Top 10 Movie/TV Games For iPhone By Revenue?

Here's my stab at the Top 10 movie or TV based mobile games for iPhone and iPod touch, ranked by my latest guesstimate of the revenue that they've generated from inception to date... based on my notion that 1% of game downloaders post a review. In the spreadsheet above EAP = Estimated Average Price over the lifetime of the game on the iTunes platform, which I inferred from price movements listed on Appshopper.com. PubRev? = Publisher Revenue (caveated) which is calculated by multiplying EAP x Rvws/1% x 70% (publisher share of retail). Let me know if you think this is accurate and how well you think this model explains the performance of other iTunes App titles.

Assuming the data above is correct, it points to the value of publishers maintaining a higher price point for Apps. As you can see, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is basically tied for the most revenue with The Price Is Right despite having 43% fewer downloads than the game show title... because it's retail price has been 75% higher on average. Actually, I must say, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much price testing publishers are doing on the platform. With a couple of exceptions, the price of each title on this list has changed (up & down) more than 3 times since launch.

By the way, it looks like Montreal based Ludia, which currently is only publishing 2 Paid Apps on the platform, made a solid bet with Fremantle's The Price Is Right.

Is Fox's Brainstorm Minty Fresh or Curiously Wrong?

Fox Mobile Studios (FMS), the creative production arm of Fox Mobile Group, announced today that it has partnered with Wrigley's Altoids brand to create an 8-episode short form scripted comedy for mobile and online platforms entitled "Brainstorm" (check out the site). The show, which was created in collaboration with LA-based cross-media branded entertainment agency Omelet, is about a dysfunctional advertising agency that hires a wacky ad industry guru to help them land the Altoids account. It premieres on September 28th...online at least. The release doesn't mention where or when the show will debut on mobile, but one's gotta presume this will be a major feature on their Fox.mobi WAP site at the very least. The content will be available for free on the web and probably gratis through mobile outlets as well. It's unclear whether this is a standalone revenue generating initiative for Fox Mobile or if it's more of a support function for a 360-degree (cross platform) advertising deal initiated out of the media giant's TV group. Given the heavy brand integration and their own history with "Mobisodes" (the format they invented and trademarked back in 2005) which were far more successful in terms of publicity than profitability, I have to believe that this is primarily an ad-support play. Assuming that's the case, it will be interesting to see if; 1) this works creatively, 2) it gets eyeballs, 3) if (and how) Altoids deems this a success, and 4) if (and how quickly) other brands come aboard. What do you guys think based on the trailer below?

Gameloft To Create Mobile Games Based On Highly Anticipated Avatar

James Cameron's "Avatar", which 20th Century Fox is releasing in the US on December 18th, is one of the most highly anticipated films of 2009. Buzz about it is off the meter on every meaningful market indicator... particularly as more imagery is revealed (in the form of theatrical trailers) teasing the film's revolutionary, immersive 3D experience. There's also a lot of film industry speculation about whether Cameron, who hasn't directed a non-documentary feature film since the ultimate blockbuster "Titanic" in 1997, can pull another boxoffice rabbit out of his hat. Considering that the film’s budget is said to be well over $200 million, Fox is betting on it. Btw - From what I've seen the film looks pretty cool.

Today Fox Mobile Entertainment and Gameloft announced that the French mobile games titan has signed a license agreement to develop, publish and distribute games based on "Avatar". Given Gameloft's extensive experience creating high-quality film-based games (e.g. King Kong), unparalleled worldwide distribution capability, and considering sister company Ubisoft has been involved with title on the console side since mid-2007, I think this is a wise/natural choice for this crown jewel title. The mobile games will release in conjunction with the film at the end of the year...so my guess (hope) is that Gameloft is already pretty far along in the development process. The release doesn't go into any detail about the style of gameplay, storyline or if Gameloft is giving any special consideration to 3D in light of its importance to the film. It's also not specific about whether they have rights for all mobile platforms... specifically iPhone. I'll do some digging... In the meantime, any thoughts on what this license may have cost Gameloft? Will "Avatar" have to be the "Titanic" of mobile games for them to recoup?

So, Whatever Happened to Jamster 2.0?

What has become of Fox Mobile Group's & CEO Mauro Montanaro's big plans to reinvent, reinvigorate & (as we like to say in Hollywood) reimagine their moribund Jamster/Jamba D2C brand? It can't happen soon enough, as the content mix & traffic on Jamster.com, the US version of the subscription/breakage model tones, graphics & games site, seems to have totally stagnated (see chart below).

The company, which was founded in Berlin in 2000 as Jamba!, was once the revenue darling of the off-deck mobile content space...allegedly generating as much as $600mil in the Crazy Frog heyday of 2005. Fox put a major mobile stake in the ground in late 2006 when it bought a majority (51%) share in the company from VeriSign for ~$190mil, to combine it with its own nascent Mobizzo web-to-mobile brand. They bought the rest of it last October for an additional $200mil, announced a restructure of their mobile groups and teased the aforementioned plan to rebrand...which was originally supposed to happen in Q1 2009. Moconews diligently followed up with Montanaro at CES this January where he admitted that the plan was delayed by the economic meltdown, but that the relaunch was definitely slated for the first half of the year. It's been crickets since then...

I would think in this era of rapidly propagating App Store clones, fighting for mindshare & consumers, that Fox would be anxious to rapidly leverage their substantial investment in Jamster's infrastructure & customer acquisition through a more contemporary offering, if they ever want a shot at reclaiming a leadership position amongst mobile content retailers. I'm keeping my eyes & ears open over the coming weeks for clues that change is afoot.

Fox Mobile Frustrated With App Store

Great piece on MocoNews.net this morning reviewing a conversation they had with Fox Mobile CEO Mauro Montanaro that captures the frustration many content owners and publishers are having with the world's hottest mobile content distribution platform - iPhone/iTunes App Store. Reinforcing my favorite rant, Montanaro talks about the lack of editorial oversight from Apple and the difficulty in getting applications discovered in the clutter of 15k applications. Montanaro also brings up an interesting issue with regard to marketing...he mentions that Fox is frustrated by their lack of ability to market their iPhone applications either directly on the iPhone (with banner ads) or on other media in a way that is actionable (with shortcodes).

btw -- as a test I'd like to ask readers with iTunes to click on the hyperlinked title that follows and see it opens Fox Mobile's "very successful" licensed Marley & Me application in the App Store: FooPets Marley Puppy