Mobile games may be the rulers of the gaming industry in 2015.
According to market research firm, Newzoo, the mobile gaming industry may be exceptionally strong next year, as mobile games are expected to beat console games in revenue, hitting the $30.3 billion mark in 2015, an increase from the anticipated $25 billion in 2014.
There has been strong year-to-date growth in both mature and emerging markets for tablet and smartphone games.
Compared to the predictions of SuperData Research, the Amsterdam-based Newzoo has greater optimism when it comes to mobile games. Newzoo’s rival, SuperDatat Research, expects that mobile games will only reach $21.1 billion by the end of 2014. That being said it is anticipated that by 2017, games for mobile devices will hit $40 billion.
According to the newly revised 2014 Newzoo forecast, Western Europe’s mobile games market revenue is anticipated to grow 47%, while North America’s is anticipated to grow 51%. Of all the markets, Southeast Asia and China are predicted to be the fastest growing and will expand by 86%
Newzoo credits the high mobile growth rate to “organic growth” for boosting the market in general and “cannibalistic growth”, which comes at the cost of other segments. Spending for massively multiplayer online games and online PC games is moving toward tablets and smartphones, while social, casual and handheld console gaming have weakened.
Apple mobile gaming is doing better than Nintendo.
It also appears that the game revenues of Apple could actually be two times greater than Nintendo in 2014. The electronics giant is expected to produce $4 billion in revenue from mobile games sold in iTunes. Meanwhile, Google may generate game revenue totaling $3 billion this year. On the flip side of the coin, Nintendo’s revenues were $2.4 billion in 2013 and this number is predicted to drop in 2014.
Newzoo CEO Peter Warman commented that in the mature Western mobile gaming markets, the battle between Android and iOS is shifting its focus to tablets. Although the iPad gives iOS the advantage in general mobile game spending, the Android market is split across diverse devices and operating systems.
Apple has said that when coding, the operating system enables developers to get “closer to the metal”. For gaming, Apple’s Spritekit and Scenekit framework promises improved 2D and 3D rendering and greater battery power efficiency. Graphics engine developers, such as Crytek and Epic, helped to develop Metal.