Wiley.Games.on.Symbian.OS.A.Handbook.for.Mobile.Development.Apr.2008 (779888), страница 6
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OK, it is also true that the PSP andDS are dedicated game players, and people that buy them are likelyto buy one or more games to play on them, while not everyone whobuys a mobile phone also buys mobile games to play on it. But, as DrMark Ollila, Director of Technology, Strategy and Game Publishing atNokia puts it, ‘‘With mobiles. .
.the whole market is huge, so even if theSOME STATISTICS9percentage of those users playing games is quite small, the volumes arequite large.’’8Recent data suggests that smartphone buyers show particular enthusiasm for purchasing and installing software for their devices.
Part of thereason for buying a smartphone, after all, is that powerful after-marketsoftware can be installed onto it. To meet this demand, over 8000 thirdparty installable applications are commercially available at the time ofwriting. Furthermore, according to data from m:metrics, Symbian smartphone users perform at least 20 % more tasks that raise the averagerevenue per user (ARPU) for network operators than other 3G users.
Forexample, data from October 20079 suggests that, in the UK, 45 % ofSymbian smartphone users spend more than £35 ($70 US) per month on3G network services (such as sending photos, videos, accessing maps andnews). Feature phone owners spend less; only 20 % spend that amountor more.1.3.3 Sales of Mobile GamesThe first, and probably best known, mobile game is Snake, found in mostNokia mobile phones since the Nokia 6100 phone was released in 1997.Since then, the mobile game industry has grown swiftly and is acceptedas an important, and growing, sector of the game industry.
We’ve lookedat the statistics for sales of mobile phones in general, and smartphones inparticular, so let’s move on now to examine the market for mobile gamesin more detail. It’s important to point out that this market data doesn’tdifferentiate between games for smartphones and games for feature phonehandsets.Mobile games are a major revenue generator for network operators,game publishers and developers alike. For example, the market for mobilegames took off in 2002, with the number of game services launched bynetwork operators in Western Europe growing more than seven foldbetween mid-2002 and mid-2003, according to Screen Digest.Various figures have been quoted for the value of the mobile gamemarket to date, and for the years to come.
iSuppli predicts that revenueis likely to increase rapidly, driven by heavy adoption of mobile handsets in China and India. Forecasts are for expansion to $6.1 billion bythe year 2010.10 A different report, from Informa Media & Telecoms,values the market at $3.3 billion for 2007 growing to $7.2 billion by2011.11However, it would be irresponsible not to sound a note of caution at thispoint.
In 2003, the major market research firms predicted sales of mobile8www.mobileindustry.biz/article.php?article id=2689www.mmetrics.com10www.isuppli.com/news/default.asp?id=7242&m=1&y=200711Informa Telecoms & Media: 2006 2007 Mobile Entertainment Industry Outlook910INTRODUCTIONgames by 2006 to range from $3.6 billion (Informa) to $18.5 billion(Datamonitor); some were predicting sales of mobile games to be biggerthan sales for dedicated game consoles and PCs combined. Althoughstrong sales were reported in 2006, the market didn’t take off as rapidlyas expected, and Informa revised their estimate to $2.5 billion, which isgenerally taken to be accurate for mobile game sales that year. Later inthis chapter, I’ll discuss some of the reasons why the market wasn’t asstrong as predicted, and what is changing to address it.1.4 Games Platforms ComparedMost people typically think of a game system as a dedicated game consolesuch as Sony’s PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Wii or the Microsoft Xbox360.
A console is most definitely not mobile! It does not have a displayunit and is plugged into a separate television, and optionally a separateaudio system.The PC is another very popular game machine, particularly for gamesinvolving keyboard input, for example, to communicate with other playersor characters in a game. Again, a PC is hardly mobile. If you play a PCgame on a laptop, your play time is limited to the lifetime of a typicallaptop battery, which is fairly short (shorter than the battery lifetime of atypical mobile phone). Furthermore, most PC games are not tailored forlimited input from a laptop touchpad, but assume a mouse or joystick, aswell as a full QWERTY keyboard.Moving on to game machines that are more obviously portable, themost familiar at the time of writing are the Sony PlayStation Portable, theNintendo DS and the Nintendo Game Boy series. While each of thesehave some level of connectivity (see Table 1.1), none have the facilityto make voice calls from anywhere12 or all the other characteristics of amobile phone.
