Profits for HTML5 games are growing

This entry is partly a reprint of an original article. It also contains my comments and reactions.

Lately, I stumbled upon an article by Peter Driessen, Co-founder of Spilgames titled: "Watch profits grow this year for HTML5 games." It seems that discussion which was started by developers and publishers is getting louder in the last few months. Just like the predictions showed - 2013 became a good year for HTML5 gaming. We noticed a significant growth of new networks and games lately. I can also confirm that in our case revenues and overall interest in our products is far better the in the last year.

Article points out that many networks still don't support HTML5 advertising. This is true and we are also noticing that most of publishers are still not ready or not interested in this model. From our point of view it should change. We already see how big potential lies in this model (especially for web based apps and games). IMHO this way of cooperation can be much better for publishers and developers because of a fact that both sides can earn revenues, and they can work out a stable profits in a long term cooperation. One of the reasons of the lack of support comes from the fact that the industry still didn't created sa special guidelines for such solutions. “While HTML5 ad units are intended to perform seamlessly across platforms, their development requires a distinct skill set and therefore specialized guidance.” (IAB press release from May 6th, 2013). Luckily, this trend is changing. Advertisers and publishers should become more aware that cross platform online ads can work really well and the industry should move on (according to Mark Trefgarne, CEO of LiveRail).

Another confirmation of my earlier blog entries is the other part of this article. Numbers confirm that touch devices gaming is growing and people who buy cheap tablets/smartphones also use them for gaming. That's another good trend and it shows that casual web mobile gaming can be an answer to customers needs. It also confirms that touch devices are getting more popular than handheld gaming consoles (according to IDC).

I totally agree with Peter Driessen's article. He pointed out factors which can help to push the industry forward. As we noticed lately, some issues connected with HTML5 gaming are solved (or being solved), so I believe that the revenues in terms of advertising can also grow. It requires time, but it is possible. We couldn't imagine high quality HTML5 games earlier and now we see that they actually work. We can also see that cross platform gaming can work simultaneously on various devices. Let's not forget that it is not the native mobile gaming - it is a specific market and it just needs time, support and awareness to become profitable for developers and publishers.