1. technology and computing
2. consumer electronics
3. telephones
4. mobile phones
5. smart phones

Consumer Requirements
on Social Gaming
A qualitative study of person to person
communication aspects on multiplayer gaming
SUSANNA
LEIDEGRANT
Master of Science Thesis
Stockholm, Sweden 2007
Consumer Requirements
on Social Gaming
A qualitative study of person to person
communication aspects on multiplayer gaming
SUSANNA
LEIDEGRANT
Master’s Thesis in Business Development and Media Technology (20 credits)
at the School of Media Technology
Royal Institute of Technology year 2007
Supervisor was Christopher Rosenqvist, HHS
Examiner was Marko Turpeinen
TRITA-CSC-E 2007:092
ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--07/092--SE
ISSN-1653-5715
Royal Institute of Technology
School of Computer Science and Communication
KTH CSC
SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
URL: www.csc.kth.se
Konsumentkrav på Socialt Spelande
- En Kvalitativ Studie om Person till Person Kommunikationsaspekter på
Flerspelarspel
Sammanfattning
Idag står spelindustrin inför en stor förändring – onlinespelandet på PC- och
konsollplattformar har börjat sprida sig till ännu en platform, mobiltelefonen. Inom
en snar framtid kommer spelare ha möjlighet att träffas och spela multiplayerspel
oberoende om de spelar framför en PC, TV eller mobilskärm. Den här evolutionen
går under det gemensamma namnet ”Networked gaming”.
En kommande standard för mobil tjänstearkitektur, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS),
kommer dessutom göra det möjligt för utvecklare av multiplayer online- och
mobilspel att enkelt utforma spel integrerade med kommunikationfunktioner som
presence, push-to-talk och instant messaging, utan att behöva oroa sig om
interoperabilitetsproblem orsakade av privatägda lösningar. Detta i sin tur kommer
att leda till tids- och kostnadsbesparingar. Det sociala karaktärsdraget hos den här
typen av Networked gaming har lett till att termen Social Gaming (Socialt Spelande)
har använts under hela studien.
IMS är en stor vision. Det är standarden som industrin länge har väntat på. Men för
att försäkra morgondagens framgångsrika spelföretag, måste industrin vända sig till
marknaden och identifiera dess behov. De måste fråga – vad vill konsumenterna ha?
Med fokus på den plattform som orsakar de största begränsingarna – mobiltelefonen
- har det här exjobbets syfte varit att undersöka just den här frågan. Finns det ett
konsumentintresse av Socialt Spelande och hur ska den typen av spellösningar och relaterade tjänster
framgångsrikt utvecklas om man utgår från konsumenternas behov.
Efter att ha hållit fokusgrupper bestående av potentiella målgrupper så väl som
undersökt de möjligheter och den riktning i vilken trender inom industrin pekar, har
ett antal rekommendationer tagits fram.
Beroende på hur mycket åtagande konsumenterna kommer känna att det ligger
bakom att skicka spelinbjudningar till andra, är avgörande för om de kommer
använda tjänsten när som helst, med vem som helst och bara för skojs skull. Å andra
sidan kommer en för låg åtagandegrad minska spelinbjudningars värde. Det är en
balansakt som är avgörande för hur bekväm konsumenten kommer att bli med att
använda tjänsten och huruvida Socialt Spelande kommer att bli ett sätt att umgås
med de närmaste vännerna eller ett sätt att socialisera med en större umgängeskrets.
Att ha någon att spela mot kräver support antingen genom extistensen av en
spellobby bestående av en stor konsumentbas eller genom en Presence-EnabledPhonebook som hjälper spelare att hitta en potentiell motståndare bland de egna
kontakterna. Även om den största fördelen med Socialt Spelande kommer med att
det går att spela mellan två personer som befinner sig på olika platser, har de mest
populära scenariona visat sig vara de där spelarna är tillsammans - speciellt på
resande fot eller på semester.
En prisstrategi som förutspås att passa Socialt Spelande är ett koncept som går under
namnet Game Share. Konsumenten har då möjlighet att bjuda in vänner till att spela
ett spel kostnadsfritt tillsammans. Den inbjudne får då testa spelet innan köp vilket
får honom/henne att känna sig som vinnare.
Ett annat krav bland konsumenterna, vid Socialt Spelande, är möjligheterna till
röstkommunikation. Hur som helst så finns det tvivel om när detta skulle passa sig
att använda offentligt. Den generella trenden att integrera och samla olika typer av
innehåll är något som även har stora potential i samband med Socialt Spelande.
Fokusgrupperna visade till exempel ett stort intresse för att kunna lyssna på musik
samtidigt som de spelar ett spel.
På det hela stora så finns det ett intresse av Socialt Spelande, men konsumenternas
stora priskänslighet, den nuvarande uppfattningen av mobilspelskvalitet och
svårigheter i att hitta mobilspel som man vill ha kommer dock att hämma
framväxten.
