Most gamers are still cynical about the mobile phone as a gaming platform - but these console-hugging luddites may soon be in a tiny minority according to Juniper Research. The company has published a report which claims that, "the onset of mass multiplayer gaming, a widening gaming demographic, greater playability, and increased adoption of mobile services in emerging markets point to a fast expanding market for mobile games." The report goes on to suggest that the mobile games market could mushroom by 78% this year.
"With console games, customers are obliged to make the commitment to purchase a fairly expensive piece of hardware. The beauty of mobile is that it provides a potential global audience of several hundred million 2.5G users who already have that hardware in the form of their handset," said report author, Dr Windsor Holden."
We're still waiting for a killer app with the crossover appeal of Snake to take advantage of the possibilities offered by Java. The mobile games community is getting there I think. They just have to stop porting eighties arcade games for five minutes and have a think.
