Game maker: iPod good for video games
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LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod has conquered the portable music market, is making inroads in video, and may turn out to be a video game player as well, game maker Electronic Arts Inc. is betting.
Many potential gamers already carry iPods, easily the most popular portable music players sold. Now they can listen to music while also playing EA iPod titles that include “Tetris,” “Mahjong” or “Sudoku.”
“Consumers have an appetite for a diversionary-type game experience — a snack where they can play for five minutes,” Mitch Lasky, who leads EA’s mobile gaming initiatives, told Reuters in a recent interview.
EA, the world’s largest video game maker, and other companies have built a stable of 11 iPod games since September that are available for $4.99 each on Apple’s iTunes online store. Five of the games are from EA.
Lasky joined Redwood City, California-based EA when it bought Jamdat Mobile Inc. for $684 million last year in a bid to boost its status in the mobile market and expand beyond its core console gaming business.
Mobile gaming is growing, and the iPod fits into those plans. “It’s very much a cousin to our existing mobile business,” he said.
Mobile gaming accounted for 14 percent of EA’s revenue in the fiscal year ended March 2006, or $393 million.
Research firm IDC said that U.S. mobile game revenue hit $722 million in 2006.
Lasky declined to reveal iPod-related revenue or unit sales but said “Tetris” remains its top mobile title.
Other available iPod games include include Namco Bandai Holdings Inc.’s arcade classic “Pac-Man” and “Bejeweled,” a popular puzzle game, from Pop Cap Games. Apple itself offers a brick-bashing game called “Vortex” as well the card game “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
The iPod may not be the best device for playing games, but it already is carried around by millions of people, giving it a certain edge, said Forrester analyst Paul Jackson.
It is the one “you are most likely to be carrying when you end up waiting for a flight, sitting in a dentist’s waiting room, etc.,” he said.
The iPod’s weaknesses are similar to those that hobble mobile phones, he added.
For example, the device’s click wheel “keypad” does not provide the same speed and variety delivered by a traditional video game console controller, Jackson said. The iPod’s graphics horsepower also lags that of handheld game machines like Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Portable or Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s DS.
But Apple’s captive audience is accustomed to paying for digital downloads like music and games.
Apple has sold more than 70 million iPods since their introduction in 2001. The iPod commands more than a 70 percent share of the U.S. market for MP3 players, according to NPD.
Apple, which does not break out sales of its individual iPod products, introduced the video iPod in 2005.
Lasky noted that iPods have a consistent design, unlike mobile phones which require game makers to design a unique game for each individual handset model.
Mobile game makers say that one of their biggest challenges is users finding their games on the on-screen menus of mobile phones. These so-called “carrier decks” are often confusing, space constrained and hard to navigate.
Apple has said that consumers have made more than 1.5 billion purchases through its iTunes store, which is well-organized and easy to use.
According to research firm IDC, the audience of mobile game purchasers in the United States will grow more than 16 percent annually to reach nearly 50 million by 2010, substantially increasing total mobile gaming revenue by the end of the decade.
