. This is used by app developers, blogs, WAP sites and websites to charge for digital and physical goods. ImpulsePay’s one-click service works on any handset in the UK and across all networks.

PocketGear pockets Handango There’s a major new player in the browser-based app store space. PocketGear bought rival Handango, creating what it claims will be the largest independent, cross-platform app shop. The new entity will have a catalogue of more than 140,000 apps for Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm, Linux and Java handsets, with more than 32,000 developer partners. The newly enlarged PocketGear will go head-to-head with companies like GetJar.

Domains of the day DRM's not dead, but it is friendlier than before. UK-based mobile video specialist Saffron Digital is now pushing its 'domainbased' DRM services and has launched a new wesbite to market the technology. The idea is to enable content that has been downloaded to a mobile to then be viewable on PCs, laptops, video players, set-top boxes and TVs. Saffron says domain-based DRM technology provides a way for end-users to name their devices, and include them in their ‘domain’, so that content downloaded to their mobile can be played on authorised devices.

MobiTV viewing surge Live events, breaking news and entertainment have pushed MobiTV's daily audiences to new highs. The firm's TV services have experienced a 49 per cent increase in daily viewing minutes over the last 12 months. MobiTV says the recent Tiger Woods 'I'm sorry' press conference was responsible for a three fold jump in MobiTV viewership on channels airing the event: ABC News NOW, FOX News, MSNBC and others.

Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 5

6 ME61_Final

26/2/10

16:12

Page 1

100 million

Nothing

80,000

The total number of Facebook mobile users – and it’s added 35 million of them in the last six months

The price Nokia is charging for its Ovi Maps SatNav product: 1.4m downloads in ten days

Google’s operator killing Nexus One handset topped 80,000 sales in its first month, says Flurry

IN BRIEF

OPINION

Muzicall raises E2.1 million Euro ringback tone pioneer Muzicall has secure additional funds for its European expansion, bagging E2.1million funding from new investor Ventech. The new funding comes four months after Muzicall announced its second round of fundraising, which saw the company raise E9 million from new and existing investors. Muzicall says it plans to accelerate its availability of ringback tones to European mobile users via its RBT.4.ALL platform.

English channel Despite a cool reaction from some quarters, the GSMA’s Mobile Media Metrics has the potential to make mobile a popular choice among media buyers, says Tim Green...

Tik Tok Tap Tap Tapulous sold 100,000 Ke$ha tracks in two weeks inside its Tap Tap Revenge game. The iPhone developer and in-app billing pioneer has seen paid music downloads take off since it went free just before Christmas, according to its CEO Bart Decrem. He said: “At a time when a number one hit maybe sells a couple of million copies, to move 100,000 copies through our game shows that in-app commerce is real.”

Sprint runs to GetJar GetJar’s remarkable progress continues – now it’s teamed up with giant US operator Sprint. The deal sees Sprint bundle access to the GetJar app store for millions of feature phone subscribers. A link to the GetJar catalogue is now available on the Sprint portal for most Sprint handsets, including feature phones and smartphones running the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile OS. GetJar has already managed more than 750 million downloads and provides more than 60,000 apps.

Tanla’s sing thing Billing specialist Tanla has diversified into the D2C app space with its new Sing Intune product. This iPhone app tests a user’s ability to sing along with original recordings by artists such as Christina Aguilera, Boy George, Tina Turner, Simon Le Bon and Suggs. It’s an interesting move for Tanla, which is better known for providing billing, messaging and marketing services. But this product will provide a showcase for the firm’s ability to build communities around apps, and to monetise them.

AdMob-style Sofialys France’s Sofialys is targeting operators with a platform that builds AdMobstyle exchanges that complement inhouse sales operations. It calls the new service ADITIC, and says it gives operators the opportunity to monetise all or part of their inventory electronically and therefore accelerate their sales rate. Basically, it will mop up any inventory not sold by in-house teams or partners.

6 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

he GSMA is, almost by implication, a great big lumbering dinosaur. Because it looks after the interests of vast pachyderm-like operators, it doesn’t exactly move fast. But, like an Argentinosaurus (the largest of the dinosaurs – I know, I’ve got the Top Trumps), when the GSMA makes a move it’s generally worth knowing about. And so it was, last month, that the trade body unveiled its first ever Mobile Media Metrics service. It only took three years. It’s easy to scoff at the prep time. But you can only guess at the amount of cajoling, horse-trading, canoodling and forms of intercourse that were observed in getting O2, Vodafone, Orange, TMobile and 3UK to agree to the project. So, what did they sign up to? Well, the GSMA – and its partner comScore – describes the service a census-level solution for mobile media reporting. Still none the wiser? Okay, try this. The project lets brands and agencies see which how many visitors mobile sites are attracting, and then provides basic information about the demographic complexion of those visitors. This info is anonymised in the interests of privacy, but it covers all UK networks, so it’s an excellent basis on which to make judgements about where to place ads. Such was the excitement around the announcement at London’s IMAX cinema that the event was oversubscribed, and the GSMA had to arrange extra sessions. This didn’t prevent a certain negativity in the following days, with observers complaining about the limited scope of the service: no SMS, no MMS, no video and (most significant of all) no apps. For the latter, data will have to be drawn from OEM proprietors of the app stores (Apple, Nokia, BlackBerry et al) that the operators have no control over. This is where companies like AdMob and Millennial are historically strong – and will only continue to be so under their powerful new owners. So you can see the naysayers’ point. I first heard about the concept three years ago and came up with a headline of ‘media packs for mobile’ to describe it. I was

