According to a survey conducted by FreeCause, a technology and marketing firm that develops and enhances loyalty rewards programs for major brands, airlines, hotels, sports teams and social games, the mobile platform (33% of respondents) is destined to have the greatest impact on the gaming industry in the future.
The survey, which consisted of 10 questions asked of game developers at the Game Developers Conference Online 2011 in Austin, TX last week, covered a variety of topics about the gaming industry. These were the key takeaways from the survey
- Acquiring new users (37%) topped building game/company brand (23%) as top current issue
- 62% of respondents operate games with user bases under 100,000 users
- 76% of games are accessed by console versus mobile (53%) and tablets (26%)
- Email is the primary method for interacting with users when they are not playing game (62%)
- 57% of games do not monetize their eCommerce
If you take a look at what Microsoft has done with Xbox Live on the Windows Phone 7 platform and hits like Angry Birds across so many different mobile OS’s and the fact that are handsets are becoming powerful enough to replace other devices on an interim basis then mobile is not only going to impact gaming but many industries in the short and long term.
It will be interesting to see where this all leads. Personally, I am glad console gaming is still the top dog (76%).
