Wiley.Games.on.Symbian.OS.A.Handbook.for.Mobile.Development.Apr.2008 (779888), страница 10
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An interesting history and summaryof how the present day mobile game market evolved can be found atwww.roberttercek.com (look for the links to the GDC 2007 presentation).As a summary, Figure 1.3 attempts to show some of the roles and routesto market.Network Operatorse.g. VodafoneGame DevelopersCustomersB2CB2BContent Aggregatorse.g. JambaGame Publisherse.g. Digital ChocolateIndependent SalesChannelse.g.
Handango,Nokia CatalogsFigure 1.3 Some of the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) relationships in themobile games ecosystemTHE USER EXPERIENCE251.8.4 Built-In GamesOne way to distribute your game to users while avoiding the complicatedrelationship between publishers, content aggregators, and network operators is the holy grail of game developers – getting the game built onto aphone handset by the manufacturer, (or provided on a CD ROM in thebox that contains the handset). Naturally, there are far fewer opportunitiesfor built-in games than there are developers who wish to do a deal toget their game on a phone. From a developer’s perspective, the marketexposure of an embedded game is an excellent opportunity; however, it isnot without its problems.
Trying to ship a game on a handset that has notbeen released means the developer is often working with pre-commercialfirmware and hardware. Final versions of the hardware may becomeavailable just days before the deadline for embedded software on thehandset, resulting in uncomfortable ‘crunch’ periods for developers.When a game is built into the phone, it is usually available to playfor free for the lifetime of the handset. Some games distributed onthe in-box CD may have a limited duration, after which they must bepurchased by registration.
The embedded demo contains instructions onhow to purchase a full game and continue play. One example of this isIdeaworks3D’s V-Rally; a demo version of which was shipped with theSony Ericsson P900i.A developer is usually paid up-front for delivering a game to be builtinto the phone, rather than paid a royalty per handset sold with thegame on it. Additional payments may be forthcoming if the game is puton further handsets, but the game, including the source code, usuallybecomes the property of the phone manufacturer.Sometimes a network operator will customize a phone after it leavesthe manufacturer, and put certain games, ringtones, themes and other preinstalled content, onto the handsets before distributing them. Developerschosen to provide a game to the network operator for this purpose willretain rights over the game itself, although the terms of the deal will vary,they will also typically receive a one-off payment rather than royaltiesbased on handset sales.1.9 The User Experience1.9.1 Finding a GameMany users report that the mobile download medium is not a particularlygood one for browsing games or finding out more about them.
For a start,they can sometimes be hard to find at all on the basic service menus.Network operators have other attractive content to distribute besidesgames, such as music, video or mobile TV. Therefore, the promotion of26INTRODUCTIONmobile games can be limited, and a user may have to actively search thesite – which can be frustrating when they are using a phone with a slowdata connection and a small screen.On the topic of limited screen real estate, even when the games areeasily located, the phones allow only a few lines of text to be displayed.Console games sold in retail outlets have large boxes with space forartwork and text to give a potential purchaser an idea of what the gameis like. Mobile games distributed for download over the air do not havemuch space to do this.
Besides the attractive pricing, this may be partof the reason why casual games are so popular – the buyer alreadyknows about PacMan or Tetris, so he or she can be confident aboutunderstanding what the game is about when it is downloaded (though itdoesn’t give any prior knowledge of how to play it, or guarantee of howgood it will be). A user perceives that it will be difficult to get customersupport for the game, and since it doesn’t come with a box of instructions,he or she will generally have to work out how to use it by trial and error,or using the help system built into the game, which again is limited bythe screen size available.On the operator portal, a potential purchaser may also find it difficultto find or share reviews, or hints and tips about a mobile game, whichare key elements for many gamers. The combination of a relatively slowbrowsing speed and small form factor make browsing for informationdifficult, unless the comments are made directly available on the deckwith the game.