quite proud of that at the time. It seemed to me a succinct description of an idea that was often couched in tech speak, but which essentially described a channel through which ad buyers could pay for access to cross-operator mobile users by text, browser, video and even voice. The service announced last month clearly went nowhere near that. Luckily for me, I was able to grab comScore’s Paul Goode straight after the announcement, who assured me that this is just stage one of the project. Plans to incorporate these other mobile channels are in the pipeline. But more important – and this wasn’t properly addressed in the official announcement – the grand plan for this service is for it to move from planning to buying to targeting. In other words, the current version lets buyers plan campaigns, the second stage lets them buy their inventory (through authorised intermediaries), while the third lets them isolate and advertise to only the users relevant to them. Fancy that? Imagine being a trendy menswear brand and never wasting spend on females or men over 45? For the moment, this project is restricted to the UK. However, I’m assured that other countries are watching closely. In the dream scenario they pile on board at the double, but we all know that’s not going to happen. And anyway, I don’t see how the concept can really work in a pre-pay market, so that would preclude many of the emerging territories. A shame, when you think of the cultural significance of mobile in regions like Africa and Brazil. If GSMA and comScore can make this happen, then they have not only made mobile a genuine media channel, they’ve made it the best one. This is quite a claim, but think about it: where else can you ringfence your target audience like this? You can’t stop men looking at your billboard ad for lipstick. You can’t prevent women watching your TV ad for aftershave either. Unless you put algebra in it, perhaps. They hate that. Tim Green is ME’s executive editor

If GSMA and comScore can make this happen, then they have not only made mobile a genuine media channel, they’ve made it the best one. Where else can you ringfence your target audience like this?

www.mobile-ent.biz

07 ME61_Final

26/2/10

16:59

Page 1

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

PhonepayPlus Think regulation of phone-paid content is something that happens to other people? Think again…

ver heard of PhonepayPlus? How about ICSTIS, our previous name? I wouldn’t be offended if the majority of readers hadn’t. We’re the regulator of premium rate services that are charged to consumers’ mobile and landline accounts or against pre-pay credit (as opposed to, say, credit card, iTunes or Google Checkout). We have a Code of Practice that protects consumers from misleading promotions, poor pricing information and the few dodgy services that can damage the reputation of the rest. There are stiff penalties for those that fall foul of the Code. Fines of up to £250,000 and a bar on services, companies and individuals from working in the market are a nasty and effective deterrent. We’ve recently stepped up our enforcement action – in 2009 we issued £5 million in fines, more in sorrow than anger of course.

www.mobile-ent.biz

If you’re a provider of content that’s sold via mobile phones or on 09 numbers you may be wondering how on earth you’ve not come across us before. It’s probably because we have typically focussed on upstream companies – mainly the aggregators and network operators you contract with. However, all that’s set to change. We’re currently drafting a new Code of Practice. The headline change is that we’re shifting some responsibility away from the middle-men and towards the content provider. You – not the aggregator – will soon be responsible for what you sell to a consumer, how you promote it and how you charge for it. The new Code will also mean that everyone providing a premium rate service will need to register with us first. No one will contract with you if you can not provide them with a PhonepayPlus registration number.

Content providers now need to be aware of PhonepayPlus’ new Code of Practice.

We will soon be consulting on these proposed changes. They will affect you more than ever before so we urge you to engage with us to make sure they’re the right rules, enforced properly. Even if you don’t want to contribute to the debate, you should start figuring out what it means for your business. We’re happy to talk to anyone in the premium rate industry about their concerns and their ideas so please get in touch with me or a colleague and let us know what you think. Now’s the time to help shape the debate. We’re all too aware that the wrong regulation stunts growth and prevents innovative services finding their way to consumers. We don’t want that to happen which is why we need you to help us get it right. Paul Whiteing, Chief Executive, PhonepayPlus. newcode@phonepayplus.org.uk Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 7

11 ME60_Final

14/1/10

14:04

Page 1

9 ME61_Final

26/2/10

16:07

Page 1

CONFERENCE FOCUS

Wednesday, 26th May • BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London

Making apps pay How much can you make from in-app ads? What’s the best micro-billing business model? How can you help users find your app? These and other questions will be answered at ME’s Monetising Mobile conference in May…

Monetising Mobile: How to make apps pay their way Wednesday May 26th 2010 BAFTA • 195 Piccadilly • London W1 Ticket price: £199 + VAT (before April 1st) £229 plus VAT thereafter.

pple has delivered over three billion apps to iPhone and iPod Touch users. It’s nothing less than the content revolution we’ve been waiting for these last ten years. That’s got to be great news, right? Not necessarily. Consumers and content providers alike are struggling with the sheer volume of apps available: users can’t always find the products they want, while publishers are struggling with a market dominated by free apps and a nascent advertising ecosystem. But there are plenty of clever remedies out there. Which is why ME is delighted to present a special conference dedicated to apps and widgets – and specifically how to make money from them. Monestising Mobile is based on the same set-up that worked so successfully for last year’s Mobile Music Now event, and the London Games Conference presented by ME’s sister publication, MCV. There’ll be a late afternoon start, a series of short keynotes and panel discussions and a buffet dinner at the end to give every delegate the chance to network.

