Glu claim approaching crisis, EA and Gameloft hail growth
In the run up to Christmas, we’re all struggling in the current economic crisis. But we’re all wondering if the mobile gaming industry is struggling too. Glu Mobile recently stated that they would be cutting their workforce, as well as their CEO’s income, in a move that they hope will aid their business during the economic downturn, or what they are colourfully calling the “increasing economic headwinds”. See, gaming companies are always finding fun ways of saying things.
However, not everyone else in the developing world seems to agree with Glu Mobile’s appraisal of the market. Both Electronic Arts and Gameloft have released statements claiming that everything is fine. So who is right? Are Glu Mobile saving on costs because they’re tight fisted, or are EA and Gameloft hiding the truth in an attempt to keep the industry fighting.
Barry Cottle, Electronic Arts’s mobile business head, seems ecstatic about the current state of the industry, claiming, “Mobile games are actually thriving right now.”
A spokeswoman from Gameloft also had nothing but praise for the way the developing industry was moving, stating, “Concerning the iPhone, mobiles etc, we are not worried, it’s all going well.”
However, both held their reservations about the future, saying that it was purely too early to tell how the industry would react to the economic issues that the world is facing. It seems as though they think that Glu Mobile has simply acted too fast.
To back up their story, here in the UK it seems that the industry is in the middle of a boom, according to DR. Windsor Holden, who discovered that gambling through the platform of the mobile phone was providing an industry that could reach a staggering $3.6 billion in 2009. The study, called the Juniper Research Report, showed that people didn’t seem to care for monetary problems during the recession and that they would quite happily gamble, and gamble, and gamble.
Discussing the report, Holden claimed that, “Gambling is essentially a recession-proof industry, as while there may be marginal reductions in the level of stakes amongst casual users, the overall appetite for gambling per se will be unaffected. Furthermore, with the growing availability of betting services on-portal, the mobile is an increasingly convenient and user-friendly means of placing a bet.”
If there was ever a platform in the mobile gaming community to save the industry it is clear that it would be the iPhone. However, game sales on the device have increased so much since the summer, it is becoming difficult to see whether it still applies as a mobile gaming device or as a contender in the portable console arena, against the likes of the Nintendo DS and the PSP.
However, Electronic Arts seem to be looking to the N-Gage, Nokia’s gaming platform, as a method of expanding their mobile gaming experiences. Cottle claimed, “We like N-Gage. We’re bullish on it,. As it gets incorporated the addressable market continues to grow. We really believe the N-Gage experience is the right one — we are going to see mass market adoption.”
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