Wi-Fi gaming new $$ hot-spot
p2pnet.net News:- Wi-Fi gaming will become the single largest wireless data application category from a revenue perspective, overtaking ring tones in 2005 and rising to nearly $1.5 billion annually by 2008, says a report.
The key trend is the shift away from the single player, device-only gameplay toward virtual community-oriented gaming, says a new IDC study.
Technically difficult from a network, content provider, and device perspective, there is nonetheless a demand for head-to-head play among users and, “ Supporting these users requires enhanced features such as player-to-player text communications, player profiles, game information, player matching features, and leader boards.”
Moreover, casual, community-oriented subscription game revenue will grow from a distinct minority of total revenues to market dominance by the end of 2008, says IDC.
“A data point illustrating this trend is that InfoSpace Mobile and Blue Lava Wireless recently hosted what was billed as the largest domestic cross-carrier mobile phone gaming tournament ever held,” says Schelley Olhava, program manager, Consumer Markets: Gaming.
“Tetris Tournament Mobile Championship competitors played more than a million games in September and October for a chance to win $10,000 in prizes. The grand champion reportedly played 2,300 games.”
But for this market to take off, carriers, handset manufacturers, game developers, aggregators and other ecosystem constituents have work together more closely to maximize revenues and accelerate market penetration, says the study, adding:
“Given the interdependence of the market participants, a company that refuses to collaborate is unlikely to succeed, much less flourish, in this environment. Broad cooperation between market players is essential, both for individual success and the success of the market as a whole. The key to increased mass-market uptake does not lie in any one company’s purview.”
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See:-
$1.5 billion – IDC Finds Wireless Industry Is Not Playing Around, IDC, January 27, 2005