Our sponsors

Answers please!

Gold Partner: GetJar GetJar is the world’s biggest browser-based app store. There have been over 750 million downloads from the store, which offers more than 50,000 mini-applications for thousands of different handsets.

Here are some of the questions we’ll be asking – and answering – at the Monetising Mobile conference: How do branded apps fit within consumer-facing marketing campaigns? What’s the best way to use micropayments?

Gold Partner: Metaflow Metaflow supplies publishers, operators and service providers with the tools to discover,

Which prices work best on app subscriptions?

request, receive and process content in a cost-efficient way. Customers include EA Mobile, Namco Europe, Orange, Fox Mobile and many more. Silver Partner: Bango Bango has been a key player in the mobile payments space since 1999, and is active in apps via its in-app billing and mobile site analytics services.

What are the relative merits of operator and credit card billing? What is the best price point for your app?

Want to know more?

When is ‘free’ the right price? How do the various app stores compare? Which development tools can reduce the cost of app development?

www.mobile-ent.biz

Any questions about attending, speaking or sponsoring should be addressed to the following, or call +44 (0)1992 535 646 Nice venue, eh? Now imagine it filled with friendly people that can help you make money

Content: Tim.Green@intentmedia.co.uk Sponsorship: Katy.Grant@intentmedia.co.uk Delegate Bookings: Jodie.Holdway@intentmedia.co.uk

Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 9

10 ME61_Final

22/2/10

12:35

Page 1

11 ME61_Final

26/2/10

13:52

Page 1

FLASH GAMES

Flash: saviour of the universe? It’s the format that few speak about, but Flash Lite has made one Japanese entrepreneur a billionaire already, says Kooky Panda’s Richard Robinson. Can it do the same for others...? mid the constant iPhone/iStore love fest in the mainstream press and the recent Adobe bashing evidenced by the lack of Flash support by the iPad, a rather exciting news item has passed by largely unnoticed: Forbes Magazine crowned Yoshikazu Tanaka the world’s first mobile gaming billionaire. Tanaka is the founder and CEO of JASDAQ-listed Gree in Tokyo, which creates socially connected Flash Lite mobile games for the Japanese market. After the mention of both ‘Japan’ and ‘Flash Lite’ in the first paragraph, there may now be half as many readers of this second paragraph. Sure, Japan is like visiting the future, but no mobile services from Planet Japan have ever successfully taken root outside its exotic ecosystem. Japanese phones are proprietary devices and the i-mode experiment in other markets was a disaster. And don’t get us started on Flash Lite – we’ve been waiting for that train since before the RAZR phone was launched. While it is true that the Japanese mobile market is fairly closed, the real takeaway from the Gree success story is the viability and attractiveness of free-to-play, socially connected mobile games with virtual items as a business model. Gree has operating margins of 57 per cent and was ranked by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu as the fastest growing tech company in Japan, with over 2,600 per cent revenue growth over the past three years. It has 15 million users, up from eight million a year ago. Yet it’s not even Japan’s biggest social games firm – that’s Mixi, with 18 million users. Gree has set itself apart from the crowd by focusing on easy, fun gaming. New subscribers get a manga-style avatar in underwear. They can then shop for everything from clothes to accessories that can be used in games based on virtual fishing, gardening and pets. And an

www.mobile-ent.biz

estimated 80 per cent of its revenues come from these online accessories. Like Tanaka-san’s net worth, Flash Lite has also crept past the billion mark largely unnoticed. After the Adobe acquisition of Macromedia, Flash Lite was made free for OEMs to install in mid-2008. Since that time, hundreds of millions of devices with Flash Lite pre-installed have been shipped, bringing the addressable marker to well over a billion. While Adobe is now moving to support Flash 10.1 on higher end phones, there will be a Flash Lite opportunity for years to come. Why? Because it’s not smartphone users who are the ideal target for sociallyconnected gaming. They may be cash rich, but most are time poor. Instead, it’s the lowend users with free time and some disposable income who are the ideal target, and are much more likely to have a compatible device.

