Per Strömbäck, head of Spelplan-ASGD, an industry organization for game developers in Sweden, confirms the industry is rapidly moving into the mobile arena. “The strong industry players, such as Electronic Arts and Vivendi Universal, are investing heavily in the mobile market, which is a clear sign that they expect this to be important in the future,” he says.

Several independent developers are also focusing on mobile games. Blaze, in the US, and SouthEnd, in Sweden, are two of them and they have joined forces to create the Da Vinci Code game for mobile phones. “The things you can do now on a handset are very impressive. It’s similar to what we could do on previous-generation consoles. The quality of the games is really good,” Strömbäck says.

Although mobile games are becoming more advanced, Strömbäck does not think there will be mobile versions of PC and console games. Instead, he believes people will use all three media platforms to achieve the ultimate game experience. “I think there will be more integration between the different media platforms,” he says, referring to JadeStone in Sweden and Microsoft in the US, which have made it possible to play the same game on multiple devices. “The new edition of Microsoft home entertainment, 'Live Anywhere,' allows you to play some games anywhere and on any device. The only difference is that you’ll do various things on different devices. For example, you may be able play a racing game on your Xbox, manage the settings of your car or fine-tune the engine on your PC, then buy new items for the car on your mobile,” Strömbäck says.

Mobile gaming does not only open up a complete game experience, but also a whole new game genre. Strömbäck calls it pervasive gaming and it involves games that blur the boundary between the real world and the cyber world. Using technical solutions such as mobile positioning, it becomes possible to integrate both worlds into a game, creating a whole new game experience. He explains: “Let’s say you are playing a game where you have to catch butterflies. What you’ll do is play the game behind your house or in your garden, but you’ll see the butterflies on your mobile.” Strömbäck says the industry takes the new game genre very seriously. A EUR 90 million research project called Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming (IPerG) is currently investigating pervasive gaming.

With all this money and technology going into the industry, it's no surprise that game sales are skyrocketing. PricewaterhouseCoopers has forecasted the world game market will grow from USD 28 billion in 2005 to USD 55 billion in 2010. Strömbäck says there will be three reasons for this: new formats, new types of games, and new target groups. “The average age of a player keeps going up and that’s because the same generation who grew up with games haven’t stopped playing,” he says. 

Evidence that the games market is widening can be found in Japan, where Nintendo has created a mobile game that has become a big hit with the elderly. Brain Training is a number of puzzle games, such as sudoku and crosswords, that help keep people’s mental agility sharp.

Barry O’Neill, CEO at Upstart Games, confirms that brain training games are attracting a whole new target group. “The typical buyer is not your regular hard-core gamer. It’s an older, casual gamer who, most likely, is a woman,” he says. “I think mobile operators are realizing they need to move away from hardcore games to address a bigger market.”

Upstart Games has developed the IQ Academy game with Gmode, Japan’s leading mobile game provider. The IQ Academy is based on Gmode’s Right Brain Paradise game series and is a game in three versions that tests players’ responsiveness and accuracy in performing such tasks as recognizing shapes and patterns, predicting a series of actions and other tasks aimed at improving spatial resolution.

The Right Brain Paradise game series has sold two million units since it was launched in Japan three years ago and O’Neill has no doubt it will be well received in Europe when it is released later this year. “I think carriers are seeing something really unique with brain-training games and I believe sales of such games will be very strong over the next two years,” he says.

As more people start to play games on their mobiles, O’Neill says people will see more games catering to a casual market. “We will see games that are a little bit like your daily newspaper in that it delivers a crossword puzzle, or another challenge, on a daily basis,” he says.

Although the mobile-gaming market is fairly small at the moment, Strömbäck believes that once it becomes easy for consumers to find the games they are looking for, the market will grow. Another way to attract new users is to include pre-installed games on mobile phones. “I think a lot of casual gamers who don’t really think of playing games will start doing so when pre-installed games on mobiles become better,” he says.

As for the future of the gaming market, Strömbäck believes that games will become a bigger part of our lives and create big business opportunities for those who invest in it. “Games are already the Nordic region’s biggest entertainment export, surpassing music and video, so I think it will continue to grow and people will start to appreciate the fact that games are an integrated part of our culture,” he says.

Torunn Hansen-Tangen