Video Post: Mobile Gaming Not Playing Around

We've covered the prevalence of smartphones a few times already, but one area I haven't really been able to explore has been mobile gaming. But after a report by PopCap was released earlier this month, I thought it was time to dive into it. Sure mobile games seem to be popular, but just how popular are they? I look into this and other mobile gaming stats on today's Daily Axioms Video Blog.

Microsoft Shows No Dis-Kinect with Consumers

Way back in June, I questioned whether or not the gaming industry was on its deathbed after being pushed further and further into anonymity with the rise of smarthphones and social gaming.

In that post, I noted that Microsoft was going to unveil its controller-free game system at the E3 Conference. And while I didn't say how I felt about Microsoft's controller-free approach in the article, to be honest I felt it was fairly gimmicky.

Boy, was I wrong. Microsoft has announced that its Kinect system has sold 2.5-million units in the 25 days since its public launch. To put that number in perspective, the iPad (you know, the device that has been called the fastest-selling device of all time), took twice as long to surpass the 2 million mark.

In my opinion, their success boils down to two things. One, the much-lower price point compared to the iPad is always conducive to higher sales. Secondly, Microsoft has been very upfront with their support for developers hacking their Kinect for other purposes.

It was an ingenious move on Microsoft's part, because people have pondered the potential outside of gaming, and dreamed of Minority Report-like computer navigation and web-browsing since the system's unveiling.

I don't believe the Kinect will kill off the Nintendo Wii, although I wonder what effect it will have on the Playstation Move's sales. However, the public has obviously latched on to the idea of controller-free gaming and the Kinect's success should boost a struggling gaming industry.

Panasonic's Upcoming Gaming Device Raises More Eyebrows Than Expectations

Taking a look around the techno-blogosphere, it's clear the "it" technology this year is the tablet. All the buzz right now focuses on iPads, Dell Streaks, Samsung Galaxies, and any mention or rumor of a new competitor in this fast-growing market.

The allure of these tablets are obviously the different functions they serve, whether it's as a laptop, media player or a gaming device. This means that if you're a device that only does one of those things (I'm looking at you, gaming devices), you've probably already seen your popularity slipping.

I've made this point before when talking about the impact of smartphones on gaming devices, but the latest move by Panasonic warrants a revisit to this topic. Panasonic is diving into the already-shallow waters of hand-held gaming devices with the upcoming release of the Panasonic Jungle.

It's a questionable move to say the least, because as I mentioned earlier, the hand-held gaming market has taken some serious hits over the last couple years due to the rise of smartphones and tablets.

This raises the obvious question; why doesn't Panasonic scrap the gaming-only device and focus on creating a tablet? They have the resources and the credibility, and a device that only does games provides serious limitations. A tablet could still be used for gaming, but would provide the added functionality and utility of a laptop.

I'm aware my suggestion is a hard left turn from where they were originally going, but if Panasonic is set on diving in to those gaming waters they might find that it's not so easy to stay afloat.

3 Reasons Social Gaming Is An Industry All Its Own

Just last week I wrote a post mentioning the growth of social gaming, and a new study strengthens the case that the growth will continue. Here are three key stats from that study.

1 out of 5 Americans over the age of six has played an online social game at least once.

Obviously, that number is just based on who was polled. But if you extrapolate that out, nearly 60 million Americans have or are playing social games. That's a huge number of users.

$2.2 billion worth of virtual goods were bought in 2009; expected to increase to $6 billion by 2013.

This is the major reason why social gaming isn't going away in the near future. The amount of money social gaming has already brought in is massive, and experts think that number is going to triple. As long as people are buying virtual goods, companies will continue to provide them.

35% of social gamers have no previous gaming experience whatsoever.

This was the most surprising stat to me, because ever since social games hit the market they've been compared to (and grouped with) traditional games. To me, this says that social gaming is becoming a completely different market, separate from the Nintendo/Playstation/Xbox-dominated industry of traditional gaming.

This is great news for social networks and bad news for the gaming industry. For social networks, social gaming provides monetization options other than just ads and banners. Unfortunately for the gaming industry, their struggles over the past couple of years are most likely to continue, because over a third of that social gaming demographic aren't playing traditional video games.

That being said, the gaming industry isn't beyond hope. However, it will take serious innovation and a continued push towards online gaming. The biggest takeaway is that social games like Farmville won't be put out to pasture anytime soon.

