iPhone App Store Success Boosts Gameloft First Half Sales 18%

French mobile publisher Gameloft saw its sales rise 18 percent to €90.2 million ($134.2 million) for its fiscal first half, with a 15 percent sales increase to €30.1 million ($44.7 million) in the third quarter, the company reports. 95 percent of Gameloft's sales during the third quarter came from mobile game revenue; the company releases games on phones, smartphones and other mobile platforms like Nintendo's DSi. The remaining 5 percent of its sales, it says, are related to sales of console games. In the mobile gaming space in particular, Gameloft says it's seeing rapid growth, with revenues from the segment up 17 percent during the year's first nine months -- largely due to successful iPhone titles and to strong performance of its Java and Brew games, it says. Gameloft's iPhone game portfolio includes a number of $5-$10 titles with complex 3D art and notable similarities to popular console games, including Modern Combat: Sandstorm and Hero Of Sparta. The company's revenues are fairly evenly distributed across North America, Europe and the rest of the world, with contribution percentages at 31 percent, 38 percent and 31 percent respectively. Notably, Gameloft saw its strongest growth in other markets, with third quarter revenues up 29 percent in Asia and South America. "In the long term, Gameloft is in an ideal position to benefit from the rapid development of digitally distributed video games on mobile phones and consoles, as well as from the major innovations introduced by companies such as Apple, Nokia and Google," said the company, which did not reveal its profit or loss for recent quarters, in a statement.