The mobile games sector, a relatively new outgrowth of the entertainment software industry, makes an important contribution to overall computer and video game sales. Thanks to the popularity of smartphones, mobile games have received a burst of attention, driven by strong consumer demand, focused on producing innovative new technologies and creative new products. In fact, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that the global wireless games market will reach $14.4 billion by 2017.
A New Platform Emerges
The mobile game genre essentially began in the early 1990s when calculator producers, such as Texas Instruments, began to embed the now ubiquitous Snakegame in their devices. The pixilated reptile that grew in size while gliding through a tiny maze so captivated users that Nokia decided in 1997 to become the first mobile phone provider to include a game in one of its models. In the years since, an estimated 350 million mobile phones have offered Snake as a standard feature.
With Snake’s popularity as inspiration, several companies began to work on technology, informally known as WAP, which would enable mobile phones to transfer game-related data via a remote server. While the early results proved too primitive to attract many adapters, gamers and developers alike began to understand the possibilities for fast action and multiplayer mobile-based games.
The new millennium ushered in to the mobile games sector an abundance of grand ideas, funding – thanks to eager venture capitalists – and new publishers and developers. With many mobile phones featuring color screens for the first time, the enthusiasm was not unfounded. In addition, select phones began to support a version of the popular Java programming language. Together, these developments served to greatly expedite mobile games’ sophistication.
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