Tag: mobile gaming

China is quickly becoming a leader in the gaming market

China is well on its way to establishing itself as the most lucrative mobile games market in the world. The country has become a hub of activity when it comes to mobile gaming. Many consumers throughout the country are tethered to their mobile devices, which they use in just about every aspect of their daily lives, including gaming. Games are particular popular among those that commute to work and the majority of consumers have shown that they are quite willing to pay for the games that they enjoy.

Chinese consumers spend $13 billion on mobile games

According to data from the 2013 China Game Industry Annual Conference, Chinese consumers have paid more than $13 billion on mobile games in 2013. The majority of this money came through microtransactions. These transactions have become popular throughout the game industry and are used to provide consumers with access to new digital content. Microtransactions have become a very lucrative business model for developers and publishers alike and have begun to find their way into traditional games, expanding beyond the mobile space.

Gaming is becoming more convenient

Standalone mobile games currently account for 64% of the market in China. These games can be played on their own without having to be launched through a social media site or through a third party platform. Browser games, such as those played on social media sites, are also quite popular. Consumers appear to favor mobile games because of their convenience and the fact that they can be played anywhere and at any time. These games do not require any significant time investment, making them less stressful to play.

Developers move to take advantage of growing popularity

Growing sales of mobile devices is expected to impact the Chinese gaming market. As more consumers gain access to smartphones and tablets, more people are expected to be exposed to mobile gaming. Developers in China have been producing mobile games at a rapid rate in order to accommodate with consumer demand.

Developers have been waging war throughout the Christmas season, and now they wait to see the results.

When it comes to the holiday season, mobile gaming is just as competitive an industry as everything else, as developers do everything they can to make sure that their games will top the list of downloads that gift recipients make when they unwrap their new smartphones and tablets, this year.

It is believed that this year’s user acquisition and marketing costs will have been the highest ones yet.

Moreover, it is also believed that these expenditures could likely surpass any revenue that mobile gaming will bring in throughout the festive season. The cost associated with obtaining new users by way of smartphone apps and on social networks with pay per click ads is rapidly heading skyward.

This year, mobile gaming has more competition than ever before in the hopes of becoming the next big thing.

Developers are spending a lot of money in the hopes that their games will be the next “Clash of Cans”, “Angry Birds” or “Candy Crush Saga”. This also presents those developers with a massive challenge, particularly to smaller independent studios that are hoping for the best but don’t have the marketing budget of some of their much larger competitors.

Throughout the holidays, spending from consumers around the world hits a peak, making it one of the most important times for developers to do everything in their power to be able to try to draw the largest possible number of Android and Apple device users, particularly on Christmas morning, when the number of those users suddenly spikes.

This year, the typical revenue gains of up to 200 percent for mobile gaming developers on Christmas will likely be greatly wiped out as a result of the massive competition that led the amount spent on marketing and CPI (cost per install) to double or even triple. After these massively expensive campaigns have been put into place, and now that the presents have been unwrapped, all the developers can do is to hope for the best and watch their figures to see how effective their strategies have been, this year.