iSuppli: Mobile Gaming Poised For Growth As Consoles Hit 'Market Saturation'

Mobile gaming will continue to flourish in years to come, spurring game market growth, while traditional dedicated home console and handheld growth "sputters," supply chain analysts at iSuppli said this week. "The formidable lead enjoyed by cell phones capable of gaming will continue in the years to come with no hint of decline, and their near-universal presence gives them the potential to become a viable competitive threat to dedicated gaming platforms, primarily handheld devices," said Pamela Tufegdzic, consumer electronics analyst at iSuppli. She added, "And although gamers who prefer a superior gaming experience will always opt for either a console or handheld, sales of both platforms tend to rise and fall based on the vagaries of product development, consumer buying patterns and economic trends." iSuppli said that in 2010, factory unit shipments of "game-capable mobile phones" would rise 11.4 percent in 2009 to 1.27 billion. Android smartphones and Apple iOS phones are helping drive that growth. Game console shipments will rise an essentially flat 0.2 percent year-over-year in 2010 to 52.3 million units, the research firm said. Handheld gaming device shipments will drop 2.5 percent to 38.9 million this year. Current generation gaming devices are hitting maturity as growth slows. The Nintendo DS has been out since 2004, Xbox 360 launched in 2005 and PlayStation 3 and Wii have been out since 2006. iSuppli noted that Xbox 360 and PS3's upcoming respective motion-sensing devices are expected to provide some cushion to the slowdown. Nintendo is also readying to release the much-anticipated DS successor, 3DS, before the end of the game maker's fiscal year in March 2011. At this point, iSuppli claimed, dedicated gaming devices "have attained market saturation." The firm said console shipments are expected to hit 59.9 million units in 2014.