Consumer Requirements on Social Gaming
- A qualitative study of Person to Person Communication Aspects on
Multiplayer Gaming
Abstract
Today the gaming industry is facing a big change – online gaming played on the PC
and console platforms is starting to migrate onto yet another platform, the mobile
phone. In the near future gamers will have the possibility to meet for multiplayer
game play independently if playing in front of the PC, the TV or mobile screen. This
evolution goes under the common name of Networked Gaming.
A new upcoming standard for mobile network service layer architecture, the IP
Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), will furthermore enable game developers of
multiplayer online and mobile games to easily design games integrated with
communication enablers such as presence, push-to-talk and instant messaging,
without having to worry about interoperability issues caused by proprietary solutions.
This in turn will lead to large time and cost savings. The social nature of this kind of
Networked gaming lead to the term Social Gaming being used during the whole
study.
IMS itself is a great vision. It is the standard that the industry for a long time has
been looking for. But to assure tomorrow’s successful gaming businesses, the
industry has to turn to the market and identify its needs. They have to ask – what do
the consumers want? With focus on the mobile handset, as it is this platform that
causes the biggest limitations, this Master Thesis aimed at investigating that very
question. Is there a consumer interest in Social Games and how should such gaming solutions and
related services be developed so that they by meeting the consumer requirements become successful?
After having conducted focus groups with potential consumers as well as looked at
the possibilities and the directions in which trends in the industry are pointing, a
number of recommendations could be proposed to support the consumer
requirements.
The use of the service is very much dependent on the grade of prior commitment
required of the consumers when sending game invitations to each other. A low grade
of prior commitment is more likely to have the consumers to use the service
whenever, with whoever, and just for fun. At the same time, if it will require to low
level of commitment, then the meaning of the game invitation will loose its value. It
is a balancing act that will decide how comfortable the consumers will be with the
service and whether Social Gaming will become a way to socialize with the circle of
closest friends or a way to socialize with many acquaintances. Having someone to
play against is a prerequisite that requires support either through a Presence-EnabledPhonebook that simplifies for the consumer to find a potential opponent among the
own contacts, or the availability of a game lobby with a big consumer base. Even
though that the biggest advantage with Social Gaming comes from it being playable
with someone at another location than yourself, the most popular scenarios would be
the ones when the gamers are together – especially when traveling together or on
vacation.
The concept of Game Share is a pricing strategy that is predicted to suit Social
Gaming very well. As the consumer has the possibility to invite friends to play a
game together without involving any costs for the recipient, they are enabled to test
the game before purchase which also makes them leave as winners.
Voice communication is yet another requirement, however there are some concerns
raised as to when this would be proper to use in public. The general trend of content
convergence does also hold big potential with Social Gaming, especially the feature
to listen to music while playing games is something that the focus group participants
showed great interest in.
In general there is an interest in Social Games, but the consumers’ high price
sensitivity, the present perception of mobile game quality and the difficulties in
content discovery will inhibit the service adoption.
Acknowledgements
There are many persons that have been instrumental in the completion of this Master
Thesis and consequently my Master of Science degree in Media Technology. This
section has been especially devoted to them.
I especially acknowledge the contribution of my supervisor at the Stockholm School
of Economics, Christopher Rosenqvist, for his encouragement and advice
throughout the duration of this project. I am also particularly grateful to my tutor at
Ericsson, Markus Nilsson, for giving me help, guidance and his insightful counterarguments to points I might otherwise have accepted as obvious.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Monika Hanson for her spiritual
support and keen insights into all kinds of technical and non-technical issues.
Lars Persson and Susanne Blanke at Ericsson have moreover both been to great help
by sharing their knowledge of the technical and design aspects of IMS based
Networked Gaming.
I continue expressing my sincere gratitude to the focus group participants that gave
me their valuable time and shared their true opinions and ideas with me. You are the
corner stones of this project and I could not have accomplished this project without
you.
However, without the knowledge and insightful information obtained during the
interviews with industry stakeholders I would by no means have had the proper base
to conclude this study. I am therefore immensely grateful for them taking their time
from their busy schedules.
I would also like to thank my peer group that has been revising my submitted
materials during the last couple of months, and Mats Roos at Ericsson and Lyle
Paczkowski at Sprint Nextel for the warm welcome in Kansas City and the inspiring
tour of the Sprint headquarters.
Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to my family and friends that have supported
me all along, as well as to you readers who decide upon exploring my work.
A big last thank you!
Reading Instructions
These reading instructions are to be seen as a help for the reader to navigate among
the chapters and fields of interest.
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION. This first chapter is a very concise introduction to
the research field and aims at explaining the background of this Master Thesis
including its aim and goal, and the questions at issue.
CHAPTER 2 - METHOD. Chapter two is recommended for the reader interested in
deployment of consumer focused research since it covers the cornerstones of this
study – the chosen methods and the carrying through itself. This is also one of the
key chapters for the ones that want to quickly obtain information on the
segmentation and session design of the focus groups in this study.
CHAPTER 3 – THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. The theoretical background provides
the reader with information for the justification of deploying a consumer focus in
today’s telecom businesses.
