The advent of ubiquitous smartphone technology has created an unprecedented pipeline for gaming industry developers to reach massive new audiences through the mobile device and a recent study of the gaming industry by noted sector trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, has even detailed how mobile gaming growth outstripped the broader U.S. economy between 2009 and 2012 by a factor of four. Projections of there being a whopping 1.75B smartphone users globally by year’s end from eMarketer, combined with DFC Intelligence’s 59% growth projection for the global gaming business by 2018, gives investors very clear forward guidance on the health of the mobile gaming space.
Newzoo’s estimates from last month on the mobile gaming market indicate that mobile revenues will trump the console market as early as next year, with mobile gaming moving from around $25B this year, to $30.3B in 2015. Newzoo’s projections are also in-line with the SuperData Research figures for 2014, showing a more conservative $21.1B for 2014, and SuperData sees mobile gaming moving up to around $40B within the next three years alone. Also among the noteworthy data points, we see the possibility that Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) revenues could potentially double those of the legendary console and game developer behind titles like Super Smash Bros., as well as platforms like the Wii U and DS/3DS, Nintendo (OTCM:NTDOY), as early as this year. Apple is on track to generate some $4B in revenue from games this year (Nintendo’s shrinking game tally was around $2.4B last year), with Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) coming in a close second, at around $3B, clearly demonstrating how big mobile has become.
However, one of the consistent problem areas in the mobile gaming industry has been the cost and development time required to execute all aspects of a given product’s content/design across an increasingly dizzying array of platforms. While Flash technology has long been an industry favorite, used to execute Facebook versions of hit games like Candy Crush Saga, that game’s developer, King Digital Entertainment, had to develop their own proprietary C++ based mobile game engine, fiction factory, to properly execute the full-feature standalone versions for iOS and Android. This development approach is pretty much the industry standard, but represents a great deal of overhead that will only increase as more mobile users become gamers and more games are developed, updated, and patched.
ThreeFiftyNine (359), the development subsidiary of Consorteum Holdings (OTC:CSRH), has a powerful, device-agnostic, universal solution for mobile gaming developers that will allow them to publish once and still deliver content to any mobile device, with the intended display format intact. 359’s mobile hybrid solution, the Universal Mobile Interface (UMI), allows developers to forego the costly reprogramming required (not to mention the hassle for users who simply have to download the app one time and then can bypass updates) whenever they want to push new content to users or update their application’s content, further enabling mobile content providers to more easily reach the largest possible customer base.
Moreover, 359’s UMI solution provides enhanced security features by isolating the client’s servers from mobile devices via “Thin Client Server” architecture. This is particularly important for compliance management in the rapidly growing world of online gambling, an aggregate space estimated by H2 Gambling Capital as climbing to $44B per annum by next year alone, up sharply from just $34B in 2012. Juniper Research analysis goes even further, explaining that online wagers via mobile from all platforms is expected to hit $100B by 2017, creating a huge opportunity for a company like CSRH, whose own platform has been approved by the gold standard in regulatory gaming, the Nevada Gaming Board.
For more information on Consorteum Holdings, visit: www.consorteum.com
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