An Exploration of the Mobile Gaming Ecosystem from Developers’ Perspective - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 61

4 An Exploration of the Mobile

Gaming Ecosystem from
Developers' Perspective

Claudio Feijoó

Mobile games are a prime example of a successful mobile application and
demonstrate the increasing range of relevant platforms for the media and
entertainment industries. Against this convergent background, the chapter
introduces the basic features of the mobile gaming market and its industrial
ecosystem together with its main players and activities. The focus of the
chapter lies in the challenges ahead for the evolution of mobile into a poten-
tially dominant game platform; the role of the dif erent software platforms;
and the opportunities for game developers in a new scenario dominated
by smartphones, new portable devices, broadband ubiquity, increasingly
mobile social networks and emerging context awareness.

INTRODUCTION

Due fundamentally to the dif usion of mobile devices and the increasing
availability (and af ordability) of ubiquitous broadband, the mobile plat-
form of ers wider demographics than any other and a virtually unlimited
space for the development of old and new types of games. In addition,
mobile games can make intensive use of the competitive advantages of the
mobile platform: consumption at any time/any place, the highest level of
personalization—but keeping close contact with the social network and
context awareness—location as a main example. In fact, the appeal and
opportunities in this market have attracted innovators, entrepreneurs
and many old and new industry players, which all together confi gure a
new global ecosystem. Some data about Angry Birds , the most successful
mobile game in 2010, are the best depiction of the appeal of this domain.
The game was created by Rovio, a relatively small game developer studio
located in Finland, and published in December 2009. In the fi rst six months
it was downloaded fi ve million times and one year later it reached fi fty
million downloads. It is available in the most important mobile platforms
(Apple, Android, Symbian, Windows), both as a paid application and as a
free application supported by advertising and in-app purchases. In a move
opposite to the conventional process at the time, during 2011 the game was