Love it or hate it, Rovio’s Angry Birds has been a runaway success, its immense sales on the iPhone platform enough to secure $42 million in investment recently. And Rovio’s head, Peter Vesterbacka, is understandably bullish.
At the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Vesterbacka claimed that innovation in gaming has moved towards mobile and social spaces, because, among other reasons, it’s easier to react quicker and get content out faster.
He said that, as the mobile devices continue to grow, traditional console games are “dying” – scoffing at the pricing model that sees new games priced around the $50 mark.
“Of course,” says Venturebeat, the first to report on this story, “those $40 and $50 games are more likely to bring substantial revenue than Angry Birds, and that seems more sustainable for companies spending a lot of money building high-quality games using cutting-edge technology.”
Angry Birds has shifted over 100 million downloads, but Vesterbacka acknowledges that, in regards to the perfect business model for mobile gaming, “no one has figured it out yet.”
He seems to be doing OK, to be fair, and many would argue Angry Birds is the exception rather than the rule…
Source: Venturebeat, via CVG.
BrendanCalls
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the future of mobile and console gaming are one in the same.
The company that makes a platform that when at home can be a console and when out and about can be a mobile device is the one who is gonna win.
How they go about doing this I don’t know, maybe part of the platform detaches from the console and then that becomes your mobile device.
BrendanCalls
p.s. PSP Remote Play doesn’t count because essentially it’s rubbish, (mainly because it is under supported by the devs and Sony, but still its pretty rubbish in my opinion).
jayjay119
So… Sony then, supposedly!
BrendanCalls
Not necessarily, they look in pole position right now considering their strong position in both the mobile and console market, but who is to say that a new boy won’t come along with an almighty stonker of a gaming platform and blow everyone out of the water, much like Sony did with the PS1 back in the mid to late 90’s.
Perhap’s in a decade or so, Google will want a bit of the gaming pie or Apple might move towards consoles.
jayjay119
Maybe, I’m sure there were rumours around a while ago about google looking into the gaming market. Also, as much as I like Sony and want them to profit, I would love to see SEGA make a glorious return to the hardware market and blow everyone away. Not gonna happen though.
3shirts
I still think Nintendo might invest the buttload of cash they made from the Wii in a true next gen console. If they interface the DS with that, they could swoop in and steal a big share of market
ScottW-1976
Don’t agree brendan. As far as i am concerned they are very different markets and have very different user requirements.
On my PS3 I tend to play the sort of games that require a considerable amount of time invested in them in each sitting to progress and also require a decent screen size and control mechanism to play properly.
On my HTC Desire HD I look for simple games that can be played quickly and easily, as i expect do 99% of mobile gamers.
I cant imagine ever wanting to sit on the train or wait in a queue somewhere and play BLOPS or ACB for example. It just wont work, and I speak from experience having owned a PSP and gotten rid of it once I got an Android phone.
3shirts
I agree. The games on my Nexus S are things like Angry Birds, Rocket Bunnies, Abduction 2 and Spaghetti Marshmallow. These are 5 minute jobs for when I’m on the train or having a poo (come on, we all do that).
The PS3 is still where I want to immerse myself in GT5, Killzone or Uncharted for several hours at a time.
GTRsannin
Yeah right when pigs fly
3shirts
Angry birds 2?
GTRsannin
Lol didn’t really mean that but ok :)
aphex187
Oh yeah he’s right ok! yeah that’s what i want from my games, you know the type i either play on the bog or when i’m on my lunch break at work. What a chump saying that!!!
nofi
I’m a big fan of mobile gaming, enjoying it just as much as TV-based console gaming, regardless of platform. Is either better than the other? Nope, I don’t see why people think they’re mutual exclusive.
jayjay119
Exactly, it’s like Hard, softback and e-books. They´re all different from each other, but at the end of the day they’re still part of the same entertainment medium.
ervin
“iGaming” is focussed on casual players, while console gaming is for hardcore gamers. Totally different worlds, I see no point in comparing both. Besides Angry Birds is one of the most stupids games I’ve ever seen.
3shirts
Says the guy who can’t spell stupid :p
skibadee
a lot of mobile games are clones imo.
3shirts
Um FIFA, Pro Evo, CoD?
skibadee
Boom Blox and Crush The Castle & then you have Angry Birds big innovation in that JOKE imo.
3shirts
I’m not saying that there aren’t a lot of clones on mobile devices just that you can’t pretend some console/PC games aren’t just as bad
jacklum
Mobile games are just as much about making money as other forms of gaming. A recent example is ‘Tiny Wings’ which I’ve heard plenty of people raving about. Like Angry Birds it’s basically the same game as an older free browser based game on the PC, yet you just slap a different skin on it, call it your own, hope it catches on and rake in the cash. There’s nothing innovative about it.
Tuffcub
Publisher X says rival platform is dead SHOCKAH. In other news, sky is blue and EA and Activision don’t like each other.
topgear
I don’t know about you but I can’t imagine myself playing a game of fifa or bfbc2 on an iphone at 2am in the morning.
3shirts
No but if my phone could be dropped into a docking station from which it output in 1080p and 5.1 and into which I connect a proper controller, I might consider it
gideon1451
No, I don’t agree.