Tag: mobile gaming

UK game industry sees promising growth with the help of mobile games

The game industry in the United Kingdom is on the rise, according to a new report from Games Investor Consulting, a business intelligence firm focused on the game industry. Gaming continues to gain momentum all over the world as games become more accepted in modern society. In the past, games were considered a very niche market and those that played games where shunned in some communities. Now, however, nearly everyone with a mobile device plays mobile games, and gaming has become a prominent part of many cultures around the world.

Gaming is gaining more acceptance in society

Gaming becoming more accepted around the world has very positive implications for the game industry, of course. According to the report from Games Investor Consulting, the game industry in the UK is showing promising growth. In terms of employment, the industry grew by 4% in 2012, ending a three-year employment decline. The number of game development studios in the UK grew from 329 to 448 last year. Many of these studios have a strong focus on mobile games, which have become a very important interest for the game industry as a whole.

Mobile games help boost performance of UK industry

The report notes that investments in game studios rose from $620 million in 2011 to $650 million in 2012. Investors are showing support for studios that have been making mobile games. These games have become a formidable force in the game industry because of their appeal to consumers. Many people are tethered to their mobile devices and have turned to mobile games to fill out portions of their day. Many of these games are free, which is part of their attraction, but they also offer additional services for a fee. Mobile games are also very strong advertising tools, with consumers constantly being exposed to advertisements as they play these games.

Games Tax Relief initiative may add further momentum to game industry growth

The UK’s game industry is expected to continue growing partly because of mobile games, but these games are not the sole contributing factor to this expected growth. The UK government is currently preparing to launch the Games Tax Relief initiative, which is expected to be enacted in April of this year. The initiative will provide game development studios with tax breaks, offering financial relief to several companies, both large and small, throughout the country.

Niantic Labs, the startup behind Ingress, is now launching a new line of digital books.

Google startup, Niantic Labs, has announced that it will be launching a new line of ebooks which are based on its wildly popular Ingress augmented reality mobile gaming experience.

The video game has become massively popular, even though it has not even seen its full release yet.

Ingress is an Android based augmented reality multiplayer game that first launched in its beta form last November. It remains possible to play it by invitation only, and yet it has managed to take off with explosive popularity. Now, its creators will be taking the experience another step forward with the release of this new line of digital products.

The augmented reality experience within this game will soon be broadened with the new product line.

On Friday, the company announced that the line of ebooks linked to the mobile gaming experience would be launched. The augmented reality book line has been dubbed “The Alignment”. So far, they have all been written by Thomas Greanias. This author is also the writer behind the Trilogies that were on the New York Times bestsellers list, Dominium Dei, and Raising Atlantis.

The first of these ebooks, The Alignment: Ingress, will be released through Google Play on April 2 but will then move on to other digital bookstores over time, following that initial sale date. These books will be linked to the Ingress mobile gaming experience and will feature various different types of perks and digital experiences, such as embedded codes and augmented reality.

The books in this new augmented reality ebook line will be co-published by Niantic, as well as the author’s own @lantis Books. Should the digital versions prove to be highly successful, there may be print versions of the same books to follow.

Niantic Labs is not only the creator of the augmented reality mobile gaming experience, Ingress, but it is also behind several other projects. These include the new Field Trip app that has been released by Google.

Given the popularity of the augmented reality game even before its official full release, it is not entirely surprising that these related digital products are being released to complement it. What would be surprising is if this were the last of the developments of this nature.