8 th International Mobile Gaming Awards
ANNUAL REPORT
www.imgawards.com
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
WELCOME Five months have passed since the 8th International Mobile Gaming Awards ended with our Awards Ceremony and Summit at the Mobile World Congress. The mobile games industry has grown to become an extremely dynamic and fast paced environment. With the clear dominance of the iOS platform and a fiercely criticized, yet far more open, Android platform, there’s never a dull moment in the space that is still seeking to define itself. Development budgets are growing to the height of console games and a new era of cross platform gaming is starting with the growth of tablets and smart TV’s. Two important observations have motivated me to make a big new step in my career. Publishing In order to allow consumers to discover the right games, a new kind of publisher needs to emerge. This Publisher 2.0. needs to be able to understand, master and integrate all SNS, analytics and monetization services currently available in the market while keeping the focus on it’s users. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube API’s allow publishers to grow a sustainable community around their games. Analytics and fair virtual goods trading can contribute to this. With these technologies, publishers can become like a TV channel, providing the right programming of games for its audiences. Good games I have been saying since 2004 that there were not enough innovative games. Games that are bringing something new to the platform. Too many studios are inspired by the current success stories and not enough studios are taking the risk of innovation and vision.
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In June of this year I signed a joint venture agreement with MTI (www.mti.jp) which allows me to set up Playground Publishing, a new publisher of innovative mobile and cross platform games. Instead of consulting and talking about mobile games development and publishing, I will be taking the risk of development and publishing myself. For the IMGA this means that I have to step back from the operational side of things, but I will make sure that the IMGA will continue to grow as the largest independent competition for mobile games. Playground Publishing will contribute financially to this growth as a Gold Sponsor. I am currently in the process of handing over the keys to a new team and everything looks extremely positive for the 9th and 10th editions. Stay tuned for further developments and contact me directly if you are interested in more information about the 9th IMGA or Playground Publishing. Looking forward to seeing you in February for the 9th IMGA,
Maarten Noyons Maarten@plgnd.com
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
MARKETING AND PROMOTION As the number of games released keeps growing, exposure and discoverability is crucial to their success in reaching the public. This year we worked with a great team of media partners to secure maximum visibility for the IMGA’s entrants and sponsors, and consolidate the IMGA’s position as the world’s number one award for mobile games.
Social media presence The IMGA developed its profile in the community of mobile gamers, with a growing presence on social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin).
Media partners Our network of media partners contributed to creating the buzz around the IMGA. This year, they were : • Pocket Gamer • 148Apps • Softpedia • Biskero.org • Games Press The IMGA contracted a partnership with specialist media company Appency, the global leader in mobile application marketing, who provided PR and media support throughout the campaign.
