Category: Games

Only Jamba does the Simpsons

On 04/07/2007

Jamba struck a remarkable deal, we read: in the US, content for Fox’s cult TV series “The Simpsons” will be exclusively available via Jamba (or Jamster as it is known there). This will mean that consumers will NOT be able to download it from carrier decks. A major push for the D2C business (and only a day after we mused the consolidation of the sector). They introduce a new subscription plan (“Yellow Plan”) for $9.99 a month, which offers credit for six downloads from a selection of The Simpsons content, including the Simpsons’ mobile game which is produced by EA. No word if EA is prohibited from selling the game elsewhere; I doubt it.

The really interesting point is however the way Jamba positions itself with this: the company had been struggling and was indeed hit by lawsuits (class actions and all; there are even dedicated hate websites for it) over what many people found questionable business conduct, namely by allegedly luring people into relatively costly subscriptions (e.g. in the UK £4.50 per week; for games even £6.00) by offering – at first sight – free content.

Whether or not a consumer feels ripped off depends on the perceived value they receive. When I want to purchase a ringtone and end up paying £22.00 in the first month because I did not realise that I was entering a subscription, then the perceived value does not add up. If, on the other hand, I enter into a $9.99 per month subscription to obtain free access to my favourite TV show, then that might well be a different story: perceived value adequate equals happy consumers equals return customers equals a very successful and – more importantly – sustainable business.

Despite the bumpy ride through the courts, Jamba has always been very innovative and also quick to react to successes and failures, so it is somewhat unsurprising that they should have come up with this concept now. That they did this with so prominent a license deserves respect. Given that Fox (the owner of the Simpsons brand) owner News Corp holds the majority of Jamba, the deal will not even have been very expensive but be more of an act of cross-leveraging company divisions. It would arguably have been a worthwhile strategic investment geared to driving consumers to off-deck propositions in any event: this is an area where the US somewhat limp behind. This could now well be about to change.

On a sideline, this will also likely benefit the likes of Buongiorno: besides yesterday’s announcement of their acquisition of I-Touch, they had previously acquired US firm Rocket Mobile, giving them a substantial footing in this market.

The trophy for deal of the week goes to Jamba though! Hats off!

EA times 4

By Volker

On 19/06/2007

In Games

Gaming behemoth Electronic Arts announced it would be splitting the company into 4, namely EA Games, EA Sports, EA Sims and EA Casual. The first two cater for the classic console and specific sports properties respectively and – rather remarkably – the 3rd creates a whole division for one single property, namely the ludicrously successful Sims. It would seem that this is a sign for more to come, that is after Sims packs some of which 3rd party-sponsored/endorsed/branded. So we are probably here to see the first moves towards an MMO, an online community, etc, etc.

EA Mobile will become part of EA Casual (this piece had been announced a few days earlier). Reuters interestingly speaks of casual games as “games, which are usually played online or on mobile phones, are a small but rapidly growing part of the industry.” So now mobile games are already part of the “usual” – great news!

EA Mobile will surely continue to serve as the mobile extension for EA’s other divisions’ properties and licenses, such as Tiger Woods, FIFA, Need for Speed, Madden NFL etc. The division’s new President, Kathy Vrabeck formerly of Activision, at least mentioned something along those lines, so no big news here.

Oberon plays mobile with I-Play

By Volker

On 31/05/2007

In Deals, Games

Finally… I-Play and Oberon today announced that the former would be acquired by the latter, allegedly for $110-120m. A deal involving I-Play had been rumoured to happen for quite some time, so good for Gosen and his team that they found a suitor. And not a bad one either: Oberon is an online gaming powerhouse, so a move across to mobile makes sense (and they had probably realised that their acquisition of Blaze (which itself was the combination of Synergenix and Kayak Interactive) last year wasn’t getting them anywhere close to where they need to be). I-Play with its CEO David Gosen certainly showed stamina. They published some pretty cool titles (including Gamevil’s critically acclaimed “Skipping Stone” and hit series “The Fast & The Furious”) and in spite of oft rumoured shortage of cash just hung in there.

Oberon also raised some fresh money from investors Goldman Sachs, Oak Investments and Lehman Brothers, so all looks good for them, I suppose.

UPDATE: Today (12 Sept 2007) I-Play announced 11 new games all drawn from Oberon’s back catalogue. They are Hexic and Mozaki Blocks (apparently from the creator of Tetris), Flowerz, Slinky, Fish Tycoon, Spin & Win, Bricks of Egypt, Bricks of Atlantis, Magic Match, Bubble Town and Saints & Sinners Bingo. It will be interesting to see what will win in the current battle of big brands and casual games; both are frequently cited as two of the key components of breaking into the mass market.

