However, an important part of the story in the months to come will be of the developers and publishers seduced by these success stories, who end up finding that not everyone can find their fortune in the apps world.Microsoft's gaming consoles are called Xbox, as a shortened term for DirectXbox, based on the names of the console's four developers: Otto Berkes, Kevin Bachus, Seamus Blackley, Ted Hase, all members of Microsoft's DirectX team. An iOS hit can be hugely lucrative, and like Angry Birds, can provide the springboard to success on other smartphone and tablet platforms. That said, it would be good to see some research on how many games developers and publishers are losing money on the App Store. The research will also fuel Apple's regular pops at the traditional gaming industry, with a claim that more people are playing games on iPads in these countries than on PSP handhelds.ĭistimo and Newzoo -–who will soon be offering a commercial service tracking game downloads and revenues on the App Store – also claim that in-app purchases now account for 40% of total revenues from the top 300 paid and free games on iOS.Īll of these figures will hardly dispel the current buzz around mobile gaming, which is a far cry from the pre-App Store days when the industry spent its time at conferences moping about the fact that less than 5% of mobile users were paying for games on their phones. What's more, the companies say that half of all paid and free downloads on Apple's App Store in these countries are now games, and that depending which country you look at, between 50% and 75% of iPhone owners are playing games on their devices.
Across those seven countries, they claim there are more than 63 million iOS gamers who download an average of 2.5 games a month each on their iPhones, iPod touches and/or iPads.
The headline figures: Distimo and Newzoo have focused their attention on seven countries – the US, plus the UK, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. However, separate figures published by analytics firm Distimo and market research company Newzoo show that Angry Birds is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to smartphone gaming, although their research focuses specifically on Apple's App Store. Angry Birds is now a cross-platform success, with a big share of its last 100m downloads coming from Android devices, thanks to the main Angry Birds game being free and ad-funded on Google-powered smartphones (Amazon also struck a deal with Rovio to offer Angry Birds Rio for free on its new Android app store).
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