Here's the latest Top 25 mobile games list from App World in the US. You'll notice that the average price of $5.55 is substantially higher those in the iTunes store, which got as low as $1.47 in my July 24th survey, but have been creeping up a bit according to more recent analysis from PocketGamer. EA Mobile looks really dominant here (as it is in iTunes) with 7 titles, followed by a small smartphone-focused gaming shop from Minneapolis called Concrete Software, with 4 titles (I love that each new platform has it own small publisher success stories). I hear a lot of anecdotal positive buzz from publishers about App World... but, I'm not sure whether they're just talking it up to counter iPhone hype, whether it's wishful thinking that this will be the next big distribution platform or whether they're making real money from RIM. The latter seems hard to believe, because the Canadian OEM has done an abysmal job marketing this service to consumers. Try this experiment...which I have many times...ask any of your non-mobile industry friends with a BlackBerry if they've ever used or even heard of App World. Report back.
btw -- what is it with bubbles and BlackBerry?
Posts
What is app world
ReplyDeleteI noticed that all the titles are "golden oldies". No recent IPs licensed for these games. I'd hypothesize that this is due to the older skewing demo of BBAW. Do you know what the top 25 games are for Apple Appstore - any data to confirm or refute my hypothesis?
ReplyDelete@Anonymous...funny
ReplyDelete@yh...I think your hypothesis has merit. Definitely an older demo & I'd bet a lower correlation with serious gamers. Another issue to consider is that the more limited processing power of BB devices makes them more suitable for casual games like Tetris & Bejeweled than newer, more graphically ambitious titles
Ahhh - hadn't considered that. I assumed BB's had powerful processors to handle all the biz apps. But you are right... I recall now that the distinction between the 8300 curve / 8800 was mainly one of processing power (same distiction between the 8900 curve javelin / bold 9000).
ReplyDeleteI would also argue publishers / content owners are going with proven hits to platform that still has to prove itself to the publishing community for games / traditional apps.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete