Author: JT

EA adopts a focus on mobile games

| August 30, 2013

EA puts mobile games before PC titles

The global game industry has been seeing some turbulence recently as profits fell below expected levels for many developers and publishers around the world. This downturn seems to be restricted to console games, however, as the PC gaming market has been seeing a relative boom. A recent report from the PC Gaming Alliance shows that the PC gaming market grew by 8% in 2012 and this is supported by the latest financial report from Electronic Arts, one of the world’s largest game publishers. Despite the apparent success of the PC gaming market, Electronic Arts has only modest plans to pursue PC titles. Instead, the company is looking to focus more on mobile games.

Game industry evolving to embrace mobile titles

Mobile games have become a major part of the game industry in a relatively short amount of time. Developers around the world are beginning to focus more heavily on mobile platforms because of their popularity among consumers. Indeed, many consumers have shown a great deal of interest in gaming from their smartphones and tablets. The value of mobile games is not lost on Electronic Arts and the company has been working to establish a more formidable presence in this sector in recent years.

EA Mobile Games FocusEA to focus on next-gen consoles alongside mobile games

While mobile games have become a major focus for Electronic Arts, the publisher’s top priority is next-generation consoles, such as the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One. While next-gen consoles are the priority, the publisher will be looking to support cross-platform games for these consoles as well as mobile devices. Electronic Arts has a chief interest in free-to-play mobile games, which are, quite literally, free to obtain. These games typically include some form of in-game shop that allows consumers to spend real money to unlock additional content.

Major titles likely to have a mobile companion

Electronic Arts intends to make the free-to-play mobile games experience a part of its various franchises. This likely means that every major game published by the company will have some sort of mobile game attached to it. These mobile games will include a cash shop that will sell virtual content  to gamers. Typically, games that are overtly cavalier when it comes to in-game purchases are not well received among consumers.

Study sheds light on “whales” in mobile games

| August 28, 2013

Spending in mobile games driven by whales

The EEDAR, a research firm focused on the game industry, has released a new study concerning mobile games. The study highlights consumer spending on these games and aims to shed light on those spending money on mobile games. These games have proven to be very lucrative for the game industry over the past few years. Their addicting nature and incentives offered through in-game shops have encouraged consumers to spend significant amounts of money on mobile games in order to attain the best experience possible.

Whales tend to be young, male consumers

The study shows that the majority of spending in the mobile games sector comes from a very specific group of consumers, often called “whales” because they account for the top 5% of spending on these games. According to the study, 66% of these whales are young males that primarily play games on their consoles rather than their mobile devices. The study shows that these consumers spend an average of 26.5 hours every week playing games and an average of 11.8 hours playing mobile games specifically.

Mobile Games - Whales are young male consumersSpending is low among women and older consumers

Comparatively, those that pay for mobile games but do not fall into the whale category spend an average of 4.9 hours on mobile games per week, but primarily use their smartphones for all their gaming needs. The non-payer demographic is chiefly comprised of women, with this group spending an average of 4.1 hours on mobile games per week and an average of 7.2 hours on general gaming every week.

Study does not account for children’s role in mobile games.

While the study does show that male consumers tend to spend more on mobile games, it does not account for the fact that children typically make use of their parent’s mobile devices to play games. These children are also responsible for mobile spending in the game sector, but typically do so by accident or without their parent’s permission.