US mobile game market more potential than Japan

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In an video interview on Gamespot leading Japanese game developers Ichiro Otobe and Kosei Ito from Square Enix discussed the potential of the game market in the US.

They are quite clear in their view that there is "more potential" in the US mobile games market than Japan.

This is because (1) the larger population and (2) the percentage of game content is already much larger on mobile in the US than the percentage in Japan.  "The situation in the US now is like it was 2 to 3 years ago in Japan."

Success in porting games to the US market "was all about technology readiness" they said, and particularly QVGA screens.  As soon as QVGA is released, which they expect this summer in the US, they will be rushing their games to the market.

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Elsewhere Wireless Gaming World confirmed the growth in 2004 in the US market, and the 2005 outlook "The Road Ahead":

"2004 was an incredibly exciting year for us at Cingular", says Lou Fasulo, Senior Product Manager Games and Applications at Cingular Wireless. "We've grown our gaming business over 1500%.

We expect a lot more of the same in 2005 with 3D devices, faster networks and some really cool multiplayer experiences rolling out on our network that have never been seen on mobile before."

Further good news from the US where more than 16 million youngsters now have their own mobile phone, according to a new study by NOP World Technology.  The summary is well worth reading.

The 16 million includes nearly 44% of all children aged 10 to 18 and 40% of youngsters between the ages of 12 and 14. About 75% of 18-year-olds have cell phones, and about 70% of teenage subscribers prefer camera phones and handsets with MP3 playback. Interestingly, given the fickleness of adult subscribers to mobile services, the research shows that close to 80% of teenagers stay loyal to the brand that was their first operator experience.

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Comments

[steve]

Why haven't any carriers in the U.S. tried to replicate the true i-mode model, like for gaming subscriptions? It worked for NetFlex in the U.S. for movies, and it's obviously working for i-mode in Japan. Why not in the U.S.?