This is one factor that differentiates a portable platformfrom a mobile platform. An additional difference between mobile andportable game platforms is that the mobile phone is ubiquitous; as we’veseen from the sales figures, a wide cross-section of the population ownsone and most carry them with them at all times. Relatively speaking, themarket for portable game players is much smaller.A portable game machine has fewer functions than a mobile phone, butdoes have the advantage that it is designed specifically to have controlsand form factor that are optimized for game playing.
Most mobile phonesare phones primarily – game controls are a secondary consideration12In early 2007, it was announced that PlayStation Portable owners in the UK wouldbe able to make voice and video calls when using software developed by BT, through oneof their BT WiFi hotspots. Nintendo DS users can use VoIP to chat during game sessions insome countries, but there is no commercial application to allow widespread use of the DSto make voice calls.GAMES PLATFORMS COMPARED11Table 1.1 Comparison of handheld game players and Symbian smartphonesSonyPlayStationPortableGraphicsHigh end 3D(approx 200,000polygons persecond)Nintendo DSHigh end 3DNintendoGame BoyAdvance2DSymbianSmartphone(September 2007)2D low end 3D(approx 25,000polygons persecond or lower)Convergence Camera and GPS Web browser,attachment,MP3 playerDigital TVreceiverattachment(available in someregions), WebbrowserMP3 player,As describede-reader bar code earlier in thisscannerchapter, Symbiansmartphones arehighly convergentConnectivityWiFi, cableconnection toNintendoGameCubeWiFi, IrDA, USBWiFi, USBWiFi, 2.5G/3Gdata and voice,SMSBluetooth, USB,IrDANo dedicatedgame controllerkeys (except inlegacy devicessuch as theN-Gage andN-Gage QD gamedecks)ErgonomicsDedicated gamecontroller keysDedicated gamecontroller keys,one touch screenDedicated gamecontroller keys• Standardphone keypad• 4-waydirectionalcontroller (canbe simulated8-way in somesmartphones)• Touch screen(somesmartphones)(continued overleaf )12INTRODUCTIONTable 1.1 (continued )SonyPlayStationPortableSupport forindependentgamesdevelopersClosed platform(there is some‘homebrew’developmentwhich exploitsmissing securityfunctionality inearly models)Nintendo DSNot officiallysupported, but it ispossible todevelop gamesindependentlyNintendoGame BoyAdvanceNot officiallysupported, but itis possible todevelop gamesindependentlySymbianSmartphone(September 2007)Open platform,SDKs availablefrom the UIplatform creators(e.g., Nokia andUIQ)(although the Nokia N-Gage game decks, discussed in Chapter 8, are anotable exception to this general rule).
Another aspect for game designersto consider is that, because a mobile phone is a multiple-function device,the game may be interrupted at any time because one of the otherservices becomes active (e.g., the player receives a phone call or SMS, ora calendar alarm alerts them of their next meeting).Not all mobile games use all the features that differentiate a mobilephone from a portable game player, but increasing numbers of gamesdo use the connectivity offered by the phone network or WiFi. Somealso take advantage of other features that are standard in mobile phones,particularly Symbian smartphones, but that are less well established inportable game players. These include features such as access to APIs tocontrol the camera, microphone and location-based services.
Chapter 6discusses this further when describing some innovative mobile gamescreated for Symbian OS smartphones.Of course, while mobile phones offer a new set of opportunities forgame design, there are also some trade-offs which lead to challenges whencreating a mobile game. The mobile phone demands a very different styleof game to those found on consoles. Games are played for a few minutesat a time; they need to be quick to grasp and deliver fun in short bursts.A mobile device needs to be small and have a long battery lifetime,and is built with hardware limitations such as memory, screen size, andinput controls to maximize portability and minimize price.
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