Richard Robinson, chairman of Kooky Panda (inset top)

In Japan, Flash Lite enjoys 97 per cent penetration and there’s a vibrant, flat-rate 3G user base. But the opportunity exists in other regions too. A browser-based Flash Lite gaming experience can reach hundreds of millions of users. By comparison, WAP provides a flatter user experience while J2ME, though highly functional, poses enormous porting challenges. The iPhone and Android platforms provide compelling environments, but the addressable market is much smaller. Japanese companies like Gree, Mixi and DeNA are all opening up to allow game developers to place their games on their platforms. Flash is coming of age, so don’t miss out. Richard Robinson is chairman of Kooky Panda, which develops Flash Lite games from Beijing and is backed by Japanese VC, Infinity Venture Partners. Email: Richard.Robinson@KookyPanda.com Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 11

12-13 ME61_Final

26/2/10

13:43

Page 1

MOBILE GAMES FORUM

State of play Last month’s Mobile Games Forum conference offered a snapshot of the mobile games industry in 2010. Stuart Dredge was there… hree years ago, the Mobile Games Forum was a miserable affair, through no fault of its organisers. The industry was in the doldrums thanks to flattening sales and fragmentation hassles, with many of the most talented developers talking openly about exiting the market. In 2010, it’s a different story. iPhone and its App Store have reinvigorated the sector at every level, including developers and publishers, but also handset makers and operators who are shaking up their own services and making games a priority. The opportunities and challenges were chewed over at this year’s MGF, but three areas in particular stood out as defining the mobile games industry in 2010.

LIFE BEYOND THE iPHONE 2009 saw a gold-rush mentality around the App Store, with developers dumping J2ME to concentrate on iPhone, while publishers invested in big-budget iPhone titles. In the process, the App Store became the biggest distribution channel for several major publishers, while making millionaires out of a handful of independent developers. 12 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

However, 2010 has seen a new sobriety emerge based on the bewildering array of products available. “You can spend money, develop a very good title, launch it and then have that title absolutely lost among the pure volume of content that’s out there,” says John Chasey, MD of UK developer FinBlade. Eric Hobson, CEO at Connect2Media, puts it more bluntly. “The App Store is going to be a killing zone for developers over the next 12 months, as the 98 per cent of developers who don’t make money disappear and die.” For these reasons, more games firms are planning a serious push onto Android, BlackBerry and other smartphones in 2010. These app stores are less crowded, downward pricing pressure is less intense, and platform owners are improving their stores and handset capabilities, while courting iPhone developers. This includes operators, who are launching their own app stores and giving games a new priority internally. “You could argue that iPhone has taken those premium customers who’ve always bought content on operator decks to another channel,” says Jess Gwyther, global content development manager at Vodafone Group.

“But all it’s done is made us [operators and handset firms] work together on new devices and services that can create a similar standard for customers who don’t want an iPhone.” Android Market, BlackBerry App World and Nokia’s Ovi Store will enjoy an influx of rich, high-quality games in 2010. But looking beyond iPhone isn’t just about handsets. Developers who’ve traditionally focused on the mobile space are also investing in porting their games to Facebook, to the recently-launched digital stores for Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS, and even console equivalents Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and WiiWare. iPhone is still the lead platform for many mobile games firms, but it’s no longer the whole story.

Above: Namco president Barry O’Neil, Vodafone Group’s Jess Gwyther and Fishlabs CEO Michael Schade

MARKETING GETS VIRAL Mobile games marketing was simple in the old days. It was a relationship thing – that relationship being operator games managers with the power to guarantee deck placement. Even PR was an afterthought. Securing sales was about signing brands, and then www.mobile-ent.biz

12-13 ME61_Final

26/2/10

13:43

Page 2

MOBILE GAMES FORUM

agreeing co-marketing campaigns to secure slots on portals. In the App Store world, it’s very different. “You now have to engage with your customer on a regular, direct basis – you can’t rely on those carrier relationships,” says Barry O’Neill, president of Namco Bandai Networks Europe. “You have to engage on Twitter, and Facebook, and by doing proper marketing. We’re moving from public relations into individual relations.” That’s a telling comment, one that is amplified by Paul Farley from TAG. “We don’t have to talk to a million people. If we can talk to 20 or 30 people who are passionate about the game, they’ll then take the message about our game to a much wider audience.” Mobile games has the Web 2.0 bug, with developers and publishers making use of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter while also liaising with games-focused websites and blogs before games are released. All this builds buzz around a title and cuts through the clutter.

We don’t want the consumer deciding the price we sell games at. It should be the publisher and retailer.

THE MOBILE GAMES INDUSTRY IN NUMBERS $540 million US mobile game publisher revenues in 2009 (SNL Kagan)

26,172 Number of iPhone games on the App Store in February (Mobclix)

25 per cent Share of European mobile game buyers for both Nokia and Apple (comScore)

$11.7 billion

THE PRICING QUESTION How much a mobile game should cost is provoking huge debate in 2010. There’s widespread accord that the dive towards 99-cent price points (59p in the UK) is dangerous. It works for indies with a massive hit like Flight Control or Doodle Jump, but not for anyone else. “We don’t want the consumer deciding the price we sell games at,” says Tony Pearce of Player X. “It should be the publisher and retailer.” This is part of the reason rival app stores, such as BlackBerry App World, are increasingly appealing for publishers; RIM doesn’t allow paid apps to be sold for less than $2.99. The cat may be out of the bag as far as cheap mobile games go, though, in Western markets. Meanwhile, prices are hardly likely to be higher in emerging markets. “Look at a market like India – 97 per cent of the market is pre-pay,” says Patrick Mork from GetJar. “Those people are not going to pay for content, and if they do, it’ll be cents rather than dollars. We have to reinvent the www.mobile-ent.biz