CHAPTER 4, 5 & 7– THE ONLINE GAMING INDUSTRY/THE MOBILE GAMING
INDUSTRY/ TRENDS AND TENDENCIES – THE INDUSTRIES’ PREDICTIONS AND
VISIONS. These three chapters provide a general overview of the two gaming
industries and based on stakeholder interviews discuss important consumer related
issues and inhibitors in each industry. The ones familiar with the two industries can
overlook chapter four and five. Chapter seven do on the other hand provide the
reader with the current consumer related trends on the Internet and within Online
and Mobile Gaming.
CHAPTER 6 – NETWORKED/SOCIAL GAMING. For the readers that are already
familiar with the online and mobile gaming this chapter is recommended. It discusses
the influence on the consumers that the emergence of the two industries will have.
CHAPTER 8 – THE GAMER. For those wanting to acquire more information on the
industry segmentation of gamers and the industry stakeholders’ thoughts of their
customers, this chapter is highly recommended.
CHAPTER 9, 10 & 11 – RESULTS/ANALYSIS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS/CONCLUSIONS. As the titles indicate, these chapters are
the most central in this report. Chapter 13 is recommended for the one that needs to
obtain the main conclusions fast.
CHAPTER 12 & 13 –SOURCE OF ERRORS/FURTHER RESEARCH. Finally the reader
has the possibility to gain information on possible future research as well as issues
that could be improved if the research was to be conducted on another time.
APPENDIX I – IMS. IMS is a very central concept in this study and for the reader
interested in obtaining more knowledge about IMS and how it will influence the
consumer this part of the appendix is highly recommended.
APPENDIX II-VI – SCENARIOS. To obtain a fast overview of the results, appendix
II to VI creates a good complement to the chapters, Analysis and Conclusions. Each
focus group has been depicted by a mind-map which creates an overview of what
was said during the focus groups concerning Social Gaming.
APPENDIX VII – PREPARATORY QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS. This part of appendix
provides the reader with information on the questionnaire and the results obtained
from it.
APPENDIX VIII – CASE STUDIES. For the ones interested in more specific examples
on consumer orientated gaming initiatives, there are five case studies to be found in
the appendix. During the research five specific initiatives were found of special
interest – Xbox Live Anywhere, The Sprint Game Lobby, Mobile Multiplayer
Gaming at Lunarstorm, Sony Ericsson and using content to increase the value of
handsets, and Telenor and the unblocking of the walled garden. These initiatives are
good examples on some important happenings in the industry.
APPENDIX IX – SCRIPT OF THE FOCUS GROUP SESSION. This is more hands-on
information on how the focus group sessions were designed and is therefore believed
to be of interest for the ones wanting to conduct focus groups of this kind.
APPENDIX X – EXAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS. Here the
reader will find examples on the most frequent questions used for the stakeholder
interviews.
Glossary
EXPLANATION OF TERMS AND CENTRAL CONCEPTS
Access Agnosticism A service may be used independent of connection – independent if
it is wireline, mobile or enterprise network WCDMA,
GSM/EDGE, broadband, WiMAX or Wifi,
Alternative costs
In economics it is the cost of something in terms of an opportunity
forgone (and the benefits that could be received from that
opportunity), or the most valuable forgone alternative, i.e. the second best
alternative.
ARPU
See Average Revenue Per User
Average Revenue Per A measure often used in the telecom industry and states how much
User
money a company makes from the average user.
Casual Gamers
A category of games with simple gameplay targeted at a mass
audience.
Digital Rights
Technologies that are used to protect content for digital
Management
distribution.
DRM
See Digital Rights Management
Game Share
A game related form of Super Distribution enabled by IMS and
based on two types of licenses. A gamer may invite a friend to a
game session for free (license A). For the friend to be able to send
game invitations to others he has to purchase license B.
Hardcore Gamers
Gamers who like to play games more than watching TV, going out,
etc. The driving force behind the games market.
IM
see Instant Messaging
IMS
IP Multimedia Subsystem. An upcoming standard for mobile
network service layer architecture. It does not offer new
applications in itself, but makes it possible to offer the same
application over different access networks and towards different
devices (TV, mobile, PC etc). This is the big difference between
existing proprietary solutions and the one proposed by IMS.
In-house:
Internal staff of developers
Instant Messaging
Electronic communication which involves immediate
correspondence between two or more users who are all online
simultaneously.
Internet Relay Chat
A multi-user chat system, where people meet on "channels"
(rooms, virtual places, usually with a certain topic of conversation)
to talk in groups, or privately. There is no restriction to the number
of people that can participate in a given discussion, or the number
of channels that can be formed on IRC.
Interoperability
The ability of two or more systems or components to exchange
information and to use the information that has been exchanged,
i.e. that a game works on mobile handsets of different models.
IRC
See Internet Relay Chat
Localization
Means of adapting products such as publications, hardware or
software for other nations and cultures.
Massively Multiplayer Usually involve role playing in fantasy worlds and have thousands
Online Game
or even hundreds of thousands gamers worldwide playing
simultaneously. Can be played over long periods of time.
