December 15th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »
In a time where many look back at 2006, we like to look forward and we have found 32 industry executives prepared to do it with us. We where surprised though that mainly the small and midsized developers responded to our mailings and not the big ones that often reach the news which of we contacted some as well. We have listed all forecasts below in alphabetical order.
"In 2007 I predict even more hype to be focused around music, video and TV. Music will continue to be a great success, but I think the jury is still out on Mobile TV. Games developers and publishers will have to deal with even more fragmentation, but despite this will continue to produce some great products. Oh, and please Apple open up the iTunes Games platform to the mobile development community, this has to be the way forward for D2C content."
Brian Rodway – MD at Affinity Studios
"In 2007, Bazix is to release MSXPLAYer-GS60, which makes it possible to play thousands of classic retro games – originally released on the multi-million selling MSX computer system – on the Symbian Series 60 (v2 and upwards) mobile phones. With this, we will bring a large variety of addictive, small (mostly only a few kilobytes) and high quality games to the Series 60 platform. This service responds to the demand for better, easy to distribute and commercially proven game concepts."
Sander Zuidema – MD at Bazix
"2007 will be the year when native gaming content really takes off. Number of smartphone models increasing dramatically so everyone can find a suitable design, available with contracts or on handset renewal at an indecent low price, installed base representing an important part of the global mobile market, rumours of very big names in the video game market working on it, users realizing what native gaming really offers… And no, native gaming doesn’t mean 3D! It means a lot more than that."
Michael EL BAKI – CEO at BitRabbit
"During 2007, BGIn will start-off with a specific mobile dept to help leveraging the Benelux mobile game community. This on various domains like business support, educational input, standardisation, European representation to name but a few."
Tommy Goffin – CEO at BGIn
"2007 is going to be a breakthrough year for mobile 3D gaming. Another few trends to watch here are multiplayer games, as they become more and more popular, and, on the other hand, increased number of casual mobile titles. Still, the market is growing and 2007 is going to be a significant year for both mobile gamers and developers."
Dmitry Avdeev – Business Development Manager at Boolat Mobile
"2007 will definitely see better and more convenient games for customers. Because of in-game advertising and growing off-deck channels, games will be available at lower prices and to more customers. Breakpoint is boldly progressing in this direction, featuring strong in-house development and attractive publishing channels. The recent deal with Tribune and AcrNum shows Breakpoint’s commitment to forge global, independent and user-friendly channels for distribution of quality content."
Ludwik Zoltowski – Sales and Business Development Director at Breakpoint
"I think 2007 may finally offer a first glimpse of the real potential of connected gaming on mobile. As 3G networks deployment has been completed on most major Carriers, billing plans are becoming more conducive to larger data consumption, and advanced multimedia handsets continue to proliferate, it seems as if all the key ingredients are in place for the advent of connected gaming. I think simple connected games that cast the widest net at the potential demographic have the highest probability of becoming financially successful. Furthermore, albeit not yet in 2007, LBS will allow mobile games to leverage the type of gaming experience that can not be duplicated on any other gaming medium. This is what I personally look forward to the most.
I also expect 3D mobile games to continue their strong performance in 2007, as they have been validated by the market in 2006. The popularity of 3D games will continue to grow, as the handsets with embedded GPUs are introduced to the market, and the current leading edge devices assume the mass market norm."
Tom Frencel – MD at Capybara Games
"2007 will see an explosion in availability of ad-sponsored content for phones, with ad networks, Google, Yahoo and specialized search firms entering the mobile ad market in force and providing a solid revenue baseline for publishers and portals. In-game advertising will continue to make inroads, but will evolve away from "sponsored by" and towards measurable product placement as time progresses."
Arthur Goikhman – CEO at Cellufun.com
"2007 will be the year that will see 3D games on mobile and Connected gaming break through to the mobile mass market. I can see another round of industry consolidation and key partnerships as publishers realise that there are only a handful of really good development studios out there. I predict 2 major mobile publisher acquisitions by the major traditional console players with no real presence in this market. 3 UK’s lowering of it’s walled garden internet will see a golden market opportunity for mobile content portals offering current and yet to be exploited always-on mobile services. Ultimately, 2007 will be the year of less is more in mobile. There will be less volume (and sales) of poor games on decks and portals and more focus on quality made-for-mobile games where the sales volumes are going to be."
Mark Ettle – MD at Cobra Mobile
"2007 will be the year in which it will be more tempting for consumers to download games to their mobile phones. Consumers will be able to try mobile games before they buy them and the consumer can get ad subsidized games for free. Further we will see more flat rate data plans with operators which will make a global launch of mobile multiplayer games more realistic."
Peter de Jong – CEO at Codeglue
"2007 will be the year VC’s start to find out if their investments have been worthwhile as several pure-play publishers perform their exit strategy. We’ll also see the demise of some development studios as publishers focus on fewer, higher quality titles. One thing is for certain – we’ll be seeing many more devices with new features that will continue to push development costs ever higher."
Nigel Little – MD at Distinctive Developments
"2007 will be THE year so far for mobile gaming. With handset fragmentation slowly but surely being reduced and the increasing number of high-spec gaming handsets on the market, more larger and complex game ideas will be given the chance to truly flourish on the platform."
Brian McNicoll – MD at Dynamo Games
"I will be 47.
Elite will be 24.
Al-Qaida will attack the mobile internet, and chaos will ensue. If you type "Paperboy" into Google — misspelling the name of the popular 80s arcade game — the search engine will respond, "Did you mean: Al Jazeera?"
You’re kids will ask: if you can tune a piano why can’t you tuna-fish?
Our new mobile game “Atlantis Quest” will prove to be ”
