GoD Q&A: PopCap Mobile Business Director Andrew Stein

Author: by Staff

Casual games developer and publisher PopCap Games recently announced the hiring of Andrew Stein to its newly-created position of Director of Mobile Business Development. In this exclusive interview, Games On Deck talks to Stein about why he chose to join PopCap and his plans for the company's mobile future. In this excerpt, Stein comments on why he thinks the mobile sector is the fastest growing part of the industry, and speculates what it will take for mobile gaming to widen its audience even further: “I think different types of games will co-exist, but well, if you take a look at the sales of mobile games, compared to traditional console and PC titles, they have really been the fastest growing part of the industry. And there are a lot of reasons for that. The devices have gotten drastically better in the past couple of years, the quality of games has improved by leaps and bounds, there's an increased awareness of what it takes to make a good mobile game. But it took American Idol for SMS messaging to finally blow up in the US and go mainstream, and I don't think it's going to be a hardcore game like a Madden or a Halo on mobile that's going to do it, it's going to be a casual game that appeals to a lot of users. PopCap users are 70% female, they are 90% over 25, it's an audience that compliments the hardcore gamer audience, but if you look at the sheer number of people, they outnumber possible hardcore gamers.” You can now read the full GamesOnDeck feature, with more from Stein on what brought him to PopCap, and where the mobile industry is headed (no registration required, please feel free to link to this column from external websites).