Worldwide growth of the mobile gaming market has exceeded expectations – doubling in value over the past year and surpassing €1.7bn in revenues

Screen Digest: Japan and Korea, once regarded as the power houses of the mobile games industry, have seen their position eroded. During 2005, the Western markets of Europe and in particular the US have seen rapid growth – now accounting for 52 percent of mobile games revenues. Unlike the console or PC gaming markets, the mobile games sector is dominated by specialist players – currently most of the big games publishers don't feature strongly. Jamdat of the US and Gameloft of France accounted for almost 30% of games download revenues in the US and Europe during 2004. By examining real company revenues, we have been able to define an accurate market share for mobile games companies in the US and Europe. While no-one in the industry will be shocked to see Jamdat top in the US and Gameloft top in Europe, there are a few surprises, not least the relative weakness of the 'traditional' video games publishers. THQ Wireless is the only company from that space to have carved out a significant slice of the pie. Venture capital has been flowing into the mobile gaming indstry at a rapid rate, with €425m being invested in the market since 1999. With worldwide games revenues forecast to hit €7bn by 2010 and games enabled handsets to increase to 2 billion, it's perhaps easy to understand this high level of investment. Mobile gaming has arrived and is delivering results for investors and operators. The worldwide market was worth €850m in 2004, and our data shows that in 2005, the market will have almost doubled to reach €1.7bn in revenues. This is great news for investors, from whom we have tracked over half a billion dollars worth of investment since 1999. As operator voice revenues worldwide have slowed, the importance of mobile data has markedly increased, and games are delivering sizable revenues. Wireless Gaming Business Models – Opportunities for publishers, developers and network operators Publ 20051207 mobile games? Wikipedia Answers