Google has high hopes for mobile games
Google has been making some major announcements recently concerning its various online ventures. Last week, the company announced its intentions in the social gaming space. Google has been seeing a great deal of promise in the game industry and has adopted a focus on mobile games, which have become one of the most lucrative sectors in gaming today. Google has plans to make mobile games more social, but not to tether these games to any particular website or online space.
Google+ Games will close at the end of June
In order to keep mobile games mobile, Google has announced that it will be shutting down its Google+ Games service at the end of June this year. Google+ Games served as a platform for social games in the same way that Facebook has done for years. The platform supports games like Angry Birds, CityVille, and Triple Town, as well as various others. The platform does not align with the company’s vision of mobile games, however, and Google will be focusing its efforts on other ventures.
Developers may return unused funds in games to consumers
Those interested in continuing to play the games that were available through Google+ Games will have to contact that game’s developer. According to Google, the funds that consumers spend on these games will also be an issue that must be handled with developers. Some games will be migrating to other platforms, where unused funds will be honored by the development team. Those that will not be migrating may be inclined to returned unused funds, but there is no guarantee that this will be the case with all developers.
Google Play may draw more people to Google+
With Google+ Games coming to a close, Google is likely to put most of its attention on its Google Play service. This service is being designed specifically for mobile games and is meant to introduce social elements into this space. Google expects that this new service will help boost the adoption of its own social network, which continues to struggle to find a foothold against social networking titans like Facebook and Twitter.
Mobile games continue to flex their financial might
It is no secret that mobile games have become a very lucrative part of the game industry as a whole. While the rise of mobile games and the success they have found throughout the world may have come as something of a surprise, the game industry has been placing a great deal of emphasis on these games due to the financial gains that many companies in the mobile space have seen in this sector. The financial aspects of mobile games can, at times, be somewhat vague, but SuperData, a metrics tracking firm, has released a new report that highlights the money that consumers are actually spending on these games.
Report shows the progress mobile games are making in terms of revenue
According to the report from SuperData, the average amount of money that consumers in the U.S. are spending on mobile games has reached an all-time high. The report shows that consumers are spending an average of $12 on mobile games. While this may not seem like a significant amount of money, this represents millions of dollars worth of revenue for developers and publishers, most of which comes from in-game transactions and not from the actual sale of mobile titles. The report does show that there has been some decline in this sector, but mobile games are producing $842 million in revenue, on average, through sales alone every month.
Free-to-play games becoming more popular
The report shows that free-to-play mobile games are the most popular among consumers. Consumers do not need to pay an initial fee in order to acquire these games, making them widely available to a broad range of consumers. These games typically include in-game purchases that provide players with some bonus or opportunity to access new content. Free-to-play games are not only popular in the mobile space, of course, as the report shows that they are also gaining traction in other parts of the game industry.
Game industry beginning to go mobile
Mobile games are well on their way to becoming one of the most lucrative sectors of the game industry. If consumers continue to show strong interest in these games, the game industry is likely to continue to put more focus on the mobile sector. Several developers that had traditionally been solely focused on console gaming have already begun embracing the mobile space.