Mobile Gaming
Mobile phone on which games can be played
Device
Mobile Multiplayer
Gaming
Gaming between two or more gamers using the mobile phone as
gaming platform.
MSN Messenger
A free instant messaging client that was developed and distributed
by Microsoft. In 2006 it was was renamed to Windows Live
Messenger as part of Microsoft's Windows Live series of online
services and software. Features included: support for voice
conversation, webcam, file transfer, and built-in two-player online
games. Messages can be enlivened with graphical emoticons (also
called smileys), Flash animations (winks), animated display pictures,
styled text, and many more with third-party add-ons.
Gaming on Internet sites where gamers may play (web games) with
others, independent location.
see Massively multiplayer online game
Online gaming that enables gamers to meet for multiplayer game
play independently platform, i.e. one can play the same game in
front of the computer, TV screen or on the mobile phone.
A limited number of console gamers compete over a shorter
amount of time.
Games played either via PCs and game consoles over broadband
networks where gamers may play with others, independent location.
Portable device on which games can be played – i.e. Nintendo DS
and PSP
A VoIP feature for voice communication in half-duplex similar to a
“walkie-talkie” service.
An advanced phone book on the mobile handset that enables
consumers to communicate with others by their set preferences.
The presence information indicates what that person is doing.
Includes communication options that seamlessly combine ongoing
voice sessions with multimedia elements or enrich shared
applications with voice communication (talking while playing a
multiplayer game)
A signalling protocol that is for creating session-oriented
connections between two or more endpoints in an IP
network. These endpoints could be IP telephones, instant
messaging clients or collaborative multimedia conference
application.
See The Session Initiation Protocol
Similar to the concept of Viral Marketing. The users themselves are
the marketers and create a buzz for the product or service. It
enables for example a user to purchase content and then send it to
a friend. As this content has Super Distribution rights associated to
it, the receiver will be able to access the file, but maybe only play
and review it once. To use it after that, the receiver has to purchase
a separate license for his or her own unlimited use.
As a value chain but with several of the stakeholders taking on
multiple roles and working with each other in many different ways.
Stands for Voice over IP and is the technology for digitizing
a person's voice and sending that digital information (data
packets) over the Internet.
Multiplayer Internet
Gaming
MMOG
Networked Gaming
Online Console
Gaming
Online Gaming
Portable Gaming
Device
Push-to-Talk
Presence Enabled
Phonebook
Session Initiation
Protocol
SIP
Super Distribution
Value Network
VoIP
Walled garden
Any environment that controls the user's access to Web content
and services. In this case it refers to the operator driven portals.
Table of Content
1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................ 1
1.1 Background....................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Problem............................................................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Aim and Goal.................................................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Delimitation........................................................................................................................................ 3
1.5 Target Group ..................................................................................................................................... 4
2. METHOD & REALIZATION .............................................................................. 5
2.1 Qualitative vs. Quantitative Studies ............................................................................................ 5
2.2 Key Map ............................................................................................................................................. 5
2.3 Desktop Research............................................................................................................................ 6
2.4 Pre-study Deep Interviews............................................................................................................. 7
2.5 Preparatory Questionnaire ............................................................................................................ 8
2.6 Focus Groups .................................................................................................................................... 8
2.7 Reliability .......................................................................................................................................... 16
2.8 Validity .............................................................................................................................................. 17
2.9 Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 18
3. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND..................................................................... 19
3.1 What Makes a Game a Game? ................................................................................................ 19
3.2 The Creation of Successful Mobile Services - The Importance of the Consumer ........ 20
3.3 Mobile Youth ................................................................................................................................... 22
3.4 Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 25
4. THE ONLINE GAMING INDUSTRY ................................................................ 26
4.1 Key Industry Facts and Market Predictions............................................................................. 26
4.2 Value Chain..................................................................................................................................... 27
4.3 The Traditional Business Model................................................................................................... 29
4.4 Pricing Models and Strategies.................................................................................................... 29
4.5 Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 31
5. THE MOBILE GAMING INDUSTRY ................................................................ 32
5.1 Key Industry Facts and Market Predictions............................................................................. 32
5.2 Value Chain..................................................................................................................................... 33
5.3 Traditional Business Models......................................................................................................... 37
5.4 Traditional Pricing Models............................................................................................................ 38
5.5 Challenges & Barriers of Use ....................................................................................................... 39
5.6 Design Rules to Follow .................................................................................................................. 45
5.7 Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 45
6. NETWORKED/SOCIAL GAMING ................................................................. 46
6.1 Key Industry Facts and Market Predictions............................................................................. 46
6.2 Network and Client Independency.......................................................................................... 47
6.3 Presence as the Generator of Game Opportunities ............................................................ 47
6.4 Game Share .................................................................................................................................... 47
6.5 IMS and Game Lobbies................................................................................................................ 48
6.6 In-game Communication............................................................................................................ 48
6.7 Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 49
7. TRENDS AND TENDENCIES– THE INDUSTRIES’ PREDICTIONS AND VISIONS50
7.1 Online Trends................................................................................................................................... 50