Global mobile games revenues by 2014 (DFC Intelligence)

8 million Number of mobile gamers in the UK (UK National Gamers Survey)

$450 million Lost iPhone games revenues due to piracy so far (24/7 Wall St)

900 per cent Jump in downloads from iPod touches on Christmas Day (Flurry)

2 million App Store downloads for Flight Control and Doodle Jump games (Firemint/Lima Sky)

$2.5 billion Value of Chinese mobile games market by 2014 (Pyramid Research)

12 Number of console brands in the UK App Store’s Top 20 Grossing Games chart (ME)

business models in mobile, especially around mobile games.” For this reason, the industry is fascinated by ‘freemium’ models like those seen on Facebook, where games are free to play but make money from advertising and virtual item sales. Apple’s introduction of in-app payments has already spurred some publishers to try the model on the App Store, including ngmoco’s Eliminate Pro, SGN’s Skies of Glory, and Tapulous’ Tap Tap Revenge 3. Advergames offer another potential model for developers, with Fishlabs already profiting from its free iPhone games for Volkswagen and Barclaycard. “Last year, the revenue we got from ad games was about 30 per cent, and we expect that to increase to 45 per cent this year,” says CEO Michael Schade. There may be challenges, but the mobile games industry is adopting a glass-half-full approach to the opportunities of the postApp Store era. “We are very bullish about the future of this business, due to the expected proliferation of smartphones and their app stores,” says EA Mobile’s European boss, Luca Pagano. “People who have a smartphone tend to play more games and buy more games.” Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 13

14-15 ME61_Final

26/2/10

13:54

Page 1

GAME TRENDS 2

What’s the big idea? What’s pushing the mobile gamer’s buttons in 2010? Stuart Dredge gives us ten of the best new trends... pple’s iPhone has fuelled an explosion in innovative and original mobile games since the launch of the App Store in July 2008. Indie developers and large publishers alike are stretching their creative muscles, with the effects also starting to be felt on other smartphones. Here are ten of the current mobile gameplay trends that are defining what titles will be big in 2010.

1. SWEET MUSIC With 25 million downloads of its Tap Tap Revenge games, Tapulous has proved that there’s a big appetite for classy music games on iPhone – and that you can sell music downloads to those players within the game itself. Its new racing game, Riddim Ribbon, hopes for similar success. However, there are plenty of rivals trying to follow suit. Appy Entertainment’s Tune Runner and Drop D Studios’ Tap Studio Pro let people play along to the songs stored on their iPhone. Meanwhile, the company behind music app TuneWiki is working on a mobile game called Lyrics Legend based around song lyrics. 14 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

2. ON LOCATION Location-based mobile games are as old as the hills – remember BotFighters? But they’re enjoying a new lease of life on iPhone and other smartphones. MeanFreePath’s Turf Wars is a social mafia game that lets players claim ‘turf’ in their real-world neighbourhood, while Glu Mobile’s 1000 puts Pokemon and Google Maps into a GPS blender for location-based collecting fun. Nokia also recently delivered on its promise of games tying into its Ovi Maps service with Ovi Maps Racing, which turns your local streets into race-tracks. And while proper augmented reality games are still thin on the ground, AR gaming is expected to be big in the coming months. 3. CONSOLE CAPERS Look at the App Store’s Top Grossing chart, and you’ll see that big console brands are making lots of money on iPhone – especially when they come bearing colons. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Assassin’s Creed 2: Discovery were sizeable hits for Rockstar Games and Ubisoft respectively, while Activision went one

Lima Sky’s addictive action game Doodle Jump (image 5) and Taito’s Space Invaders Infinity Gene (image 7)

better on the punctuation front with Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies. Meanwhile, EA Mobile has topped the charts with a string of its parent company’s big console franchises, while Gameloft has a nice line in own-IP titles heavily inspired by console classics. Its N.O.V.A. is distinctly Halo-esque, GT Racing Academy is very Gran Turismo, and Blades of Fury IS Soul Calibur. 4. VIRTUAL ITEMS Apple’s launch of in-app payments, plus the whopping great revenues being made on Facebook by firms like Zynga and Playfish, is getting iPhone game developers hot for virtual items. Besides songs, Tapulous is making decent money from avatar clothing in Tap Tap Revenge 3, while EA has started selling themed sets for The Sims 3 at 59p a pop. You can buy a T-Rex skin for Pocket God, a new beach level for Flick Fishing, and download 20 extra levels for I-play’s Paradise Quest puzzler. Some games, like ngmoco’s Eliminate Pro and SGN’s F.A.S.T, are going the whole hog with a freemium model, where the game is free and entirely funded by in-app virtual item purchases. www.mobile-ent.biz

