Mobile Games Pekka Kinnunen Dap02s

Topics: History Economics Technology Platforms Future / Conclusions

Where it all started… Some games have always been mobile Nintendo small LCD-games (1980s) Nintendo Gameboy(1990s) Nokia snake-game, mid-1990s

…and where are we now Downloadable games SMS-games in TV Java 3D Nokia N-gage Nintendo Gameboy advance PSP

PC/Console vs. mobile PC/Console game  Tied to one place  High costs  Risky business Mobile game  Mobility  Fairly low costs  Easy to experiment  Costs are growing Devices get more technical Java 3D

The growth of Mobile gaming : embedded games emerge : WAP, SMS-games 2002: Downloadable games finally arrive

The growth of Mobile gaming Downloadable games profit growth prediction

Who are involved? Game developers Publishers Game distributors Markerting Game console manufacturers

Where the money goes and where does it come from? Distributors (20-25 % of total revenue) : + Fees (flat/subscription/usage) + Additional feature sales e.g. extra levels + Network access and trasfers fees - Personnel costs - Infrastructure building and operating costs - License fees to publisher

Where the money goes and where does it come from? Publishers (50-60% of total revenue) : + Flat fees/per sale/per usage + Advertising and sponsoring – including ads into games - Personnel costs - License fees to brand owners/console manufacturers - Payments to developers

Where the money goes and where does it come from? Game developers (10-15% of total revenues) : + Flat fee payments from publishers + Commissions per game usage/sales - Personnel costs - Hardware and software(licences) - License fees to brand owners

Where the money goes and where does it come from? Mobile console manufacturers + Mobile console sales - Personnel costs - R&D - Marketing costs - Distribution costs

Economics

Which technology will I use? Bluetooth (WLAN) G3 GPRS WAP

Downloading mobile applications PC -> mobile phone (serial, infrared, bluetooth) OTA

Types of OTA downloading Direct Carrier-assisted

Direct download

Carrier-assisted download

Game traffic and carrier platforms Should I use carrier platform services?  Networked game  Independent

Networked game architecture

Independent model

Benefits of carrier platform based games Developers don’t have start from scratch Focus on innovation, design and testing

Different platforms Most powerful:  Symbian C++  Visual C++ .Net Compact Framework Most used:  J2ME  BREW

BREW -Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless C++ based Platform for handsets based on CDMA  CDMA = 1/5 GSM Automatic support for content downloading and billing

J2ME Most popular platform Supported by all major GSM manufacturers  Nokia’s CDMA  Motorola’s WM-devices Automatic memory management Easy-to-use APIs Market share over 80% Problem: how to port games to different devices?

”Write once, run everywhere” Nice dream Devices and models have differencies:  Screen size  Memory size  CPU speed  UI features  JRE-problems

Future & Conclusions Young but growing business Costs for developing a game are increasing Low barrier to enter the market A few problems The future is looking bright on mobile games

Thank you for listening Any questions?