Report: More Than Half Of Mobile Games Are Downloaded

According to a recent Telephia-conducted report, more than half of games played on mobile phones in North America are downloaded by the subscriber. The new report, dated April 2006, showed that 53 percent of all games played on mobile phones are downloaded, while 39 percent of games played are pre-existing on the subscribers’ phone. The report noted that the remaining 8 percent are played online on the mobile web. Telephia also noted that 71 percent of all revenue generated by downloaded games comes from on-portal game purchases, while the remainder comes from off-portal purchases. In addition, the report found that familiarity with titles that are derived from existing PC and console franchises ranked as a key factor in a subscriber's decision to download and purchase a new mobile game. A survey by Telephia found that familiarity with the game through other gaming platforms ranked third, just behind price (59 percent) and free-trials (48 percent), for purchasing criteria. “Cohesive marketing across all platforms—PC, console and mobile—is critical to a mobile game title’s overall success,” noted Kanishka Agarwal, Vice President of New Products, Telephia. Interestingly, the same survey found that reviews and published recommendations ranked as some of the least influential factors when deciding to download and purchase a game for the mobile phone.