14-15 ME61_Final

26/2/10

13:54

Page 2

GAME TRENDS 3

Independent developers and large publishers are creating innovative and effective app games for the mobile market. Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies and iFarm are two of the titles defining gameplay for 2010

9 6 8

5. DOODLE EVERYTHING Heard of Doodle Jump? You can’t avoid it on the App Store. Lima Sky’s addictive action game has been a fixture at the top of the chart ever since its release in March last year. Now it’s spawning a wave of games copying its hand-drawn graphical style – although their developers are making sure potential buyers don’t miss the link. Doodle Bombs, Doodle Army, Doodle Blitz, Doodle Jeep, Doodle Escape... No genre is safe. And while none of these games has hit the commercial heights of their inspiration, it’s clear that the Doodle aesthetic is here to stay – and will likely spread to other mobile and non-mobile platforms.

mobile, as the sales figures for Tetris, PacMan and Space Invaders show. That trend is evolving in two different directions in 2010, though. First, there’s the boom in emulators of old games consoles – either licensed like Manomio’s Commodore 64 and Sega’s upcoming Ultimate Genesis, or unlicensed like the numerous NES and Game Boy emulators available on Android. Other developers are focusing on giving old games an iPhone update. UK firm Revolution Software has released a ‘director’s cut’ of its Broken Sword adventure, while Taito brought a 21st century sheen to Space Invaders Infinity Gene.

6. ‘DOING A FARMVILLE’ We mentioned earlier Zynga’s big Facebook revenues, a large proportion of which are down to its quite literally, barn-storming Farmville social game. It hasn’t gone mobile yet, but there is no shortage of iPhone games trying to make a success of the ideas behind it. iFarm from Playmesh is the closest copy, and it was downloaded one million times in ten days after its release last year. Coming up are TAG Games’ Astro Ranch, which is like Farmville in space, and ngmoco’s We Rule, which is like Farmville with a kingdom rather than a farm.

8. CHECKING IN Social location apps like Foursquare and Gowalla aren’t really games. Instead, they apply game-like elements to location-based social networking, awarding points and achievement badges for people who are out on the town lots. However, bigger than both is Booyah’s MyTown, which recently signed up its one millionth user. It’s like a real-world Monopoly, where people ‘check in’ to locations in their city, but can also buy the virtual versions, upgrade them and charge other players rent. Its success is sure to spawn more imitators in 2010, turning people’s social lives into massively multiplayer gaming experiences.

7. RETRO A-GO-GO Retro games have always been popular on

9. MEET THE TWIN-STICKS A rapidly-growing sub-genre on iPhone is

www.mobile-ent.biz

the twin-stick shooter, so named because it involves two virtual joysticks – one each at the bottom left and bottom right of the screen – and lots of shooting. Chillingo’s iDracula showed there was money in it, before the same company’s Minigore proved the point. Now there’s a steady flow, including Guerilla Bob, Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet, Meteor Blitz, MetalWars, Garters and Ghouls... Although originally inspired by console joypads, the twin-stick control system is ideally suited to touchscreen mobile phones – hence its ongoing rise in popularity. 10. BUMS ’N’ BOOBS

The MyTown app from Booyah is proving to be popular among users (image 8), while Tic Tac Boobs shows the seedier side to adult content games

Would you believe it, there is a seedier side to mobile gaming. Still. Even though Apple may be fairly strict when it comes to adult content, that hasn’t stopped a flood of ‘sexy’ – i.e. profoundly unsexy – games from launching on the App Store, usually with self-explanatory titles. Sexy Maid Service is a maid-based dust ‘em up game, while Tic Tac Boobs is just like Tic Tac Toe but with, yes, boobs. Meanwhile, Tehra Dark Warrior is a big-budget 3D action-adventure whose big selling point is the buttocks of its thong-clad heroine. And talking of bottoms, PooPong is, in the words of its App Store blurb: ‘Pong with poop instead of a ball. Plus fart sounds.’ A very proud moment for mobile gaming, we are sure you will all agree. Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 15

16-17 ME61_Final

26/2/10

14:57

Page 1

SOCIAL GAMING

All together now Recently fierce competition between platform providers has made connected features key to iPhone gaming. Here Stuart Dredge examines those third-party suppliers making waves in the games market... emember the days when every other mobile games conference was focused on multiplayer, fuelled by the ambitions of companies like Exit Games, Terraplay and Ex Machina? Well, the conferences died away, Exit Games shifted its focus to MMOs and social gaming, Terraplay was swallowed up by End2End and Ex Machina turned its attention to TV-based projects. But history goes in circles, and now iPhone has spawned a new generation of connected gaming platforms to replace those early innovators.