7.2 The Age of Online Gaming.......................................................................................................... 51
7.3 Mobile Gaming – Game Trends Going Mobile...................................................................... 57
7.4 Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 65
8. THE GAMER ................................................................................................. 67
8.1 Driving Forces – Why We Play Games...................................................................................... 67
8.2 The Console/PC Gamer ............................................................................................................... 68
8.3 The Segmentation of Mobile Gamers....................................................................................... 70
8.4 Children and Games .................................................................................................................... 71
8.5 The Female Gamer........................................................................................................................ 71
8.6 Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 76
9. RESULTS ........................................................................................................ 77
9.1 Main question: Is there a consumer interest in Social Games and how should such
gaming solutions and related services be developed so that they by meeting the
consumer requirements become successful? ............................................................................. 77
9.2 Sub-question 1: Which are today’s communication habits, mobile usage as well as
consumer related online and gaming trends, and how can these be translated into
peoples’ future consumption of mobile game services? ......................................................... 78
9.3 Sub-question 2: What problems do consumers have today when using their mobile
phones as gaming devices? ............................................................................................................. 82
9.4 Sub-question 3: Is there any interest in Social Gaming and in that case which are the
consumer requirements?.................................................................................................................... 85
9.5 Sub-question 4: What kind of pricing strategies should be used? ................................... 99
9.6 Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 99
10. ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................ 101
10.1 The Meaning of Social Gaming ............................................................................................. 101
10.2 The Importance of Introduction ............................................................................................. 101
10.3 Playing at home or just when commuting?........................................................................ 102
10.4 The Presence Enabled Phonebook....................................................................................... 102
10.5 Extended Turn-based Game Play......................................................................................... 103
10.6 Several Ways of Access........................................................................................................... 103
10.7 When the Gamer Base Is the Most Important .................................................................... 104
10.8 Game Share – Lowering the Bar ............................................................................................ 104
10.9 The Superior Computer ............................................................................................................ 105
10.10 Does the Requirement for Voice Communication Equal With Push-to-Talk? ......... 105
10.11 Focus on Developing Multiplayer Features for Familiar Games and Well-known
Game Concepts ................................................................................................................................. 105
10.12 Content convergence ........................................................................................................... 106
10.13 The Basic Barrier of Content Discovery.............................................................................. 106
10.14 Increasing the Awareness Among People that the Games Actually are THAT Good
................................................................................................................................................................. 106
10.15 Implementing “Experience” in Shopping and Content Discovery............................ 107
10.16 Creating the Notion of ”Local” ............................................................................................ 107
10.17 Other Findings........................................................................................................................... 107
11. CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................ 109
12. SOURCE OF ERRORS ............................................................................... 110
12.1 Interview....................................................................................................................................... 110
12.2 Preparatory Questionnaire...................................................................................................... 110
12.3 Focus Groups .............................................................................................................................. 110
12.4 Interpretation of the Author..................................................................................................... 111
13. FURTHER RESEARCH ................................................................................ 112
APPENDIX ...................................................................................................... 113
Appendix I: IMS ................................................................................................................................... 113
Appendix II – Scenarios: Males and Their Friends ..................................................................... 119
Appendix III – Scenarios: Females and Their Friends................................................................ 120
Appendix IV – Scenarios: Late Teens and Their Peers .............................................................. 121
Appendix V – Scenarios: The Couple Relationship ................................................................... 122
Appendix VI – Scenarios: Children & Parents ............................................................................. 123
Appendix VII – Results from the Preparatory Questionnaire Results..................................... 124
Appendix VIII: Case Studies ............................................................................................................ 136
Appendix IX: Script of the Focus Group Session........................................................................ 145
Appendix X: Example Questions for Stakeholder Interviews ................................................. 146
BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 147
1. Introduction
1. Introduction
This first chapter aims at explaining the background of this Master Thesis and
the reason for why it has been carried out. The reader is then presented with the
aim and the goal of the study, as well as the questions at issue that will be
addressed. The chapter will come to an end with the factors that delimit the
study.
1.1 Background
For ages, multiplayer gaming has fulfilled people's need for entertainment, socialization
and competition. Just take the ancient Olympic Games, or even chess which in its
modern form has existed for about 2000 years1. With the advent of the Internet, the
traditional way of playing multiplayer games experienced a change – people suddenly
had the possibility to connect over broadband networks and play with others on the
other side of the globe. Online gaming was born. The most popular Massively Multiplayer
Online Game (MMOG), World of Warcraft2, has more than 5.5 million subscribers
worldwide and generates the estimated $30 millions a month to its publisher Blizzard
Entertainment3.
Today we are standing on the eve of another major development. With the
convergence of the telecommunications and media industries, online gaming played
on the PC and console platform is starting to migrate onto yet another platform –
the mobile phone. In the near future gamers will have the possibility to meet for
multiplayer game play independently platform. This evolution goes under the
common name of networked Gaming.
