Are Pureplay Mobile Publishers a Dying Breed?
If you check the strategies of existing firms, is their a future for ‘pureplay’ mobile game publishers that solely focus on mobile gaming?
If you have a look at the publishers themselves, a worrying theme becomes clear; EA Mobile are part of a huge publishing group, Gameloft is spread across loads of platforms from DS, to PSP to WiiWare, Digital Chocolate has diversified in to Facebook and PC downloads, I-Play is now spread across web, PC and mobile, HandyGames is now getting stuck in to DS, Distinctive Developments newest addition debuted on Facebook and its looking the same for Glu, who recently spoke of publishing DS and PSP games.
The cash call to switch to other formats must surely be deafening. Nintendo DS is the most popular handset on the planet; all the best teams are jumping over to work on their slice of the pie. It does make you think, will there be any pureplay companies left in a few years time
It does look suspiciously like pureplay publishers are dying a rapid death. When it does – and it will – we will likely have an array of multi-platform publishers, with a focus on the casual gamer.
The faint glimmer of hope for pureplay publishers is that the development of iPhone, Android and N-Gage will keep them going for a short while. But again, DS could just kill that off by integrating a phone with video chat into its handheld console, and its ‘bye bye’ mobile gaming.
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