Author: Denny

Mobile game revenue may soon outpace that seen in console gaming

Mobile games is a booming market. Many large developers and publishers have begun to focus on the mobile space, looking to take advantage of the growing number of mobile consumers willing to play and pay for games on their smartphones and tablets. In Canada, many consumers are beginning to play mobile games and the market is expected to see significant growth in the coming years, even outpacing the growth of the console gaming market.

Developers are beginning to see the value in mobile games

According to a new report from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, the revenue generated by mobile games may soon outpace the sale of console games. Mobile games typically feature in-game purchases. These purchases can be anything from additional content to special items that provide some advantage in the game. While developers have been looking to bring these types of purchases to console games, they have already become well established in mobile gaming. Consumers have shown that they are quite willing to pay for content and other benefits in mobile games.

Report shows that mobile game revenue is growing quickly

According to the report from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, console games remain the bulk of the overall gaming market. These games account for 35% of all revenue that Canadian developers are seeing. Mobile games, however, are growing quickly and now account for 31% of all revenue that developers see in the country. Notably, mobile games have continued growing, whereas console games have seen a 32% decline since 2013.

Developers are looking to enter the mobile space and engage consumers

With mobile gaming picking up momentum, more developers are beginning to show more interest in the mobile sector. Recently, acclaimed developer Konami decided that it will be focusing on mobile gaming. Activision Blizzard is also looking to become more involved in the mobile space, recently purchasing mobile game developer King for nearly $6 billion. Developers are looking to engage mobile consumers more effectively, as these consumers have shown that they are willing to pay for the mobile games that they play.

The results of the Wanderful Media annual survey showed that smartphone applications will be vital this season.

The 2015 Annual Holiday Shopping Survey results have now been released by Wanderful Media, the firm that produced the popular cash-back Find&Save shopping mobile apps for Android and iOS based smartphone users.

The insights provided by this study could be invaluable to merchants as they fine tune their holiday strategies.

Among the most important trends that were identified within this survey was that mobile apps would be playing a critical role in holiday shopping not only in general, but especially among shoppers in the millennial generation. In fact, among shoppers in that demographic, 92 percent said that they would be using their smartphones while shopping during the holiday season. Among the respondents as a whole, 73 percent of all holiday shoppers said they would be using those mobile devices as a part of their shopping journey.

Shoppers in all age categories plan to use mobile apps to shop this season, with specific purposes in mind.

The main reasons that shoppers in all age categories are looking to their smartphones in order to help them to get through their gift buying this holiday season include: discovering opportunities to save through digital coupons and promo codes for nearby stores; to find those store locations; and to compare the prices for the same product from one store to the next.

The survey also determined that smartphone apps that were the most popular tool for mobile commerce, especially because 78 percent of millennials said they would use applications for shopping purposes over the holiday season. Comparatively, 67 percent of overall shoppers in every age category said they would be using those tools for the same purpose. Over 80 percent of holiday shoppers who are millennials also said they would be interested in receiving push notifications from apps with regards to holiday sales that would be occurring from Black Friday through Christmas.

Aside from notifications from mobile apps, millennials also said they would be willing to sign up for other types of mobile alerts in order to stay on top of the latest deals as they become available. Among all age groups, 65 percent said they would be willing to sign up for that type of savings notification.