16 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

OpenFeint, Scoreloop and AGON Online are just three of the third-party platforms competing to offer features like online leaderboards, buddy lists, challenges and achievements to iPhone game developers. Meanwhile, publishers Ngmoco and Chillingo have launched their own platforms – Plus+ and Crystal respectively – which are being made available to their network of developers. Gameloft has, characteristically, opted to keep its connected platform inhouse, with Gameloft Live. The net result of all this activity is that connected features are increasingly a

Scoreloop offers a variety of features to iPhone developers

necessity for new iPhone games, for small indies and larger publishers alike. US firm Aurora Feint says it’s signed up more than 5,000 registered developers, with more than 1,000 OpenFeint-enabled games already live on the App Store, for example. The fierce competition means that the actual features of these platforms are increasingly commoditised. No sooner has one platform introduced a new feature, like challenges, than its rivals have patched their offerings to offer it too. There’s little to choose between the various platforms when it comes to basic functionality. Even www.mobile-ent.biz

16-17 ME61_Final

26/2/10

14:57

Page 2

SOCIAL GAMING

live multiplayer support, when it comes, will likely be present in all of them. So how are developers choosing which platform to use for their games? It’s partly about reliability, and how well the platforms scale once they’re being used by millions of gamers. Some of the companies, in particular Scoreloop and Chillingo, are making much of their white-label aspects, where their technology blends into a developer’s game without imposing its own brand. However, putting this technology inside iPhone games offers more than just connectivity. The social gaming platforms are becoming as much about game discovery – a way for iPhone owners playing one game to find others that let them use their existing profile. Thus, a platform that’s being used for a big-selling game like Pocket God (OpenFeint) or Parachute Panic (Scoreloop) becomes more appealing to other www.mobile-ent.biz

developers looking to get attention for their games. Analytics is another area that will be increasingly important for the social games platforms. When players are connecting regularly to post scores or achievements, there is valuable data to be mined for developers. These platforms don’t replace dedicated analytics tools like those provided by Flurry, but as games developers decide which firm to work with, the amount of data they can get back may become more of a selling point. Finally, there’s the question of how and when these platforms will look beyond iPhone. All the companies are excited about

the iPad, and are ensuring their services will work with games on Apple’s tablet from launch. Aptocore, which makes the AGON Online platform, even released screenshots of its system running on the iPad SDK simulator. However, Scoreloop recently started supporting Android as well as iPhone, with full cross-platform compatibility allowing people using one handset to challenge friends on the other – assuming the same game is available for both, of course. Aurora Feint founder Jason Citron, didn’t mince his words at the recent Mobile Games Forum on the subject of Android’s failings, but admitted that his company too is preparing to support Google’s OS.

Companies are excited about the iPad and are ensuring their services will work with games on Apple’s tablet from launch.

Chillingo’s Crystal (top) and Aurora Feint’s OpenFeint platforms are delivering new connected options

Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 17

20-21 ME61_Final

26/2/10

16:39

Page 1

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS

Show progress Forty-nine thousand people went from 200 countries to Mobile World Congress. The Mobile Entertainment team was among them. Here is what we discovered there… f Mobile World Congress 2010 was a play it would have been one of those domestic dramas in which a previously happy family group has its idyll disturbed by an interloper. Think An Inspector Calls, or Six Degrees of Separation. Without doubt, this was the year that the collective fear of Google/Apple turned into tangible reality. Nearly every delegate had an iPhone, and all the best new devices had Android inside them. You could almost see the axis of power changing before your eyes. Anyway, with the dust from this year’s show settling, here’s our take on the key trends of Mobile World Congress…

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE USER EXPERIENCE Hardware features like GPS, wi-fi and megapixels have been commoditised. UE is everything. Who chooses the interface is an interesting question though. Microsoft won’t let handset partners muck about with the Windows Phone 7 Series UI, yet it’s now ubiquitous on Android. 20 | March 2010 Mobile Entertainment

GOOGLE IS EVIL? Anyone who saw the Q&A section of CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote will have seen the suspicion, anger and paranoia directed at Google from some elements of the mobile industry. The more deeply Google gets into the mobile market, the more negativity it is encountering.

APPS TAKE CENTRE STAGE (SORT OF) Developer sessions by the likes of Vodafone, RIM and Google at App Planet were rammed – giving away thousands of Nexus Ones didn’t hurt in the latter’s case. FUNCTIONAL APPS In 2010, we will see applications becoming more tightly integrated with smartphone interfaces. RIM coined the term ‘Super Apps’ to describe apps that interrogate the inbox, add entries to the calendar, and dig into the contacts. Skype also talked about this idea of being baked into the operating system rather than just existing on the handset as an application. THE GIGAHERTZ WARS A 1GHz processor in a phone? Qualcomm’s Mark Frankel highlighted the potential for this to turn into an arms race, with handset makers competing to willy-wave in a contest to see who has the fastest processor.

