Maturing Mobile Game Scene

Justin Hall reports on the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) and the maturation of the mobile-phone gaming scene. He writes “Mobile games had a stronger presence than ever at the Game Developer’s Conference, but hopefully, innovation will continue in spite of this legitimacy.” and calculate the degree of opportunity by the “Long-haired game developers to blue button-down shirts” ratio.

There were demonstration of second-generation location-based games, including BotFighters 2 and UnderCover 2 — both of which promised urban Europeans the chance to play against real people arrayed in cities and on computers tracking objects and people across locations. He finishes with optimism and hopes for mobile game developers:

Diverse business models and mobile phone games incorporated with buddy lists and location-based technologies — there’s plenty of room for innovation in the mobile industry. Developing methods for mobile marketing, and establishing a benchmark for basic multiplayer are both positive signs from this year’s conference.

The mobile phone as a medium for games still has technology limits to push — 3D graphics, audio processing. Hopefully the markets and mindsets will evolve as fast as the handset technology, giving game developers a broader platform for innovation.