January 24th, 2008 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Research & Stats | No Comments »
Though the fight is still on between Gameloft and Glu for who hold the
second position in the market, we took a look at the quality of them as
well as other publishers.
The data provided comes from the MobileGamesDB.com project, an IMDB like database for mobile games. In the latest update, the team started aggregating review data from various sources. Of course, not all sources are indexed already, but some of the biggest are in there already and allow us a nice view.
EA Mobile
The world’s giant EA kicked off their mobile business pretty late as they launched EA Mobile in 2004. In 2006 they acquired Jamdat to boost their market presence and gain the leading role they have today. Before the Jamdat purchase, they also used I-Play to spread EA Mobile’s games.
Pocket Gamer Gold Awards
Need for Speed Carbon, Doom RPG
Airgamer Awards
Die Sims DJ (85%), Sim City Societies (90%), Skate (88%), Medal of Honor: Airborne (86%), Burnout (86%), EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 (90%), EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (85%), Tetris Mania (91%), Fifa Street 2 (85%), SOCOM: Mobile Recon (90%), Doom RPG (87%), Tetris (90%)
Midlet Review Awards
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Average Rating
2008 | 74%
2007 | 73%
2006 | 75%
Gameloft
Gameloft was one of the first big publishers to become active in the Mobile Games market, bringing IP from sister company UBI Soft to the market. Gameloft was founded in 1999 and has not done any real acquisitions.
Pocket Gamer Gold Awards
Las Vegas Nights: Temptations in the City, Real Football 2008, Air Strike 1944, Real Football: Manager Edition, Might and Magic, Might and Magic II, Real Football 2007 (3D), Naval Battle: Mission Commander, Tennis Open 2007 feat. Leyton Hewitt, Miami Nights: Singles in the City, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, 2006 Real Football, Asphalt Urban GT
Airgamer Awards
Panzer General (86%), Megacity Empire: New York (90%), Las Vegas Nights: Temptations in the City (88%), Million Dollar Poker (88%), XIII 2 (90%), Assassin (90%), Gehirntraining 2 (86%), Real Football: Manager Edition (88%), American Gangster (91%), Die Siedler (88%), Pop Superstar (92%), CSI: Miami (87%), Crazy Campus (90%), Real Football 2008 (91%), Petz (88%), Might & Magic 2 (90%), Minigolf Revolution: Pirate Park (86%), Bikini Volleyball (87%), Sexy Blocks (86%), Catz (88%), Stirb langsam 4.0 (86%), Ultimate Street Football (87%), Rayman Kart (88%), Ghost Recon 2: Advanced Warfighter (87%), Real Football 2007 3D (88%), Meteos Astro Blocks (89%), Desperate Housewives (86%), Rainbow Six Vegas (91%), Special Crime Unit (86%), Pro Golf 2007 (88%), Bubble Bash (90%), King Kong Pinball (88%), Tennis Open 2007 (90%), Jagdfieber (87%), Dogz (88%), Gangstar: Crime City (90%), Asphalt 3: Street Rules (91%), Splinter Cell: Double Agent (85%), Gehirntraining (85%), Tropical Madness (87%), Schiffe Versenken: Entscheidungsschlacht (85%), Airstrike 1944: Flight For Freedom (89%), Diamond Rush (90%), Platinum Kakuro (88%), Platinum Mah Jong (85%), Paris Hilton’s Diamond Quest (90%), Lumines Mobile (91%), Mission: Impossible 3 (87%), Platinum Sudoku (88%), 2006 Real Football 3D (91%), Mystery Mansion Flipper (88%), Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones (86%), Asphalt: Urban GT 2 (90%), King Kong (88%), Midnight Hold’em Poker (87%), Brothers in Arms: Earned In Blood (87%), Medieval Combat: Age of Glory (90%), Platinum Solitaire (88%), Rainbow Six Lockdown (90%), Block Breaker Deluxe (86%), Chessmaster (91%), Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (87%), Midnight Billard (89%), New York Nights: Success in the City (93%), Asphalt: Urban GT (85%), Vans Skate & Slam (85%), Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (90%), Might & Magic (91%), Nightmare Creatures (90%), Rainbow Six 3 (88%), Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (85%), XIII (86%)
Midlet Review Awards
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Average Rating
2008 | 78%
2007 | 79%
2006 | 79%
Glu
Starting off as MacroSpace and Sorrent,Glu was highly active with big branded mobile games and a mobile games publishing platform. After merging both companies to form Glu, the publishing platform business was sold off as the company wanted to focus purely on developing and publishing mobile games. After the big merger, Glu swallowed iFone and MIG. At the moment, Glu is about to swallow Superscape as well.
