What is the current state of the mobile games space?

One of the things we’ve been observing is that there obviously seems to be a lot of consolidation happening. 

From a Nokia perspective, what we’ve really been observing and focusing on is how we actually make the consumer experience a much better one.  Among the things we’ve observed is that it’s a very complex world out there.  It seems that there are a lot of games available, some of them are bad and some are good, and the way to actually get that content to your handset has been very difficult and not a rewarding experience to the consumer.

We’re focusing very much on this new N-Gage experience, which is about discovery of content in a very easy mechanism, the ability to try-and-buy that content, and to actually learn about that content in a community-like fashion.

And obviously we’re adding flexibility to how you pay for that content. 

What are some of the obstacles the industry faces to reach the growth potential that’s been forecasted (ie, growing from $3.3 billion this year to $10 billion by 2009)?

I think one of the key things that needs to happen is we need to have a situation where people are actually buying content or doing some form of monetization of that gaming content.  And not only doing that the first time, but having a repeat-purchase situation occurring in some form.

We have to make sure consumers can find the content too.  The experience of actually buying content has to be as easy as possible, and consumers have to know there is a quality assurance to that content. 

That’s been one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced.  It’s been a big maze and very chaotic, and now for the whole industry to grow we have to have much easier mechanisms for all sorts of people to get to that content. 

And that’s our focus now: To create an end-to-end solution which allows you to find the content, see reviews, get imagery, and then you can even try the content before you actually pay for it.  All of those things will actually allow us to build trust with the consumers so that they start feeling comfortable paying for the content. 

Talking about paid-for content versus ad-supported content, do you think the latter has a place in the mobile games space?

I think what you’re seeing at the moment and has actually been happening for the last five years is that when an industry has time to discover how to go about monetizing itself, and actually delivering content to the user is that many different business and revenue models start to appear. 

In the early days of the internet you had a situation where ad-supported content didn’t work very well, but now it’s starting to work.  If it happens that same sort of way with mobile, I think that’s yet to be discovered.  We just have to see what kinds of revenue and business models can be supported given the different types of content we have.  If you’re talking about ad-supporting consumer products related game content then maybe that’s something that could go over quite well.  But if you’re talking about something which is more of a high-end game, maybe it’s a different model that’s required.

Again, it’s the ability to find the content, try it, and then decide how you’re going to pay for it.  That’s the more fundamental thing that needs to be solved today. 

How do you see the try-and-buy working for mobile gaming?

With anything that’s a try-and-buy scenario the key is having the ability to actually download the content onto your phone and play a dedicated level of that game so that it’s a fully-featured demo, and not something that’s crippled, or limits you to a certain amount of things.  You have to really experience it and decide, ‘Okay, I really like this and I’m willing to pay for it.’ 

And maybe you’re paying for episodic content that continually comes on to the game as it evolves, or maybe you’re buying the full game as is so that it gives you access to further content that’s available. 

But the key to the try-and-buy is that the ‘try’ part has to be something that’s fully featured; it can’t be something that’s time crippled or something.

What are the ways in which people are playing mobile games today?  Is it something being done on the train to work or the bus to school?  Is it being done in the home?  Has it reached that point where it’s unclassifiable, and played everywhere?

That’s one of the things we’re seeing is that the gaming that takes place can range from short moments of entertainment to longer moments depending on the content.  The other thing that we’re pushing toward with the N-Gage experience is that it’s a software platform across multiple devices such as our N-series devices.  With those different handsets, of course, we have different consumers buying them.  The common element is the top quality games on those handsets, and some of those games will be played by people who want to play for 20 minutes, and other times it will be more orientated to the casual gamer. 

BONUS: How do you define casual games, and how do you see it changing as the technology grows and accommodates the development of casual games for the mobile space?

I think this is one of the greatest challenges that everyone in the industry, including academics and so forth, has addressed, which is the definition of gaming, casual gaming, and the various taxonomies you can have with this.  When it comes to what Nokia is interested in, fundamentally we have both 3rd party relationships as well as first party.

One of the interesting things from a 1st party standpoint, in terms of games we’re looking to develop in the future, is that we’re very much interested in things that are about much more than winning.  We have a device – a multimedia computer – that you carry everywhere with you, and it has context, location, imagery you’ve taken, etc.  It’s like carrying a large part of your life with you.  And we can actually build games that tie in to that sort of context and actually allow you to easily share, easily reward, and it’s not only about winning, it’s about building up an entertaining, fun experience. 

I think when you ask the question about ‘what is casual?’ my challenge to everyone in the industry is: What is the evolution of mobile gaming going to look like?  And I don’t necessarily believe it’s about console-style games on the handset.  I think it’s about something more.  And I think that’s the challenge we have in the industry is creating something more.  That’s something I’m trying to drive within the organization: What do we believe that ‘something more’ is?  And I’ve given a hint on that in terms of our view on sharing and rewarding…

 
Scott Goldberg