Category: Technology News

Mobile games are growing quickly in Canada

Mobile game revenue may soon outpace that seen in console gaming

Mobile games is a booming market. Many large developers and publishers have begun to focus on the mobile space, looking to take advantage of the growing number of mobile consumers willing to play and pay for games on their smartphones and tablets. In Canada, many consumers are beginning to play mobile games and the market is expected to see significant growth in the coming years, even outpacing the growth of the console gaming market.

Developers are beginning to see the value in mobile games

According to a new report from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, the revenue generated by mobile games may soon outpace the sale of console games. Mobile games typically feature in-game purchases. These purchases can be anything from additional content to special items that provide some advantage in the game. While developers have been looking to bring these types of purchases to console games, they have already become well established in mobile gaming. Consumers have shown that they are quite willing to pay for content and other benefits in mobile games.

Report shows that mobile game revenue is growing quickly

Mobile games GrowthAccording to the report from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, console games remain the bulk of the overall gaming market. These games account for 35% of all revenue that Canadian developers are seeing. Mobile games, however, are growing quickly and now account for 31% of all revenue that developers see in the country. Notably, mobile games have continued growing, whereas console games have seen a 32% decline since 2013.

Developers are looking to enter the mobile space and engage consumers

With mobile gaming picking up momentum, more developers are beginning to show more interest in the mobile sector. Recently, acclaimed developer Konami decided that it will be focusing on mobile gaming. Activision Blizzard is also looking to become more involved in the mobile space, recently purchasing mobile game developer King for nearly $6 billion. Developers are looking to engage mobile consumers more effectively, as these consumers have shown that they are willing to pay for the mobile games that they play.

Fossil Group moves further into wearable technology with Misfit acquisition

The fashion design house has only just recently launched its first wearables and is now jumping in faster.

Despite the fact that Misfit remains a startup that has been around for only four years, its successes in wearable technology have caught considerable attention from the industry, to the point that it is now being bought out by the fashion giant, Fossil Group.

Among Misfit’s most popular wearables have been the Shine, Shine 2, link, Flash Link and EKOCYCLE Field Band.

Misfit’s wearable technology has been focused in the highly successful fitness category. It was founded by veterans of the industry such as Sonny Vu, AgaMatrix’s Sridhar Iyengar, a well as the former CEO of both Pepsi and Apple, John Sculley. It has managed to carve such a significant name for itself in this already competitive industry that Fossil Group has been watching it and has now decided to buy it.

The purchase of Misfit will set Fossil up to make some much more sizeable steps into wearable technology.

Wearable Technology AcquisitionRecently, Fossil launched the Q Founder based on Android Wear, which was its first ever smartwatch. That said, a partnership with Misfit will make it possible for future wearables from the designer to be able to offer a broader spectrum of different features that consumers may find to be appealing and useful.

Misfit has been a wearables innovator, making it possible for it to help Fossil to place itself into a more important position within the wearable tech industry as a whole. This is particularly important as Chinese devices makers are now aligning themselves to start to release alternatives to the current options, which will likely appear at a lower price point. Large companies and watchmakers such as Fossil, that are hoping to make and hold an important position in the industry will need to ensure that their products are both stylish and that they will stand apart from the rest of the offerings.

Misfit will bring a number of wearable technology advantages to Fossil, including a spectrum of products, its own devices, its hardware and software engineering team, and a scalable cloud and app platform.