Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
My Profile
Top News
Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day.
Subscribe
You are here:
Home
>
News
>
Technology
>
Article
Home
Business & Finance
News
U.S.
Politics
International
Technology
Internet
Entertainment
Sports
Lifestyle
Oddly Enough
Health
Science
Special Coverage
Video
Pictures
Your View
The Great Debate
Blogs
Weather
Reader Feedback
Do More With Reuters
RSS
Widgets
Mobile
Podcasts
Newsletters
Your View
Make Reuters My Homepage
Partner Services
CareerBuilder
Affiliate Network
Professional Products
Support (Customer Zone)
Reuters Media
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
Big game publishers muscle in on iPhone's upstarts
Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:51am EDT
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-]
Text
[+]
By Gabriel Madway
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As the iPhone becomes a popular mobile gaming device, large game publishers with deep pockets are going head-to-head with smaller developers who found early success on the Apple Inc phone.
With name recognition and financial resources, publishers like Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Glu Mobile have a huge advantage. But up-and-coming companies such as ngmoco, Digital Chocolate and Tapulous have proved adept so far at building their brand.
Apple's App Store is crowded with about 13,000 games -- many from tiny developers -- and gaining the attention of consumers is a challenge. Download rankings are key to success since users trawl the most-popular lists for games.
"Although the top iPhone games are made by independents today, the big publishers will strike back," said Jeremy Liew, a managing director at Lightspeed Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that has invested in social gaming companies.
"The iPhone only offers one way for games to get discovered today, and that favors the cash-rich big publishers."
The big players "have a full marketing budget ... the minute an app starts dropping in ranking they'll go ahead and start pouring money into advertising to push that ranking up," said Krishna Subramanian, co-founder of analytics company Mobclix.
In contrast, smaller publishers tend to offer more free or 99-cent games to help push up download numbers.
Since its launch a year ago, the App Store has given birth to an entire industry of software developers. Stories of entrepreneurs working out of a garage who have gotten rich with an iPhone app have added to their mystique.
And there is financing to be had, most notably a $100 million iFund established by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The venture fund has invested in app developers like ngmoco.
Tapulous, creator of the popular "Tap Tap Revenge" game with 10 million users, has obtained angel investor funding and expects to be profitable by year's end.
"I think there's an opportunity for companies such as mine. If we can build a distribution channel and a brand, we can do well because we are more nimble," said Tapulous Chief Executive Bart Decrem.
GROWTH MARKET
Apple has sold more than 40 million iPhones and iPod Touches, with more than 1.5 billion apps downloaded. According to Mobclix, the average price paid for a game download is $1.79.
Electronic Arts claims to have the largest market share by revenue of any iPhone game maker, led by titles like "Tetris" and "Scrabble." EA said its iPhone business is profitable.
Adam Sussman, vice president of worldwide publishing for EA Mobile, said the barriers to entry on the iPhone are low but the real challenge is "accessibility and discoverability." Continued...
View article on single page
Share:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
Yahoo!
Facebook
LinkedIn
Next Article:
Eddie Bauer lenders aim to liquidate stores: report
also on reuters
Blog: Apple boasts 1.5 billion App sales
High-level jobseekers see good in recession: survey
Commentary: It’s tough to modify your way out of a hole
More Technology News
Author tackles Facebook, controversy with new book
It's iPhone Impressionism, courtesy of Christie's
BlackBerry for kids? Child asks creators
Microsoft Office users attacked by cybercriminals
Apps, tweets and websites for wine drinkers
More Technology News...
Editor's Choice
Slideshow
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow
Most Popular on Reuters
Articles
Video
Obama mulls rental option for some homeowners-sources
House bill to hit millionaires with 5.4 pct surtax
Iranian plane crashes after fire, killing 168 | Video
New Zealand quake tsunami warnings cancelled
Sotomayor cool under Republican grilling
"Harry Potter" poised to fetch princely sum
Microsoft CEO laughs off Google OS challenge
WHO says new flu "unstoppable", calls for vaccine
Obama to say some lost auto jobs not coming back
New flu resembles feared 1918 virus: study
Most Popular Articles RSS Feed
Video
Obama makes first pitch at All-Stars
Jet crashes in Iran, all feared dead
12 killed in latest Mexico violence
Sotomayor grilled
Reassurance after U.S. jet holed
Second night of Belfast violence
In search of an exit strategy
Obama sees jobless rate rising
Brandy settles lawsuit
Sotomayor grilled by Sen. Graham
Most Popular Videos RSS Feed
We want to hear from you
Join the Reuters Consumer Insight Panel and help us get to know you better
Please take a moment to complete our survey
Reuters.com:
Help and Contact Us |
Advertise With Us |
Mobile |
Newsletters |
RSS |
Labs |
Archive |
Site Index |
Video Index
Thomson Reuters Corporate:
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Professional Products |
Professional Products Support |
About Thomson Reuters |
Careers
International Editions:
Africa |
Arabic |
Argentina |
Brazil |
Canada |
China |
France |
Germany |
India |
Italy |
Japan |
Latin America |
Mexico |
Russia |
Spain |
United Kingdom |
United States
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.