Games shine on Orange

By Volker

On 16/05/2007

In Games

Mobile games outsell other types of content, including ringtones and wallpapers on Orange UK, we read. Orange published its first digital media index which also showed that Orange customers send 872m text messages a month, with most sent between 4pm and 8pm as people plan a night out.

In Q1/2007, almost 750,000 games were downloaded. This compares to only 65,000 and 250,000 tracks, ringtones and music video. This is rather noteworthy. So why is it?

Games are the only category of the above that is tied to the commercial ecosphere of today (be it via carrier deck or from a D2C portal, etc): I can download a picture from the web and bluetooth it or sideload it to my phone and it will work. Phones understand jpeg. I can do the same with a music track. Phones understand mp3. I cannot do the same with a Java game. Phones do understand Java but it is an executable, so you need an installer file, etc. Higher complexity. Too complicated to do it for me, buy it then…

Games have an additional particularity and that is that they need to be thoroughly adapted to the small screen. A song sounds the same (assuming you have a good pair of headphones), a picture will be, well, smaller on a small screen but otherwise undistorted. A game requires interaction, and this is being done very differently on a phone. So we may well see the above numbers drifting further apart…

Who's Europe's #2 in games?

By Volker

On 11/05/2007

In Games

Who is Europe’s second largest mobile games provider? EA, Gameloft, Glu, Hands-On, Namco, I-Play, THQ? Nah – it is Zenops! Who? Yes, you heard right… That is, at least as per the lead investor in Zenops, who rather boldly stated this in their announcement of the acquisition of formerly high-aiming and recently rather ailing In-Fusio (including Mobile Scope) and niche player Filao.

Now, the acquisitions suggest that Zenops aims towards i-mode: this is where it was active in the past, and where Filao has expertise. It probably aims to apply Mobils Scope’s and In-Fusio’s expertise to expand this onto other platforms. But #2? Come on!

The statement is all too bold, and it gives the whole thing a bit of a stale taste. Do never pretend things you cannot be. To aim for such positions is an honourable and worthy task. To simply assert it without any hint as to where this should be derived from or on what it is based is, well, best left uncommented, in particular if it comes with such humbling clarifications: Zenops’ website currently (11 May 2007) says under the download tab: “For non i-mode user, games from ZENOPS will be available in a few months”. It gets worse: ex-In-Fusio man Florent Pitoun writes that his “old company has been sold to a small industry player at a really ridculous value, meaning that my shares are now worth nothing.” Ouch!

So, dear folks from Zenops-In-Fusio-Mobile-Scope-Filao: send your investor chap to a course in media training and good luck to you all!

It is NOT (only) the kids playing mobile games

By Volker

On 25/04/2007

In Games

Here‘s some always again interesting finds on mobile game demographics re-confirmed :

29% of all 25-34 year-old US-Americans downloaded mobile games in 2006, and 27% of the 18-24 year-olds but only 15% of 13-17 year-olds. The older folks also play more: 50% of the two older age groups vs 41% of the teens play mobile games on a daily basis.

The picture is naturally somewhat distorted as proportionately more adults own mobile phones than teens (although the latter catch up quickly).

However, considering that, in the UK, the average credit kids have on their pre-paid phones (which most of them have) is a meagre £5, which leaves little to no wiggling space when compared to game prices of £3-5 per pop: they simply don’t have the dough to buy more.

Another re-confirmed suspicion highlights the distribution challenge: 29 million US-Americans play mobile games, only 7 million download them, and that means 22 million play whatever is on their handset – whether it is a good or a bad one. 22 million gamers that do not access all the great games that are out there show that there is a severe disconnect regarding a) discovery and b) marketing and distribution in general. Whilst these will not be the only factors, they are significant.

NOM is in Europe

By Volker

On 21/04/2007

In Games

One of the best game ever to have been created for mobile phones is finally, finally coming to Europe. I would have loved for us having been the ones to do it but, hey, you cannot always win. In any event, in spite (or because?) of an oddly early 70’s design feel and simple graphics, it is a great game that beautifully shows what mobile gaming can do (a view shared by many reviews, such as the ones, here, here and here).

The story of NOM is – for a mobile game at least – very long. The game had been released as early as 2002 by Korean developer Gamevil and has recorded more than 1 million downloads in Korea alone. You could consider it the mother of all 1-button-games, a category considered by many as being the perfect entry point to mobile games (here’s a feature on Nom and some other of Gamevil’s gems).

So, good folks of Disney’s Living Mobile (the lucky ones who got their hands onto it for Europe), good luck with it!