Aw. Every time I visit Japan, it refuels my hope that the U.S. will someday have a mobile games market that supports the release of the solid, quality titles that Japan sees. It finally seems like we’re getting devices with enough power to run these Japanese-quality mobile titles, but sales aren’t reflecting that.
Juniper research says that mobile game sales have “flatlined across North America and Western Europe”.
GamesIndustry.biz says that the market is expected to rise from $5.4 billion to $10 billion by 2013, but limited on-portal revenue share for publishers and poor game marketing is screwing things up.
“The revenue share offered by Apple to games publishers is incredibly attractive,” said the author of the report. “The danger is that if operators do not respond with a similar business model, publishers faced with low margins may simply exit Java completely, thereby reducing consumer choice in the longer term.”
I don’t know if it’s really the sales model that needs changing, though. It would help, but I think the quality of games is the problem here.
