|
Electronic Arts Inc
Electronic
Arts Inc official website
Game
makers call for mobile shopping revolution - 15th
September 2006
(Credit:
The Sydney Morning Herald)
The
mobile game unit at Electronic Arts Inc. prepared
2000 different versions of the game "2006 FIFA
World Cup" when it it launched, but dealing with
the particular quirks of individual handsets is not
its biggest problem.
Hands
down, mobile game makers say they struggle most with
getting found on carrier decks - or on-screen menus
- that are confusing, space constrained and hard to
navigate.
"Most
consumers don't know there are over 200 games available
on their phones," said Greg Ballard, chief executive
of privately held Glu Mobile.
"The
deck hasn't changed, but consumers' expectations are
very mature. It's clearly keeping some people from
buying," Ballard said.
Mobile
carriers have cut the number of game makers they work
with. Those in the club have to hook buyers with just
one line of text that fits across the tiny mobile
phone screen.
"Consumers
aren't willing to take chances when that's the shopping
experience," said Mitch Lasky, head of EA Mobile.
To
underscore that point, he added that iconic game "Tetris"
outsells other EA Mobile games by more than 3 to 1.
The
problem of getting found has been a persistent headache
for mobile game makers and other content providers
who hawk their wares to the world's 2 billion mobile
phone users. And it promises to be exacerbated as
television shows and other entertainment get pushed
to telephones and hand-held devices.
"Finding
mobile content is anything but consumer-friendly,"
News Corp President Peter Chernin said in his keynote
address at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment
conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Rupert
Murdoch's News Corp cares because it recently bought
a controlling stake in ringtone provider Jamba and
also is working to provide mobile connections for
the more than 100 million registered users of internet
phenomenon MySpace.
Lasky
said the coming flood of new content "is a bit
of a concern" and predicted that the next leap
forward in mobile will be on the shopping rather than
on the content side of the equation.
In
the meantime, the No. 1 provider of mobile games in
the United States isn't standing still.
It's
working on technology that could help make it easier
for mobile gamers to search for titles or see demos
on their phones. It's also using the internet, television
and magazines as promotional tools.
For
example, after the launch of its blockbuster "Madden
NFL 2007" football game, EA pitched the mobile
version of the game by including it in the ESPN news
crawl seen by people playing the new console game
on Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live online game service.
Compared
with newbie mobile content providers, game makers
have a leg up when it comes to experience, Lasky said.
"The
key to understanding mobile is understanding it's
a mass-market business. That's what makes it so hard
to get (customers)," said Lasky, who noted that
his buyers range in age from 15 to 60 and are 55 percent
to 60 percent female.
"We've
had the luxury of making a lot of the mistakes that
the people launching mobile video have yet to make."
Profiles
Games
Gaming
Mobile
Gaming
Media
Man Australia does not represent Electronic Arts
Inc
|
