Mobile Dollar Apps Hurting Gaming Industry

[Crumbz]

With the booming success of the mobile app industry with such phones as the iPhone and BlackBerry and other android devices. Games producers have noted a rapid loss in sales profits over the last year.




It seem that with the heightened popularity of the cheap and easy to download so called "Dollar Apps" (available for pretty much every smartphone and android phone in existence), sales of major handheld gaming designers such as Sony and Nintendo have dropped around a frightening 50% over the last year.
Companies like Nintendo have even gone so far as to say that this "trend" may end up being the downfall of design companies such as itself. As of present approximately 17,000 "Dollar Apps" are in existence, and this is causing an over commoditization of readily available games, thus driving down the value of mobile games.

The average "Dollar App" produces approximately $700 USD in gross income at its highest sales point. This is nowhere near enough for anyone to sustain a company off of.

So is this a sign that companies like Nintendo and Sony may be largely affected by the expansion of this trend?

Or is this just a phase? (Like Bell-Bottom Jeans)

[TwisTtheTwiTcH]

Very good article.

Sadly it probably isn't a trend. Most of the society is wired wireless now, and the phrase "I can't live without my cell phone" is becoming to commonplace. Most everybody wants the best and newest of whatever is out, and that is a smartphone. So it isn't likely at all that smartphones - let alone application stores will fall out of style.

Any point can be argued but it is safe to say that cheap applications and simple games are not going to disappear.

-TwisT

[robin1989]

i think the reason they are so cheep is because if you have a good imagination and a bit of time and skill you can know an ok game out. especially as development costs for these apps are the cost of a phone which everyone has now and the cost of a normal computer.

other consoles would have more cheep games on offer if they wernt so complex and expensive to make the games for, like with a ps3 you have to pay $1000's for hardware just as much for software, and then once you have paid a team to write an app on these complex systems you then have to pay sony a huge fee to press and distribute your game on disks which are loosing popularity due to there exuberant costs.

if the games development houses spent a little to invest in these platforms splitting there staff into teams of 2 or 3 and having each of them come up with and build some really cool imaginative games they could bring out several titles a year and target there marketing more they could sell these apps for $5 with them bieng made by "Premium" developers and would bring in a decent chunk of coin and still develop for other platforms.

[DuctTapedGoat]

Well, what it comes down to is game companies are blaming as many people as possible for revenue loss - and I think I know the real reason why.

If I go buy a PS3 game, anything new, right off the shelf, it's not going to be 50 gigs large. It used to be a major issue, that some companies couldn't fit all of their content on a single 700MB CD - then we had 4.7 gig PS2 games.

Take for example Portal 2. Great game - don't get me wrong, System requirements are for 9 gigs of free space. I beat the bajeezus out of it in a few days - what if they actually filled a BD with 50 gigs of Portal 2? It'd be epic.

That's just one example, there's plenty out there. Smaller, sprite based games have more content. The big bucks games rely on great graphics, but the content usually just isn't there.

[jrfhoutx]

I'll take quality and quantity of content and superb gameplay over flashy graphics any day of the week. flashy graphics don't make me want to keep playing a game or replay it once I finish it. No matter how good the graphics are lack of quality in content and gameplay will make that game either sit on the shelf unfinished, or wind up getting sold.

Take for example Portal 2. Great game - don't get me wrong, System requirements are for 9 gigs of free space. I beat the bajeezus out of it in a few days - what if they actually filled a BD with 50 gigs of Portal 2? It'd be epic.

That's why I hate DLC... it's content that should have been included in the game in the first place, not 'extra' content. they were just too lazy and cheap to finish the game, and too greedy to put it all in the same package.

Games don't cost $50 anymore, they cost upwards of $120, depending on how much DLC there is (Fallout 3 had 5 $10 DLC packs and was $60 at launch, that makes it a $110 game...)... and that's BS, I've been far more entertained with some of the inexpensive mobile games, and some of them have far more innovative gameplay, take far longer to finish, and are more challenging than a lot of console games (Rolando and Angry Birds to name a couple). Console gaming has become stagnant, it's all rehashes of the same games for the last 10-15 years...

[robin1989]

Console gaming has become stagnant, it's all rehashes of the same games for the last 10-15 years...

i agree there is no inovation or very little at least in the console gaming world what are we on now COD 6 or something they have the high end graphics down to a T, now they really need to think more about the storyline's and the game mechanics - bring them up to the level of there graphic work, people can push plenty of pixels and shaders etc now and companies can make those available now all relatively easily now its time to get some imagination and work on the other areas of gaming.

[Bonz]

This us likely why the Xperia play will shine.this is maybe the reason sony poped it out now rather than years ago when ppl were crying for it

[Crumbz]

This us likely why the Xperia play will shine.this is maybe the reason sony poped it out now rather than years ago when ppl were crying for it

Yeah it was a smart move on their part. I wonder if Microsoft will try to follow suit by making an X-Box TuGo or some other strange name...

[nEoVaLoR]

The Xperia Play will fail. If anyone begs to differ, please do prove me wrong... It will be cool for like two weeks, then fade..

