Muse.On-The.Net

Take a look at any carrier game deck these days and you’ll find endless movie-based titles, console-game re-skins, decade-old arcade classics, and marque branded (e.g., Tony Hawk) titles. The NPD Group just released a report of the top-selling mobile games in the US in the second half of 2006 and, while only 7 of these were licensed, the remaining 3 were Pacman, Ms. Pacman, and Frogger - classics ported to mobile and offered by their original producers. In effect, the entire top ten cannot be considered original content in the context of mobile phone games. Is creativity dead?

NPD Group points out that while 20% of mobile phone owners play games on their phone, only 4% downloaded a game in Q4 of 2006. This is up from slightly more than 3% two quarters earlier, but a meager fraction of the potential audience. There is an expectation with carriers that games are sold primarily on name-recognition value alone, and thus brands are incredibly important to deck placement.

Brand license holders are fully aware of this. “The mobile games industry can’t go anywhere with the fees being charged by license holders. They take single digits for console or hand-held games, but up to 50% for mobile games. It’s exploitative. It means an inferior experience ends up being offered to the consumers. It’s an abuse of the customer, or the carrier and of the publisher,” Trip Hawkins, founder of Digital Chocolate, told GDC Mobile attendees. As the original founder of EA, Hawkins knows of what he speaks, and if the licensing rates were originally set with novice mobile developer start-ups, companies like EA, the market leader in mobile games, haven’t forced a change.

Where does that leave smaller developers? Many simply produce clones and knock-offs that, while unlicensed, are no more original. Indeed, open source game Jamtris and unbranded versions of Sudoku do very well on free game sites like MobileRated. Certainly, there will always be an audience for recognizable content. Anytime there is a truly new concept there is an opportunity for massive popularity but also - and much more likely - complete obscurity or ridicule and rejection. With the price of game development rising rapidly, many publishers are unwilling to gamble on an unknown element, which is a shame.

And yet, original content does exist. On occasion, a major publisher or carrier is willing to gamble on an original product, and success can be had. Just not enough to crack the top ten list, apparently. Furthermore, such gambles are rare.

Success is more likely to come sideways. Tetris was a smash hit, but was popular before being picked up by major publishers. Bejeweled was a web-based game released by independent PopCap Games. Success came in spite of major publishers, not because of them. Both were simple games, and both were obvious choices for the cell phone platform.

Sites like Kalador provide an avenue for developers to release their innovate ideas to a large audience of dedicated and casual gamers without the difficulties, costs, and restrictive controls of working with major publishers or carriers to secure deck placement. Since Kalador provides a direct to consumer storefront, deck placement fees are not necessary to reach a receptive and interested audience. Furthermore, rich search and browse options, coupled with user reviews and rankings, mean games can find their own niche audience and, while nice, not every game must be a blockbuster to bring a return on investment. Purely digital storefronts do not have limited shelf space, so there is room for a wide selection of content, and true innovation has a home.

The US market for mobile phone games was 151 million in the 4th quarter of 2006, according to Telephia, a research firm, up 61% from a year ago. There is certainly a market, ready to play. Which developer will be daring and clever enough to develop the first truly mobile-specific phone game blockbuster, and shatter the lock-hold of licensed content in the top ten lists? Chances are, it will be an independent, unfettered by the dogma and business-as-usual approach of the major publishers.

Is creativity dead? No, it has just been sleeping for awhile.