I-Play's Gosen responds to Vodafone comments on game quality

The quality of the download experience also needs to be addressed by the mobile games industry, I-Play COO David Gosen has told GamesIndustry.biz in response to concerns over game quality raised by Vodafone's Graeme Ferguson last week.

Speaking at the ELSPA International Games Summit in London, Ferguson said that the poor quality of some games could discourage consumers from future purchases - and warned that even now, some titles are "really rubbish".

While agreeing with some of what Ferguson said, Gosen believes that the responsibility for improving the quality of the overall experience of mobile gaming does not lie solely with the developers and publishers.

"The whole industry is responsible for gate keeping the quality of mobile content, and the onus here is particularly on the developer and publisher community. This applies as much to own IP as it does for licensed property," he said.

"It is important to start any content conversation by looking at the end user, the game player - typically in the mobile market, a mass market casual gamer."

"Licensing works, when it is targeted to the right audience with a gameplay experience that matches the license in terms of quality. Original IP, bringing original gaming concepts to mobile gaming also have a role to play, and here the quality of gameplay has to be as good as with branded titles, given that there is no pre-existing end user relationship."

"However," he continued, "an equally crucial point is that the issue of quality does not end with the game. As important is the quality of the experience of downloading."

"Simplicity, ease and quality of download experience must be matched with high quality, fun, pick-up-and-play mobile games."

Former Nintendo Europe boss Gosen also spoke at the ELSPA Summit last week, where he told delegates that Europe faces being outpaced by North America in terms of mobile gaming growth due to a range of consumer and industry factors including the lower cost of browsing, more widespread contract phones, better billing infrastructure and improved user interfaces.