Mafia Wars Continues to Blow Up

Even with the buzz surrounding the latest crop of traditional video games like StarCraft II, Madden NFL '11 and the upcoming Halo Reach, social gaming continues to see huge amounts of traffic.

And Zynga, the company behind the immensely popular Mafia Wars and Farmville games on Facebook, hopes to continue that momentum. Zynga recently created a new level for their Mafia Wars game and wanted to make sure a lot people were playing it. And for Zynga, "a lot" meant 10 million, which they were able hit pretty easily.

So how did they hit that not-so-lofty goal?

Well, the minds behind Mafia Wars decided the most sensible way to get people to play a game about online crime was to blow up a real-life armored truck. That's right, the latest Mafia Wars promotion was that if 10 million users played the new Las Vegas level, Zynga would blow up an actual armored truck in the city the game level was based on.

Some people may be question the point of this promotion, other than a reason for gratuitous explosions. And while I'm always a fan of explosions, I don't think that this spike in success for Mafia Wars will stop critics and pundits from questioning if/when the bubble will burst for Zynga and other social gaming companies.

However, I think it's safe to say that the social gaming bubble won't be popping anytime soon.

3 Takeaways From Today's Java Meet Up 612

This morning Sara and I went to the Java Meet Up 612 (@jmu612) in Minneapolis for a discussion about social gaming's impact on marketing, with guest speakers Christopher Lower and Mark Hurlburt.

It was a great discussion, with a few eye opening statistics and points made. And since I enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd share some of them here.

53% of adults, 81% of people ages 18-29, and 97% of teens are self-described gamers.

The numbers here don't lie. If you've wondered whether or not gaming is a viable marketing tool, the sheer number of people who utilize it shows its potential.

The average gamer is a 29 year old woman.

That's who you would get if you were to combine the average demographics for gamers. This stat surprised me the most, because I assumed the average gamer would be younger and likely a male.

This just goes to show that gamers who grew up with gaming have continued playing into adulthood. Also, the fact that the demographic has shifted to women illustrates the impact of social gaming.

90% of Foursquare tips, comments and reviews are positive.

This one was obviously more specific than the other stats, but Foursquare is the hottest trend in social gaming right now and needed to be addressed. There's all sorts of reasons why that number may be as high as it is, but it definitely sheds light on the possible applications of Foursquare in marketing.

There was a lot of other great insight and stats offered at the Java Meet Up 612 today, way more than I can cover in one post. I'd highly suggest going to the next one, as well as checking out their @jmu612 Twitter Feed.

A Losing Game?

The gaming industry and fans alike are on the edge of their seats, because today is the annual E3 conference, one of the biggest gaming expos in the world.

Even though I'd only consider myself a casual gamer, I am very interested to see what comes out of this year's E3. Not necessarily because of any particular game or console, but because this will be a crucial year for the entire gaming industry.

Think about how prevalent smartphones and multifunction mobile devices have become. GPS devices are becoming less popular because of apps like Google Maps, and gaming-only devices like the Nintendo DS are starting to fade with hundreds of games (many of which are free) for both iPhone and Android phones. Not to mention the popularity of games like Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook.

Gaming isn't what it used to be, back when it was an arms race between Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft to see who would release the next hit game or unveil a new console. Nowadays, independent developers are the ones dictating the direction the industry is heading.

There are rumors of Microsoft previewing controller-free gaming and Nintendo showing off a 3D hand-held console that doesn't require glasses, but we'll have to wait until after the conference to see if these latest innovations will gain any ground.

The nature of gaming has changed because of social media, and the industry is going to have to change along with it.

A New Level of Online Addiction

Two of the most addictive substances on earth might be coffee and nicotine, but with 400 million users, some would argue that Facebook deserves to be on that list of addictions as well.

But when it comes to wasting hours and hours at a time online, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW) is at the top of the list. WoW has over 12 million monthly subscribers, most of whom aren't afraid of spending the night in front of their computer screens to succeed.

In fact, I personally know at least 4 people who flunked out of college due to spending too much time on World of Warcraft.

That's why I'm interested (and a little afraid) of the news last night that Blizzard, the maker of this Internet fixation, will be integrating its service with Facebook.

This is huge news in the gaming community, who can now have their WoW and other Blizzard game updates post on Facebook.

And although it's too early to tell how World of Warcraft players will respond, I'm sure that anyone who is already addicted to the online game will have an even tougher time getting that multiplayer monkey off their backs.