Mobile gaming doubles in 2005

Analysts may be predicting a stagnant or even shrinking traditional game industry in 2005, but it appears to have been a banner year for the mobile gaming market. In the past year, worldwide wireless gaming has doubled its revenues worldwide, according to a new report from Screen Digest.

The report says the worldwide market was worth 850 million euro ($996 million) in 2004, and is projected to swell to 1.7 billion euro ($1.99 billion) in revenues when all the 2005 numbers are tallied up. It also notes that traditionally strong mobile markets like Japan and Korea are losing some of their position in the industry as Western countries catch up. Markets in the US and Europe now account for 52 percent of the mobile gaming market, according to Screen Digest.

"As operator-voice revenues worldwide have slowed, the importance of mobile data has markedly increased, and games are delivering sizable revenues," stated the report's author and Screen Digest analyst David MacQueen. "The importance of this sector will continue to grow."

MacQueen noted in the report that JamDat and GameLoft were the biggest players in the American and European markets, respectively, and that traditional game publishers have by and large failed to duplicate their success in the emerging market. The lone exception to that was THQ, whose THQ Wireless brand has carved out a niche for itself.