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SPONSORS For the first time this year, the participation of the IMGA’s Platinum sponsor ProSiebenSat.1 Games, a leading international publisher, allowed us to offer an unprecedented package of media exposures for the winning games, worth a million euros in total. The media packages included editorial coverage on ProsiebenSat.1’s online platforms (www.prosiebengames.de, www.sat1spiele.de, www.kabeleins.de) and the opportunity to promote the winning game via its television channels (such as ProSieben, Sat.1 and others) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
PLATINUM sponsor
Gold sponsors
SILVER sponsors
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
ABOUT THE ENTRANTS This year a total of 437 games were submitted, with entrants coming from 45 different countries. Platforms
IOS
Android
Windows
J2ME/Java
Others
IMGA 8 (2012)
79%
16%
2%
2%
1%
IMGA 7 (2011)
84%
8%
0%
6%
2%
IMGA 6 (2010)
63%
5%
1%
15%
16%
2010
2011
Countries of provenance :
Asia 70 North America 107 Europe 206 Africa 3
Middle east 13 South America 7 Russia 18 Australia/NZ 5
2012
Top 10 countries :
1 USA
85
20
2
China
38
9
3
France
37
9
4
United Kingdom
32
7
5
Germany
25
6
6
Canada
22
5
7
Russia
18
4
8
Spain
15
3
9
South Korea
14
3
10 Netherlands
14
3
132
31
ROW
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THE PROCESS 4 November 2011
8th IMGA open for entries
16 January 2012
Deadline for entries
20 January 2012
First judging session in Marseille
The judges reviewed close to 100 games based on the entrants’ submissions (stills, descriptions and videos). The outcome of the first judging session was the selection of 30 nominees - 5 in each of the 6 IMGA categories. 26 February 2012
Second judging session in Barcelona
The judges played the nominated games, installed on handsets. Nominees had the possibility to present their game for 10 minutes max to the judges. The outcome of the judging session was the selection of the 6 category winners and the Grand Prix winner. 1 March 2012
Awards ceremony at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
THE JUDGING Each year the IMGA selects a panel of 10-12 people. Our criteria for recruiting them are: an exceptional knowledge of mobile games, a good insight into how games are made and awareness on what is currently available on the market. The majority of our judging panel consists of game journalists. In general, we have at least two game developers in our panel. The game developer judges usually have no games in the competition and if they have, they cannot vote for their own games. We also invite our main sponsors’ specialists on mobile games to be judges – a company may have more than one representative in the jury, but they only have one vote.
This year’s judges were : Nizar Romdhane
ARM
Haruo Taneno
MTI/Entag!
Beat Bruehwiler
MTI/Entag!
Jean François Royer
Euroméditerranée
Tommy Palm
Fabrication Games
Matthieu Burleraux
Gala
Andy Doe
LGE
John Lee Mobile
Bus
Raphael Goumot
Playground
Jon Jordan
Pocketgamer
Markus Buechtmann
ProSieben Sat1 Games
Maximilian Struppler
ProSieben Sat1 Games
Malte Barth
ProSieben Sat1 Games
Lauren Thorpe
Qualcomm
Andrew Podolsky
Slide to Play
Chris James
Steelmedia
Haosu Wang
Tencent
Eli Hodapp
TouchArcade
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THE NOMINEES After receiving a record-breaking number of entries, the IMGA announced the 30 nominees on 26 January 2012.
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
THE IMGA SUMMIT The IMGA Summit took place on 1 March 2012 at the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona. Providing a unique networking platform for the sector, the event brought together representatives from the entire mobile gaming ecosystem - from handset manufacturers to game developers, publishers and journalists - to discuss the hottest issues that affect the sector. Programme Welcome : Maarten Noyons, Founder of the IMGA Opening address : Markus Büchtmann, Managing Director, ProSiebenSat1 Games GmbH Panel 1 : Challenges in the App Economy The Chinese Mobile Games Market Simon Li, Dep. General Manager of Wireless Gaming Product Dept., Tencent New Players in the App Econmy: Europe's 2nd largest Media group. Markus Büchtmann, Managing Director, ProSiebenSat1 Games GmbH Generating revenues with mobile advertising Limvirak Chea, Director, Business Development, EMEA InMobi Panel 2 : New ways to work • Bertrand Schmitt, CEO, App Annie • Jason Cho, SVP EMEA, Jibe Mobile • Nick Smith, Marmalade Networking lunch and pitching session 9 passionate developers present their apps and games to a panel of journalists: • Jeff Scott, 148 Apps • Jon Jordan, Pocketgamer • Andrew Podolsky, SlideToPlay • Eli Hodapp, TouchArcade • David MacQueen, Strategy Analytics Panel 3 : Innovation • Nizar Romdhane, Ecosystem Manager - Media Processing, ARM • Neil Trevett, VP NVIDIA • Manish Sirdeshmukh, Sr Product Manager, Qualcomm • David McQueen, Director of Wireless Media Strategy, Strategy Analytics Awards Ceremony Presented by Steel Media's CEO Chris James
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
THE WINNERS Excellence in Gameplay & Grand Prix Infinity Blade 2 (Chair Entertainment)
People’s Choice Flick Tennis: College Wars (Rolocule Games)
Best Casual Game Sprinkle (Mediocre)
Best Mobile Social Game Charadium II (On5)
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Best Real World Game Meatspace Invasion (C4M)
Most Innovative Game Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (Superbrothers, Capy, Jim Guthrie)
Best Sports Game Touchgrind BMX (Illusion Labs)
Jury’s Special mention : Contre Jour (Mokus Games)
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
MOBILE GAME DEVELOPMENT IN 2012 This year we collaborated with market research company Strategy Analytics to find out more about the developers who took part in the IMGA, by inviting all entrants to take part in a survey. Here are a few of the things we discovered:
Please rank the importance of these platforms to you in the next 12 months
Android
BlackBerry
HTML5
IOS
Symbian
Windows Phone
Other
1 - No plans to develop for
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 - Essential to my business
9.9%
3.7%
1.9%
1.9%
9.3%
5.6%
8.8%
8.8%
9.7%
40.3%
51
19
10
10
48
29
45
45
50
207
45.9%
7.6%
2.3%
4.9%
8.8%
4.9%
5.3%
4.5%
2.9%
13.0%
236
39
12
25
45
25
27
23
15
67
20.4%
4.9%
4.7%
4.7%
11.5%
6.0%
9.5%
9.1%
9.5%
19.6%
105
25
24
24
59
31
49
47
49
101
17.1%
5.4%
3.5%
2.1%
7.2%
5.1%
4.9%
7.0%
9.3%
38.3%
88
28
18
11
37
26
25
36
48
197
71.8%
5.8%
3.5%
3.3%
4.7%
2.5%
1.8%
0.6%
1.8%
4.3%
369
30
18
17
24
13
9
3
9
22
27.4%
7.0%
5.6%
4.5%
8.0%
6.0%
8.2%
6.4%
4.5%
22.4%
141
36
29
23
41
31
42
33
23
115
62.3%
6.6%
3.1%
2.7%
8.2%
4.1%
1.9%
2.1%
1.6%
7.4%
320
34
16
14
42
21
10
11
8
38
Responses 514
514
514
514
514
514
514
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Through which outlets do you distribute your apps? Value
Count
Percent
Android Market
327
63.6%
Amazon App Store
114
22.2%
Apple App Store
266
51.8%
BlackBerry App World
157
30.5%
80
15.6%
GetJar
47
9.1%
Nokia App Store
71
13.8%
Nook App Store
17
3.3%
Opera App Store
15
2.9%
Samsung App Store
37
7.2%
Windows Phone Marketplace
166
32.3%
Carrier branded app store (i.e. Verizon V CAST, China Unicom Wostore)
35
6.8%
Other (specify)
48
9.3%
Which business models are you using to generate revenue today? Value
Count
Percent
A la carte (users pay per download)
329
65.3%
Advertising
282
56%
In-App Virtual Good sales
118
23.4%
Subscription
59
11.7%
No way to generate revenue at this time
64
12.7%
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
Which of the following (if any) social networks have you integrated into your apps? Value
Count
Percent
Facebook Connect/Authentication
261
75.3%
Gamecenter
89
25.1%
OpenFeint
60
16.9%
Ngmoco Plus+
2
0.6%
BlackBerry Messenger Social
31
8.7%
Crystal
3
0.8%
Scoreloop
20
5.6%
Xbox Live
35
9.9%
215
60.6%
Other (Specify)
37
10.4%
Value
Count
Percent
Unity
124
35.3%
Marmalade
19
5.4%
Epic/Unreal
25
7.1%
Cocos2D
112
31.9%
Corona
35
10%
ShiVa
12
3.4%
iTorque
12
3.4%
Other (Specify)
160
45.6%
Which if any game engines do you use?
