Mass Market Appeal Essential To Future Of Mobile Gaming

Manchester, 9th February 2005 - Games with mass market appeal will continue to dominate mobile entertainment downloads in 2005, according to wireless entertainment publisher iFone.

Big name brands from outside the console gaming world have proven to be the most popular downloads for mobile phones over 2004. Both of the final ELSPA Java download charts of the year were dominated by such titles with Monopoly at number one in November, followed by Tetris in December, each game published by iFone. Other mass market appeal titles, such as Pacman, Trivial Pursuit, Pub Darts and Pub Pool, have continued to consistently enjoy significant positions within the chart over the year, according to data submitted by the five major UK mobile operators.

Conversely, console conversion games, mobile versions of the extremely popular games developed for any of the major console platforms such as Driv3r, Colin MacRae Rally 2004 or Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, have appeared to have less mass market appeal when released in mobile format. A significant number of these games have entered the ELSPA chart at a high position, only to disappear in the next chart as consumers vote with their thumbs and download other 'non-gamer' games instead.

Morgan O'Rahilly, CEO of iFone, commented, "Looking at the ELSPA charts from the past year shows that iFone and other mass-market games publishers are succeeding in reaching the right audience with their games portfolio. The market for mobile games is focused squarely upon the casual gamer, who's looking to kill some time while travelling or waiting for friends, rather than the dedicated gamer who would play console games. The games are mass market appeal games that are not necessarily intricate, but just have extremely well developed playability."

O'Rahilly continued, "We've seen a remarkable trend in that the consistently charting games have been those that are simple and easy to play such as Tetris, Monopoly and the classic Atari games iFone has developed. These mass market games have provided operators with the highest revenues in 2004 and this is definitely going to continue in to 2005 and further as iFone develops more and more games with mass market appeal that casual users will want to play."

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About iFone

iFone is a global leader in wireless entertainment, specialising in the development, production and publishing of wireless entertainment content for current and future mobile devices.

iFone operates a global distribution network live in over 35 countries with over 65 network operators, all major handset manufacturers, retail channels and entertainment portals.

As a leading publisher, iFone acts as a bridge between brand licensors, game developers, handset manufacturers and wireless carriers to deliver first class wireless entertainment to its customers. Complemented by a world-class account management, publishing and brand acquisition team iFone combines a huge wealth of experience and technical knowledge from across the industry.

Contact Details

Sonus PR for iFone

Patrick Smith

Tel: +44 20 7031 0890

Email: patrick.smith@sonuspr.co.uk