With the arrival and subsequent rapid growth in the app market – think iTunes, Android marketplace and the rest – you could be forgiven for forgetting about Minis. These bite-sized and low price games, available for PSP and PS3 via the PSN service, have now been downloaded over 1 million times worldwide. Small beer compared to the 5 billion apps (obviously games are only a percentage of these) downloaded on iTunes perhaps, but proof that demand is there for these kind of lighter (and cheaper) gaming experiences. As Pocket Gamer point out though, these figures mean only 1.7% of PSP owners have downloaded a mini game. SCEE VP Zeno Colaço is looking on the bright side:
We're always looking for exciting and unique content to offer our audiences and minis offer exactly that. minis offers a huge variety of snackable gaming experiences, be it games from smaller developers, with small budgets to more established developers, with established IPs that are easily accessible and great value for money. We're proud to have achieved over a million downloads in less than a year and with new developers coming on board every day, bringing with them incredibly fun and creative games, we look forward to establishing minis as a fans favourite amongst the PlayStation community.
The top ten list suggests a varied, though clearly Zombie-loving, audience are downloading minis:
1. Age of Zombies
2. Monopoly
3. Fieldrunners
4. Zombie Tycoon
5. Bloons
6. Spot The Differences!
7. Pinball Fantasies
8. Mahjongg Artifacts: Chapter 2
9. Yetisports Pengu Throw
10. Breakquest
Thanks to the iPad - don't yawn, but it is a fabulous gaming device – and the sheer choice of apps/games available I've not spent much time with minis. I intend to change that, but are you? Anyone here regularly download minis? If not why not? And if you do, got any recommendations?