The mobile gaming industry is still however very young. But even though we are only
three years into the mobile game market, the three-year-old is already receiving a lot
of attention. Both new and existing companies have started to identify new business
opportunities and potential revenue streams - especially as network capacity increases
and people are trading up their mobile phones and buying better, more game-capable
devices. We have already seen the big PC and console game companies Electronic
Arts, Microsoft, THQ and Sony entering the mobile gaming arena.4
Analysts forecast the networked gaming revenues to surpass traditional gaming
revenues in 2011 and that the mobile gaming market will remain one of the fastest
growing markets for the coming years5. The networked gaming industry is forecasted
to reach almost EUR30 billion in 2011, of which mobile gaming will constitute a bit
more than EUR17 billion6.
1
Source: Mary Billis, “The History of Puzzle, Card, and Board Games - The inventors behind life's greatest
diversions,” 2006,via About.com, accessed November 2006.
2
www.worldofwarcraft.com
3
Yuanzhe Cai, “Hello, What's Your Avatar?,” GameDailyBIZ, January 31, 2006,
http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/myturn/?id=11730, accessed January 2007.
4
Sue Marek, “Gaming under the Scope,” Wireless Week, March 20, 2006,
http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA6317303.html?spacedesc=Features, accessed Nov 2006.
5
Thomas Langer, Adrian Hopkinson, and Jonathan Crozier, WestLB, The third screen - New developments in
the mobile content industry, October 2005.
6
Matthew Hester, “Networked media market,” PowerPoint presentation, May 23rd 2006. Analysys Research
Limited.
-1-
1. Introduction
Until recently focus has been on mimicking PC and console games and the
capabilities of known gaming devices rather than on building on the social strengths
of the mobile phone.7 A new upcoming standard for mobile network service layer
architecture, the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)8, is however predicted to push the
mobile gaming industry in the right direction. By facilitating service integration,
content production and content management, IMS will enable game developers of
multiplayer online and mobile games to easily design games integrated with
communication enablers such as presence, push-to-talk and instant messaging,
without having to worry about interoperability issues caused by proprietary solutions.
This in turn will lead to large time and cost savings.
However, despite being said to enable cheaper and faster game development and
game related service creation, IMS will not by itself guarantee thriving businesses.
Technology driven companies have for a long time tended to develop services
because it has been technically possible. But even with large budgets and advanced
technology, many of these attempts have experienced grand failure. What had been
forgotten were the end users – the ones that actually were supposed to be the
consumers of these services. IMS itself is a great vision. It is the standard that the
industry for a long time has looked for. But to assure tomorrow’s successful gaming
businesses, the industry has to turn to the market and identify its needs. They have to
ask – what do the consumers want?
This report aims at investigating that very question with focus on multiplayer crossplatform gaming enhanced with communication features. Cross-platform, or platform
independency, implies that one can play the same game regardless gaming platform –
i.e. in front of the computer, TV screen or on the mobile phone. Imagine this. When
on the bus, Carl is playing a game on his mobile phone against his friend Jacob that is
playing exactly the same game but on his computer at home. When Carl gets home
he can continue the very same game session on his computer. This scenario
illustrates the possibilities that IMS brings with its platform independency. The
enrichment with communication features such as in game messaging and voice
communication, enables the players to as well communicate during the game session.
Due to the social nature of this kind of gaming, we will from now on refer to it as
Social Gaming9.
1.2 Problem
1.2.1 Main Question
o Is there a consumer interest in Social Games and how should such gaming
solutions and related services be developed so that they by meeting the consumer
requirements become successful?
7
Wireless World Forum, MobileYouth 2006, July 1, 2006.
Appendix I: IMS
Important to emphasize is that there are different definitions of Social Gaming. In this study the term will be
used to denote “multiplayer cross-platform gaming enhanced with communication features”.
8
9
-2-
1. Introduction
1.2.1 Sub-questions
The main question was divided in following sub-questions to be examined:
1. Which are today’s communication habits, mobile usage as well as consumer
related online and gaming trends, and how can these be translated into peoples’
future consumption of mobile game services?
2. What problems do consumers have today when using their mobile phones as
gaming devices?
3. Is there any interest in Social Gaming and in that case which are the consumer
requirements?
4. What kind of pricing strategies should be used?
1.3 Aim and Goal
Aim: The aim with this master thesis was to investigate the consumer interest in and
requirements on Social Gaming. To do so, consumer related online trends,
tendencies within the online gaming and mobile gaming industries, current
communication habits and mobile usage patterns were to be looked into.
Goal: The goal was to, based on the findings, make a recommendation on how
tomorrow’s Social Gaming solutions and related services should be developed so that
they by meeting the consumer requirements will become successful.
1.4 Delimitation
Mobile phones, as all other social tools, are shaped by social interaction. How they
change over time including trends, emergence of behaviors, usage patterns etc. is
therefore to a great deal influenced by the social dynamics of a market. Culture,
urban density and homogeneity of market are therefore important factors to keep in
mind when analyzing the shape that mobile trends will adopt. Another key factor is
the structure of governmental support. Growth in Asia has for example been driven
top-down with the government’s strong initiatives. These factors differ a lot between
the different continents which means that mobile trends and behaviors will take on
another shape in for example Europe compared to what they would in Japan and rest
of Asia.10 Due to the limited time frame within which this thesis was to be
conducted, it was decided to limit the research to the European market. By focusing
on one market, this will increase the reliability of the study.
