Tag: gaming

It has now announced its first three games, which will be published within the first quarter of this year.

Channel 4 has now announced the first three games that will make up its initial mobile games offerings, and that they will arrive on the market during the first quarter of this year by way of its new publishing branch.

The newly opened Channel 4 publishing branch is called All 4 Games and will soon release 3 apps.

The first three mobile games titles that will be seen from this publisher include: Super Arc Light, Fire Fu and Apestorm: Full Bananas. They will all be available from All 4 Games this quarter for Android and iOS based devices. To complement the announcement of the first three titles, the publishing arm has already released the descriptions and screengrabs of each of those mobile game apps.

These three mobile games titles are meant to become the foundation for what will be a much larger offering.

This is the start of the Channel 4 strategy that has been to create a greater draw for the millennial generation while it solidifies its position as an entertainment giant in the United Kingdom. According to Colin Macdonald, the commissioner of All 4 Games, in a recent statement he made along with these announcements, “We’re absolutely delighted to be announcing our first batch of published games, as well as the exciting partnerships we’ve built in our first few months of operation.”

Macdonald went on to express the pride his team has felt in working with some of the “finest mobile games development teams within the UK and Europe.” He also underscored the excitement they feel when it comes to providing those teams with a platform for using and expressing their talent within the category.

This new strategy has the potential to raise the position that Channel 4 currently holds within the industry, particularly within the digital and interactive sectors. The first three games are only the jumping off point from which they will be expanding. In fact, its intention is to provide the funding for six annual mobile games releases, which will be associated with the flagship program brands it has already established.

Electronic Arts CFO says today’s mobile gamers expect games to be free.

Blake Jorgensen, chief financial offer at Electronic Arts (EA), has said that paid mobile games, those that require the player to pay a fee to download the app, are gradually disappearing and eventually all games are likely to be free to download because that is what the consumer wants.

A free mobile gaming experience is the future of EA.

According to Jorgensen, who spoke during the recent Wedbush 2014 Transformational Technology Managements Access Conference in New York, the renowned gaming company is likely not to add many more paid titles to its mobile gaming portfolio. The future will be all about free-to-play mobile games for EA.

Jorgensen said, “I think paid downloads will probably go away. That business is very small for us now.” He went on to say that consumers are aware that they can expand their gaming experience when and if they choose by paying to access more features in the game or they can still enjoy playing for free.

However, he said that he believes the upfront downloading cost is likely to disappear slowly. “And it’s fine, because I think the experience for the user is more immersive; they are able to get in and experiment with titles,” he added.

Discoverability is the hardest part for developers of mobile games.

One of the greatest challenges of mobile app development, specifically for mobile game developers, is having their app discovered. There are thousands of games available for download on Google Play and iTunes. With so much competition, it is hard for developers to make their game stand out from the crowd. As a result, discoverability can often be what costs the most.

That being said, EA does have the upper hand over other mobile gaming companies. This is mostly due to the fact that they are already well established in the gaming industry and have a collection of popular franchises such as The Sims, The Simpsons, and several EA Sports titles.

Electronic Arts is finding success in the mobile space. Currently, they have more than 130 million active users every month. Jorgenson said that, only including the fiscal year 2014, players have downloaded 600 million EA mobile games. Most of the games installed were free and he suspects this trend will only increase in the years to come.