[jrfhoutx]

The Xperia Play will fail. If anyone begs to differ, please do prove me wrong... It will be cool for like two weeks, then fade..

idk, I kind of agree and kind of disagree... I don't think it will do as well as the hype makes it seem, but I don't think it will be a total failure... Sony's biggest problem with the Xperia Play is that it's too diverse... it's a PSP kind of, but it's a cell phone, kind of... it's success banks too much on a complete niche market. I really think they just went in the wrong direction with what PSP owners were asking for. the crys of "add a cell phone to the PSP and it's a perfect device" seems to have been heard by Sony as "add a PSP to a cell phone and it's perfect", and it's just not the same thing, sure it sounds the same, but it's not...

had they really just added cell ability, a touch screen, and a second analog to a device like the PSP GO, they would have the perfect system that their portable crowd was asking for. sure it would have been a bit bulky to be your everyday cell phone and for most cell users, but for the hardcore portable gaming crowd, I think it would be a true competitor for mobile phone gaming. No hardcore portable fan wants a cell phone with portable gaming as an after thought, they want a device that is a portable game system that lets them make calls as well, and that is really where Sony's portable market lies, in the hardcore portable gamers. they really need to stop believing their own hype and thinking they know what people want and what will sell. they need to start actually listening to their customers. at the rate they're going we're looking at the downfall of Sony within the next decade... their TV division has posted record losses for the second fiscal year in a row, the PSN fiasco has damaged their credibility with gamers, and the PSP, PSPGo, and PS3 haven't been great successes, and then to top it all off their continued foray into expensive and unnecessary proprietary media formats and unwillingness to accept, allow and incorporate other media formats has continued to piss people off, make people think twice about buying sony products, and really just not work out for them (MDs, UMDs, MS... the only one really working out for them is BRD).

Sony isn't the walkman/discman/PS1/PS2 revolutionary powerhouse of old. they just keep plugging along with what they think is 'revolutionary', when it's really not. kind of like their sad attempt (at least imo) at motion gaming, which they tout as revolutionary, but it's the same thing they were working on when the PS2 was still the top game system, and is really just a different way of implementing the wii's controllers, at least MS went in a different direction (and imo did it right) with Kinect. I mean really, they started working on the concept of the Move in 2001, it was released in 2010, and that was all they could come up with? just adding a couple of accellerometers to the colored ball that's viewed by a camera idea they had 10 years ago? I doubt the Kinect had been in development for that long, and that is an excellent use of motion capture to control a game. to me that says that sony is unable to let go of ideas that may have at one point been revolutionary concepts, but are no longer. they're too caught up in their own hype...


edit:

OK, after posting and rereading that, I must apologize for getting WAY off track with that tirade about Sony and my personal opinions of their company and their business practices... I realize this is not the place for it, but I'm not going to delete it, just apologize for threadjacking...

[802Chives]

this sounds oddly familiar to "pirates are ruining our profits" crying we hear all too often.  blame will land on anyone who it will stick to, I have never seen and industry so scared to take responsibility for their own failures.


I wonder who all the dot com failures blamed their problems on... oh ya they actually relized that the bubble bursts and that their industry couldnt sustain hundreds of employees on mediocre products.


Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa game industry people are busy putting food on our own plates. adapt or die, no one cares how hard you have it, if you want it easy be a banker or major oil supplier otherwise its survival of the fittest.  if that sounds harsh then capitalism really is not for you.

[jrfhoutx]

this sounds oddly familiar to "pirates are ruining our profits" crying we hear all too often.  blame will land on anyone who it will stick to, I have never seen and industry so scared to take responsibility for their own failures.


I wonder who all the dot com failures blamed their problems on... oh ya they actually relized that the bubble bursts and that their industry couldnt sustain hundreds of employees on mediocre products.


Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa game industry people are busy putting food on our own plates. adapt or die, no one cares how hard you have it, if you want it easy be a banker or major oil supplier otherwise its survival of the fittest.  if that sounds harsh then capitalism really is not for you.

^ This, a thousand times over...

Seriously, I completely agree, this is exactly the same "So-and-So is killing our profits" complaint. If you ask me the only one killing their profits is them. Gamers will flock to where ever has the best games, content and prices, and right now that's mobile gaming... if they want to get people buying games again, then they need to do like robin said, bring the gameplay and content quality in line with the graphics quality and I'm sure they'll sell better, and the retarded prices might be justifiable for once...

[Crumbz]

and the retarded prices might be justifiable for once...

Not true the prices of the games should have never gotten above $20 to $30 for a new game. The companies are just being greedy, they sell 10 to 20 million copies of each game they release. And each game is at around $60 a pop.

That's... $1,200,000,000 (one billion, two hundred million dollars) on just one game! And sure they have to pay each division a percentage of the gross income they make, but we all know that only maybe constitutes for 10% to 25% of what they make.

And sure you can say that piracy causes alot of problems with these companies, but as Mac said there is very little innovation in the games they are producing (ex: COD, 1 to 6, MW 1 to 3 and MOH, etc...). And these are all games that have not really advanced in any category but in  the graphics. And thats not really by the dev's of he games either.

All these companies do is upgrade their software and draw pictures. It's the software that does all the real work of making all the high definition images and video's and landscapes in the game. All they have to do is draw a picture of what they want and add it to the program.

I know it's still alot of work to make all the frames to add to the game... But as you can see there is no real reason other then greed for having the same repeated/replicated game sold at $60 USD.


I think they would be better off to lower the price to 20 or 30 dollars per game.


But i could be  wrong... maybe people like paying more for the same s*** over and over again.