I'm lumping online and mobile together in the already elongated headline, but I think you probably get the gist. A study by ABI Research proclaims that the game biz will be just over $65 billion strong by 2011, thanks in part to the rise of online, mobile and cell phone gaming (via Wireless Design Asia).
I really think that with the Nintendo DS, we're really seeing how this stuff could come alive. I know that cell phone games are considered the great "invisible" market, but cell phones as convergent devices really seem to be reaching an evolutionary end. Sure, we'll see increases in graphics and hopefully more community and multiplayer designs ... but the point is that the DS is already there and with a form factor far more versatile than virtually any other mobile device.
PDAs, the PSP and the poor redheaded child N-Gage are all on the periphery of this as well. It's just that with the DS, it really seems to click. As metropolitan wifi networks start to grow as well, having a decently priced handheld capable of accessing the Net and other players will likely become the norm as opposed to the exception. Since these devices will have a lower cost of entry and be simpler to use than gaming rigs or even consoles, they'll just become a larger piece of the pie.
In short ... we've seen the convergence of cell phones and PDA's. I'm guessing next leg is probably a PDA and a Gameboy.
tagged: game, gaming
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Game Business To Double By 2011, Thank You Online Games
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2 comments:
> I'm guessing next leg is probably a PDA and a Gameboy.
Since the early PDA-era, I've always wondered why these things haven't been made with game-compatible controls built into them. They're always tiny, less-easy-to-press buttons, strange Dpads, or worse.
Cell phone suffer there too. My 6230's "5 way button" is decent for nav'ing menus ... but is a pitiful game input device.
Decent analog nub could go a long way.
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