MICROSOFT MAKES WAVES There was a lack of really big news at MWC this year so Windows Phone 7 Series felt like a big deal. It’s a leap on from previous versions, and games developers are particularly excited about the Xbox Live aspect, although Microsoft is keeping details under its hat until next month’s MIX conference. A new version of Windows Phone (top) stole headlines, while the mobile TV sector was boosted by Qualcomm’s FLO TV player (bottom)

MOBILE ADVERTISING 2.0 The flurry of mergers and buy-outs in the space appeared to have brought the agencies to MWC. There were far more of them than ever before at the FIRA. www.mobile-ent.biz

20-21 ME61_Final

26/2/10

16:39

Page 2

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS

BEST OF THE TECH You don’t go to MWC looking for whacky new phones any more – they all look the same now. But there are some surprising new technologies on show if you look hard enough. Here’s our top six... THE PUMA PHONE Mobile history is littered with the risible efforts of brands to make phones. Levi’s, Hummer, Porsche and others – they’ve all tried and failed. But Sagem’s new Puma phone breaks the mould of branded phones by actually being good. The device has clearly been designed from the ground up by Puma and its partners. It’s not the specs that distinguish it (2.8-inch touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera etc), but the sheer personality in the details. All the icons have a cheery retro look – the MP3 player looks like a vinyl turntable and the alarm is a megaphone. There’s also a sports screen that offers a pedometer, compass, cycling speedo and more. It even has a solar panel.

POWERMAT WIRELESS CHARGING

WHERE IS THE PORN? Remember the first time there was a content hall at 3GSM? The stand imagery was so filthy that there was a warning on the front door. Adult content is barely evident at the show now. There was one stand in hall seven, and Playboy sponsored the MEF party, but that was about it. MOBILE MUSIC TAKES A BACK-SEAT The biggest music story at Mobile World Congress was Duran Duran’s GSMA awards gig, which shows that music is getting considerably less hype than it did a few years ago. Aspiro and Omnifone apart, there was little musical dimension to the show. MOBILE TV IS (FINALLY) GETTING SEXIER Fuugo, a mobile TV service from Axel Technologies, aggregates shows from traditional broadcasters, mobile channels and UGC websites, serving them up in a slick touchscreen interface. That was nice, as was Qualcomm’s standalone FLO TV device. Maybe there’s something on TV for a change. NOKIA’S BIG GAMBIT It eschewed hall eight for its own space off site, but then it had no new handsets to show. The Meego OS is intriguing if Intel can deliver and Nokia can build on its N900 with sleeker devices. Overall, not Nokia’s finest hour. THE DECLINE OF JAVA GAMING Gameloft told ME its Java revenues had suffered in Q4, while Glu admitted the same www.mobile-ent.biz

The flurry of buyouts in the space appeared to have brought ad agencies to MWC. There were far more of them than ever before at the FIRA. in its recent Q4. It’s a transition phase, although not necessarily a flee away from the operators. After all, this year plenty of them will be launching their own application stores supporting Android and other smartphones... GOING LOCAL The apps thing may be global, but there was lots of talk about smartphone platformowners talent-scouting beyond the West Coast of the US for developers. It was in RIM’s plans to hold BlackBerry roadshows around the world, while leaving behind local community groups after the event. FEATURE PHONES ARE GETTING SMARTER Apps are a smartphone thing, right? Maybe not, now that app stores are launching platforms that support more affordable feature phones. HTC’s Smart is coming to O2 – it uses Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile platform to provide features that would normally be expected from more expensive handsets.

The issue of battery power and charging never leaves the mobile business. Quite the opposite in fact. Maybe that’s why Powermat got so much attention – and was so controlling (you had to wait to be invited onto the stand). The firm’s tech can charge most consumer devices (not iPhone, unless you put a special jacket on it) merely by laying them on a special mat. So far, so mildly impressive. What’s far more exciting is the prototype desk, which can charge multiple items at once.

TOUCH FREE SWIPING The touchscreen has transformed the mobile UI. But eyeSight’s eyeCan tech goes further, enabling a hand swipe above the screen to silence an incoming call, navigate between GPS menus, activate the MP3 player and more. Its gesture recognition engine uses the phone’s camera, along with real-time image processing algorithms to track the user’s hand motions and translate them to user actions. EyeSight believes the UI will be good for drivers, for example.

3D SCREENS EyeSight again, this time showing a protype of 3D screen technology that it’s hawking to all the OEMs. It sandwiches a bi-directional layer beneath the main screen to display slightly diverged images. There’s no need for glasses, and the protoype included two cameras so users can take their own 3D pictures. Your ME correspondent can only see through one eye, so we can’t tell you if it’s any good.

AUGMENTED REALITY GAMING Samsung’s Wave handset, based on its Bada OS, won a lot of fans. But those who looked carefully would have been wowed by the embedded AR game – AR Defender, from French developer int13. You have to print out the barcode and then aim the camera at it. The barcode is instantly transformed into a tower that has to be protected from invaders by tilting the screen and pressing fire. AR gaming is unproven commercially, but as far as technology is concerned it’s very impressive.

EYE-CONTROLLED EARPHONES MWC wouldn’t be MWC without something mad from the Japanese. On DoCoMo’s stand there were remote controlled earphones controlled by eye movement. It works by muscle detection and something about positive and negative electrons. It’ll never take off, but we all loved the unintentionally hilarious demo by the inscrutable DoCoMo man in an illfitting suit. He took it wonderfully seriously.

Mobile Entertainment March 2010 | 21

22 ME61_Final

26/2/10

16:38

Page 1