afrol News, 6 August - The global mobile gaming market will grow at a 16.6 percent to reach $18 billion in 2014, and thanks to the explosive mobile subscriber growth in emerging markets, according to the latest report by Pyramid Research.

The research, Five Year Forecast and Impact Analysis, analyses mobile videogaming market dynamics in emerging economies.

According to a statement released by the research group, this is done by putting emerging markets in the context of the overall mobile videogaming industry, taking a close look at the trends and dynamics in gaming and mobile gaming, globally.

“This context analysis is followed by a top-level examination of emerging markets, including their mobile gaming-specific metrics, market enablers, adoption barriers, trends, and opportunities,” the statement said.

Also included are in-depth country analyses of eight emerging markets: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, and South Africa.

Evolving along with the increasing penetration of mobile service and handsets, mobile gaming is a promising industry, notes Jan ten Sythoff, analyst at Pyramid Research and coauthor of the report.

"Global mobile gaming revenue reached $6.9 billion in 2008, having grown strongly in recent years, with emerging markets contributing heavily," said Mr Sythoff, adding that apart from technological improvement and business-level innovation, the global mobile gaming market is also evolving fast on account of mobile adoption. He also added that the growth will be the result of both continued strength in emerging markets and increased usage in developed markets.

"Although most in emerging markets cannot afford sophisticated devices, they are eager to experiment and use mobile data services; this is true for both mobile communications and entertainment, of which mobile videogames are a major driving force," explained Mr Sythoff.

"For many users, handsets are the first device they own that enables access to electronic forms of entertainment," he said, adding, "Declining handset and data access prices have been central to the increased use of data services in emerging economies; also, because devices such as PCs and gaming consoles are less common, the mobile phone has become the primary device for accessing content such as Websites and games," he said.

He also said the increased usage in developed markets will be fueled by the changes the iPhone App Store has brought to these markets, where it is stimulating competition and interest in mobile games.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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