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[UbiSoftologist]

EA to boost production of mobile-phone games

Thu Sep 2, 2004 09:04 AM ET
By Bernhard Warner

LONDON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Gaming giant Electronic Arts ERTS.O will boost production of video games for mobile phones over the next nine months, bringing top-selling franchises "Fifa Football" and "The Sims" to handsets, the company said on Thursday.

By mid-2005, EA will offer for download four mobile-phone game titles sold through most major mobile-phone operators in Europe, North America and Latin America, including Germany's T-Mobile DTEGn.DE , Britain's Vodafone VOD.L and America's Verizon Wireless VZ.N .

The company said in coming years it expects to sell mobile-phone versions of its top-selling titles in the Java and Brew programming languages.

Compared to the booming video game business, the market for mobile-phone gaming, estimated by consultants at $1 billion this year, has been slow to take off as consumers have been forced to settle for simpler games often with inferior graphics.

And handset design has proved to be less than ideal for zapping alien invaders or sinking a game-winning putt. As a result, top-flight publishers such as EA have adapted few of their titles for phones.

BIG POTENTIAL

Last year, EA began testing the mobile waters just as rival publishers Eidos EID.L , Ubisoft UBIP.PA and THQ Inc. THQI.O began sinking more money of their own into development.

EA partnered with London-based mobile games network operator Digital Bridges to sell "Fifa Football" and "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" downloads to handset owners for $5, five euros or five pounds a pop, depending on the market.

"In the past 18 months, we've sold one million downloads. That was enough for us to know that the market has potential," said Gerhard Florin, Europe, Middle East and Africa managing director and senior vice president of Electronic Arts.

He said it would be take at least two years for the sale of mobile games to make a meaningful impact on the company's bottom line.

But he noted the potential for the market is strong as more sophisticated handsets with larger memory capacity and colour screens are developed to handle gaming.

The decision by EA to use its vast development teams to create its own mobile games is the kind of boost the industry needs to push the nascent market into the mainstream. "When you look at the big picture almost everyone sees the mobile-phone market as having fantastic potential," said Ben Keen, an analyst with media consultancy Screen Digest.

"What this market needs is a big publisher to step up with its own dedicated team to specialise in this. That's what operators are desperate for: quality. They are getting far too much rubbish."

Digital Bridges will work with EA to develop the network for mobile gameplay and work with operators to sell the games, the companies said.

Source: http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuo...tfh44844_2004-09-02_13-04-20_l02263144_newsml

The market size of mobile-phone gaming for EA in the past 18 months was:

1 million downloads in 18 months = ~55556 downloads every month = ~1852 downloads every day = ~77 downloads every hour = ~1 download every minute

 

[dog$]

So P.T. Barnum was right...

 

[arter_2]

So P.T. Barnum was right...

and so was I

 

[jedimike]

It's a good market. Cheap development with no royalties (AFAIK).

 

[wazoo]

Mobile gaming will soon be huge. I see alot of people not ashamed of playing on their phone. I've never seen one GBA in public (which does not mean, it does not happen).

 

[Deleted member 284]

Mobile gaming will soon be huge. I see alot of people not ashamed of playing on their phone. I've never seen one GBA in public (which does not mean, it does not happen).

Just out of curiousity, where do you live? I live in Brooklyn, NY and when I travel on the subway, I see tons of GBA's and SPs. Shoot, at work, the Underwriting section alone has 5 avid players and right across from me in my schools library, I see a cute girl playing AW.

 

[wazoo]

Just out of curiousity, where do you live? I live in Brooklyn, NY and when I travel on the subway, I see tons of GBA's and SPs. Shoot, at work, the Underwriting section alone has 5 avid players and right across from me in my schools library, I see a cute girl playing AW.

I live in Europe, where people are more mature

 

[Solid]

Well both Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid are going mobile so why not

 

[B E N K E]

It's basically just kids playing GBA in public here in Sweden. Oh, and me... Fire Emblem has sucked me in big time. Mobile games are getting pretty interesting. Really big players are owning the companies that distribute these games. Schibsted that owns two of the largest Swedish papers and are huge in Norway own one company and Allers own another. When companies that dominate a large piece of the media landscape start putting money into something a promote across all their different publications it wil catch on. So far, games have been fairly dull over here, but I suppose it will get better soon.

 

[bishoptl]

EA's just catching on now? :lol

Mobile gaming has been big money for a couple of years. The development costs are a fraction of what it costs for consoles, and the low prices entice customers to try a variety of different games in volume.

I may just stick my head outside and declare oxygen breathable.

 

[mrklaw]

I wonder if they are hiring? Are they basing this out of Chertsey?

 

[Lazy8s]

EA actually tried on the "we would've developed for it had it been 3Dfx instead of PowerVR" excuse once, but now they might not get as much of a chance to avoid PowerVR hardware.

 

[Mustang]

I can see playing games on a Gameboy or the new DS or PSP but on a cell phone.

Talk about eye strain.

Almost pointless IMO.

The cell phone companies might be happy as they will get a lot off business selling new phones after thumbs smash thru peoples phones.