Issues such as the smaller screen, harder to use input mechanism and lower network
capacity, makes the mobile platform which is the limiting factor to what can be
offered in the form of game services and game complexity, the study has therefore its
focus more shifted on the mobile gaming platform when identifying the consumer
requirements.
10
Wireless World Forum, MobileYouth 2006, July 1, 2006.
-3-
1. Introduction
Pervasive gaming11 in the sense of real-time multiplayer game experiences extended
in the physical world will not be investigated in detail within the framework of this
thesis. The reasons are the lack of tangible commercial services in the market and the
limited consumer base that it attracts. A second game genre, online gambling, will
neither receive any large focus in this study due to time restraints.
IMS is the technical solution on which Social Gaming can build upon. There are
however other ways to create multiplayer game services and the features offered by
IMS are all feasible with other solutions and are today in fact already handled in
different ways. What makes these solutions different from IMS, is that IMS does this
in a standardized way, creating the foundation for access agnosticism and
interoperability. In other words, with IMS it becomes possible to offer the same
application over different access networks and on different devices (TV, mobile, PC
etc). This is the big difference between existing proprietary solutions and the one
proposed by IMS. This report is however not aiming at investigating whether or not
IMS is the best solution. The parts in this report regarding IMS and gaming should
therefore be seen as examples on the possibilities with Social Gaming and not
specifically IMS based gaming.
1.5 Target Group
The main intention with this thesis is to generate valuable research information and
conclusions for the people at Ericsson involved in the development of the
company’s future gaming solutions and strategies. It is also intended to be of great
value for people working in the mobile gaming business, as well as the game and
telecom industry as a whole, including carriers, developers, service creators and
publishers of mobile, console and computer games. The report has at the same time
been written to provide those without any prior knowledge of the field, with fast
hands-on knowledge. Terms and concepts have therefore been explained to facilitate
a fast learning curve.
11
www.pervasive-gaming.org
-4-
2. Method
2. Method & Realization
This chapter aims at giving an overview of the chosen methods and the carrying
through itself. The reader will be informed of the cornerstones of the research,
including a desk-top research, followed by an interview based pre-study and in
conclusion five focus groups with preparatory questionnaires. The chapter does
also contain the portrayal of the five focus groups, including their specific
characteristics and gaming habits.
2.1 Qualitative vs. Quantitative Studies
There are two ways in which to approach a scientific problem, either through
Qualitative or Quantitative studies (see Table 1 for a comparison). A qualitative study
is all about obtaining a complete and detailed description of the subject being
examined. Quantitative analysis on the other hand are used when the researcher
already knows well in advance what he or she is looking for and in most cases are
aiming at a generalization of that specific phenomenon.12
QUALITATIVE VS. QUANTITATIVE
o Deep insights due to richness and
precision
o Analysis of words, pictures or objects
o Recommended during earlier phases
of research projects
o Researcher may only know roughly in
advance what he/she is looking for.
o The design emerges as the study
unfolds.
o Statistically reliable and generalisable
results
o Analysis of numerical data
o Recommended during latter phases of
research projects
o Researcher knows clearly in advance
what he/she is looking for.
o All aspects of the study are carefully
designed before data is collected
Table 1: Qualitative and Quantitative studies
(Source: Patel, Runa, and Bo Davidson. Forskningsmetodikens Grunder : Att Planera, Genomföra Och
Rapportera En Undersökning. 2nd ed. Sverige: Studentliteratur, 1994.)
As the result of this study was not at all anticipated, i.e. without any hints of what the
outcome could be, it was decided to carry out a qualitative study based on deep
interviews and focus groups to answer the proposed problem definition. What has to
be pointed out though, is that the questionnaire by no means has any generalizing
power. First in a later stage, the work conducted within the frames of this master
thesis could be the basis for a quantitative study where the results could be
generalized.
2.2 Key Map
PRE-STUDY
FIELD STUDY
PREPARATORY SURVEY
FOCUS GROUPS
DESKTOP RESEARCH
ANALYSIS
Figure 1: Key map over the study
12
Runa Patel and Bo Davidson, Forskningsmetodikens grunder : Att planera, genomföra och rapportera en
undersökning. 2nd ed.(Sverige: Studentliteratur, 1994).
-5-
2. Method
The master thesis started with a desktop research, which after a period of two weeks
passed on to be one of the activities that run continuously in the background during
almost the whole research phase. At the same time a pre-study was initiated,
consisting of deep interviews with key stakeholders from the game industry and
telecom business. The core of the research was however the five focus group
sessions that were conducted after a preparatory questionnaire. The findings from
the five studies were then analyzed in the final phase - the analysis (see Figure 1 for
graphical overview).