The role of the community in finding and recommendinggames, and sharing experiences and reviews is something that the NokiaN-Gage platform emphasizes.The constraints of the size and information on the decks are alsothought to be the reason why many consumers just buy games from thebestseller decks on the operator portal. The previous sales give moreconfidence in the game, and the bestseller games are easy to find onthe deck.1.9.2 BillingThe poor user experience associated with purchasing a mobile game iswidely cited to be one of the main reasons that sales did not take off asrapidly as predicted. Besides the frustrations of trying to find the gamethey want, users can also be confused about billing, particularly if theyare charged once for the game itself, and then extra in the tariffs appliedwhen the game is downloaded.To generate additional revenue beyond a one-off payment when thegame is purchased (or as an alternative to it), mobile operators haveintroduced a number of different mechanisms for billing the consumer,including subscription billing and premium SMS billing.
Games thatgenerate great customer loyalty can attract a monthly subscription just toMOBILE GAME PLATFORMS27allow the gamer to continue to play them. Others are episodic, wherebyadditional storylines are released on payment of a regular subscription.This is similar to the concept of an expansion pack which may bepurchased by subscription, or just occasionally. Expansion packs provideadd-ons to the original game, such as new tracks for a racing game, teammembers for a soccer game, or weapons for an action game.The subscription model is most common in Japan, where it is partof a generic portal-based mobile Internet service called i-mode. Mobilegamers pay a monthly charge and can subscribe to a single game or candownload and play a number of smaller games each month.
Chapter 10explains more about the success of i-mode and the market for mobilegames in Japan. In Europe, i-mode was introduced in 2005, but uptakehas been poor; for example, the UK operator O2 reported in mid-2007that it would phase out its support for i-mode by 2009.According to one game developer and publisher in Europe, ‘‘Subscriptions terrify the consumers’’.21 The payment model has not beenpopular for various reasons, notably the lack of information about how tounsubscribe, billing practices where users may not even realize they aresigning up for a subscription, and dubious content quality.An alternative to a subscription is to allow players to decide whenthey want to purchase additional units to extend or continue playing thegame.
In the US, this is increasingly popular, and is sometimes knownas ‘rental.’ The operator can set a low price for a one-time purchase of agame, but can then additionally combine it with the rental billing modelto generate additional on-going revenue.1.10 Mobile Game PlatformsWhen writing a game for a mobile phone, there are various technologyplatforms upon which the game is built, chosen according to the typeof game, the performance it requires, and the phone handsets it isintended to be played upon. A technology platform comprises a set of thesoftware components to access the mobile phone hardware applicationenvironment, and varies according to whether it interprets the game codeor compiles it to native instructions – and if so, it additionally dependson the operating system used by the hardware. Let’s look at the mostcommon mobile games platforms –Java ME (which is supported by allSymbian smartphones) and BREW (which is not) and contrast these withnative game development for Symbian OS in C or C++.1.10.1 Java MEJava applications execute on a virtual machine (known as a ‘VM’) thatruns on top of the native platform.
Applications are effectively hardware21Issues in the Mobile Game Market, DFC Intelligence, March 2007.28INTRODUCTIONagnostic, since they are released as Java bytecode, which is portablebetween different processor architectures. The bytecode is interpretedby the VM implemented for that specific platform, and applications aretranslated into native hardware processor instructions.
The translationdoes lead to slower execution rates for Java code than the equivalentcode written in the native instruction set. However, there are accelerationstrategies adopted, both in any specific implementation of the Java VM,and in the bytecode that the VM interprets and executes. Java is also arobust technology – Java instructions cannot cause the system to crashand security features are designed into the Java programming languageand VM.Games for mobile phones that are written using Java actually use JavaME (the ‘ME’ stands for Micro Edition). This is the version of Java formobile devices, that was previously known as J2ME (Java 2 Platform,Micro Edition) and it offers a subset of the full Java platform for resourceconstrained devices such as mobile phones.
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