Survey: Western Wireless Market Exceeds Predictions

A new report from research agency Screen Digest claims that, during 2005, the Western wireless game market grew at a rate above expectations, and now accounts for 52 percent of all mobile game revenues. U.S. publisher Jamdat and French company Gameloft accounted for almost 30 percent of game download revenues in the U.S. and Europe during 2004, with traditional home console and portable publishers moving their games onto mobile some way behind. David MacQueen, Screen Digest games analyst and author of the report states: "By examining real company revenues, we have been able to define an accurate market share for mobile games companies in the US and Europe. While no-one in the industry will be shocked to see Jamdat top in the U.S. and Gameloft top in Europe, there are a few surprises, not least the relative weakness of the 'traditional' video games publishers. THQ Wireless is the only company from that space to have carved out a significant slice of the pie." According to MacQueen, the worldwide market was worth €850 million ($997m) in 2004 but his projections suggest it will have almost doubled to €1.7 billion ($2.0bn) by the end of 2004. At the same time more and more venture capital has been invested in the industry, to the tune of €425 million ($498m) since 1999. The report forecasts that worldwide game revenues are set to rise to €7 billion ($8.2bn) by 2010 and that the number of games enabled handsets will hit 2 billion by the same time.