The full report, App Developer Survey: Developer Attitudes by Josh Martin (released 23 May 2012), is available from Strategy Analytics on their website: http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=reportabstractviewer&a0=7409
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SELECTED PRESS COVERAGE Launch Pocket Gamer, “Entries for the 8th International Mobile Games Awards now open », 9 November 2011 www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/IMGA+Awards+2012/news.asp?c=35139 Gamezebo, “International Mobile Gaming Awards open for entries”, 10 November 2011 http://www.gamezebo.com/news/2011/11/10/international-mobile-gaming-awardsopen-entries Mobile Entertainment, “Four weeks left to enter IMGA Awards“, 20 December 2011 http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/four-weeks-left-to-enter-imgaawards/016537 Village Gamer, “International Mobile Gaming Awards open for entries”, 9 November 2011 http://www.villagegamer.net/2011/11/09/8th-international-mobile-game-awardsopen-for-entries/
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8th International Mobile Gaming Awards
Nominations Pocket Gamer, “Infinity Blade II and Jetpack Joyride among 30 contenders for the IMGA 2012 », 26 January 2012 http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Multiformat/IMGA+Awards+2012/ip_news. asp?c=37285 Good News Finland, “Five Finnish games compete for the International Mobile Gaming Award », 3 February 2012 http://www.goodnewsfinland.com/archive/news/five-finnish-games-compete-forthe-internationalmobile-gaming-award/ Pocket Gamer, “Jetpack Joyride, Sword & Sworcery and Infinity Blade II among 30 IMGA award 2012 hopefuls », 3 February 2012 http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/IMGA+Awards+2012/news.asp?c=37276 Mobile Entertainment, « IMGA announces 2012 award contenders », 26 January 2012 http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/imga-announces-2012-awardcontenders/016830
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Winners Pocket Gamer, « Infinity Blade 2 wins the IMGA Grand Prix award », 2 March 2012 http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Multiformat/IMGA+Awards+2012/news.asp?c=38421 PR WEB, « International Mobile Gaming Award Winners Announced », 2 March 2012 http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9246222.htm IUseMac, « International Mobile Gaming Award Winners Announced », 2 March 2012 http://www.iusemac.com/macnews/tag/prosieben-sat1/ Vivid Gamer, « Infinity Blade II wins big at International Mobile Gaming Awards », 3 March 2012 http://vividgamer.com/2012/03/03/infinity-blade-ii-wins-big-at-the-internationalmobile-gameawards/ Gama Sutra, « Infinity Blade II wins big at International Mobile Gaming Awards », 2 March 2012 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/164113/Infinity_Blade_II_wins_big_at_International_ Mobile_Gaming_Awards.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign =Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Technology Tell, « International Mobile Gaming Award winners announced », 2 March 2012 http://www.technologytell.com/apple/91018/international-mobile-gaming-awardwinnersannounced/ Gamezebo, « IMGA 2012: And the winners are... », 6 March 2012 http://www.gamezebo.com/news/2012/03/06/imga-2012-and-winners-are Weste.net, « The IMGA winner’s list », 4 March 2012 http://www.weste.net/2012/3-4/80582.html Inside Mobile Apps, « International Mobile Gaming Awards winners unveiled », 2 March 2012 http://www.insidemobileapps.com/2012/03/02/international-mobile-gaming-awardswinnersunveiled/ 148Apps, « 8th Annual IMGA Award Winners Unveiled », 3 March 2012 http://www.148apps.com/news/8th-annual-imga-award-winners-unveiled/ AppStart, « Winners Of 8th International Mobile Gaming Awards Announced », 3 March 2012 http://appadvice.com/appnn/2012/03/winners-of-8th-annual-international-mobilegaming-awardsannounced IphoneG.net, « IMGA12 », 25 February 2012 http://iphoneg.net/imga-2012/
CONTACT Renee Mah renee@imgawards.com TEL +33 491 31 52 17 FAX +33 491 14 31 99 WEB www.imgawards.com