Pocket Gamer Gold Awards
Project Gotham Racing, Sonic The Hedgehog Part Two, Stranded, Virtua Tennis Mobile Edition, Sonic The Hedgehog Part One, Ancient Empires 2
Airgamer Awards
Casper im Mitternachtsschloss (86%), Jamdat Solitaire Deluxe (85%), Playman Beach Volley (85%)
Midlet Review Awards
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Average Rating
2008 | –
2007 | 73%
2006 | 71%
Comparing the big three
Looking at the average scores, we can’t say much over 2008 yet as the year has just begun and Glu didn’t get a single rating listed yet. 2007 is much more interesting. Both EA Mobile and Glu scored an average of 73% when it comes to quality of their mobile games according to review websites. Gameloft took a clear lead with 78%. 2006 also was the year of Gameloft with an average score of 79%. EA followed closely at 75% while Glu only received a score of 71%.
Digital Chocolate
Looking at other developers in the market, Digital Chocolate is one of the more interesting as they try to hold their position on the market with mainly original IP. In 2007 they scored a 78% which is better then Gameloft, while in 2006 they only scored 73% which is below both Gameloft and EA Mobile.
I-Play
In the early years of EA Mobile, I-Play did a big part of the European sales. As I-Play is now part of Oberon and still one of the bigger ‘branded’ publishers around, we can’t ignore listing them as well. In 2007 I-Play scored 76% which is worse then Digital Chocolate and Gameloft, but still better then Glu and EA Mobile. In 2006, I-Play was just as good as Glu with an average score of 71% for their mobile games.
Hands-On
Another big publisher in the database is Hands-On, which started on the mobile games market under the brand of M-Forma. M-Forma was also one of the early parties to start selling branded mobile games. Hands-On scored considerably lower in quality then the parties listed above. Both in 2007 and 2006 they scored lowest. In 2007 they reached an average of 70% while in 2006 they got stuck at 65%.
Vivendi Games Mobile
Another company that started late in the mobile games market was Vivendi Games Mobile. The first Vivendi branded games reached the market through Wonderphone. Though Wonderphone was not acquired by Vivendi, the games and a big part of the staff went to Vivendi. With the acquisition of Activision, Vivendi is expected to outgrow EA on the games market. Who knows, the same will happen on the mobile games market. Most Activision mobile games where published by Hands-On in the past. In 2007, Vivendi Games Mobile scored 74% while in 2006 they only received an 68% average. In both years, Vivendi Games Mobile outperformed Hands-On.
Player X
Taking a look at Player X, one of the biggest mobile game aggregators around that also does publishing, it seems Player X also does not get huge scores from reviewers. In 2007 the company got an 71% average while in 2006 they received an almost embarrassing 56%. 2008 started of well with 80%, but that is just from one review. Let’s hope they get a good score this year so 2006 can be forgotten pretty fast.
Overloaded (MoConDi)
As I used to work for Overloaded, I can’t help listing this developer/publisher as well. Both 2006 and 2007 have been disasters when it comes to reviews while in 2005 they scored a massive 90% for quality thanks to Xyanide. Most of these terrible scores have been the result of their adult games being reviewed as well as Dan Parks Decathlon. The last game coming from Overloaded was Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles after which the games team left the company. Overloaded was part of Endemol but was bought late 2005 by MoConDi / The Mobile Media Company. No releases are expected for 2008.
So to conclude this editorial, we take a look at the top 3 mobile game publishers and put them in place based on their reviewed quality. These are our (mobileGamesDB) results;
1. Gameloft
2. EA Mobile
3. Glu