2.3 Desktop Research
2.3.1 Methodology
A desktop research is typically performed to retrieve more in-depth information
about a topic by using secondary resources such as for example literature and analysis
reports. Utilizing multiple databases or information sources is necessary for optimal
success.
2.3.2 Aim
The aim with the desktop research was to obtain sufficient knowledge on specific
topics necessary for the execution of the pre-study as well as for the decision of the
focus group constellations. Central topics to be investigated were consumer related
concepts, emerging online trends and tendencies in the mobile and online gaming
industry. In addition an overarching knowledge was to be gained about the two
above mentioned industries including their consumers.
2.3.3 Realization
The access to the Ericsson intranet proved being a valuable source to:
o Industry reports and analysis from external sources (including prevailing business
models, value chains, pricing strategies and pricing models)
o Mobile consumer reports
o Analysis regarding pricing strategies for mobile services
o IP Multimedia Subsystem
o Consumer barriers of use regarding mobile applications and mobile Internet
o Reports on game as well as mobile game consumption.
Online blogs and specialized Internet sites were consulted when in search for deeper
insights and hands-on information about topical trends, concepts, consumer
behavioral patterns and tendencies within the telecom and game industry. The
Internet was also used to gain information about forecasts on future scenarios and
game development.
In addition the book “Mobile Media Applications” by Andersson, Freeman, James,
Johnston and Ljung13 provided a vast amount of information about both technology
and business aspects regarding the development of mobile applications.
13
C. Andersson et al., Mobile Media and Applications, From Concept to Cash: Successful Service Creation and
Launch (Chicester: John Wiley & Sons, 2006)
-6-
2. Method
2.4 Pre-study Deep Interviews
2.4.1 Methodology
Deep interviews are a qualitative method used not to obtain data for comparison
purposes, but to obtain as many unique points of view and personal information on
how the individual is looking at the different areas of interest14. To allow focused but
conversational two-way communication, deep interviews are recommended to be
conducted in an open and semi-structured way. The questions are prepared in
advance, but their order is decided during the interviews themselves. Not all
questions are however formulated ahead of time. With new facts being revealed
during the interview sessions, it may require additional questions which have not
been prepared in advance.
In this case, we as a researcher were not aware of what we knew and therefore we
had to rely on the interviewees – i.e. the industry stakeholders - to tell us. Conducting
deep interviews was therefore a suitable method to practice, as it allowed us to obtain
information that we not explicably have had to ask about.
2.4.2 Aim
Together with findings from the desktop research, the pre-study aimed at:
o identifying online trends and how the stakeholder attitude looks like towards
those
o identifying present consumer related tendencies within the mobile gaming
industry and the online gaming industry
o obtaining knowledge about the online and mobile gaming markets and their
consumers
o obtaining a base for the choice of relevant focus group constellation
2.4.3 Realization
A number of standard questions were formulated prior to the interviews. During the
interview sessions additional questions were asked to obtain more in-depth
information. As new information and insights were reveled, new questions were
added and other removed or modified. All the topics were therefore not discussed
with all the stakeholder representatives. Example questions used for the interviews
can be found in Appendix X.
The very first interview was held with Henrik Thorstensson to identify on-line tracks
as well as tendencies and issues regarding the game industry. Henrik Thorstensson
works with business development at the community Stardoll and writes a blog about
online trends. The following interviewees were chosen so that large parts of the
online gaming and mobile gaming value chains would be represented. Due to time
restraints, representatives from all stakeholders were not interviewed. Information
obtained from those that got interviewed, was however sufficient to create a good
understanding of the online gaming industry and the current tendencies.
14
Runa Patel and Bo Davidson, Forskningsmetodikens grunder : Att planera, genomföra och rapportera en
undersökning, 2nd ed.(Sverige: Studentliteratur, 1994).
-7-
2. Method
For information about the interviewed stakeholder representatives the reader is
referred to Figure 3/Table 14 (page 27) and Figure 4/Table 15 (page 49). All the
interviews were performed in person, except for one telephone interview with Klas
Karlsson at Lunarworks and three mail interviews with Juri Engeström at Jaiku,
Patrik Johansson at Bergsala and Joe Ariganello at Sprint. The length of the
interviews was from 40 minutes to 2 hours and the majority of them were recorded.
2.5 Preparatory Questionnaire
2.5.1 Methodology
Questionnaires have a high degree of standardization as it is the researcher that
decides the wording and the order of the questions. This in turn enables having each
respondent to answer identical questions in the same order. Questionnaires that in
addition have a high degree of structuring by consisting of questions that have fixed
answer alternatives, make the results being suited for quantitative analysis.15
2.5.2 Aim
The aim with the questionnaire was to obtain more information about the focus
group participants prior to the actual focus group sessions and in this way save
valuable focus group time for discussion of more important nature. Furthermore it
let us obtain individual information not influenced by other participants. The
questionnaire has by no means any generalizing power as it was only answered by the
in total 34 focus group participants.
2.5.3 Realization
The type of questionnaire that was chosen was Internet-based instead of a more
traditional telephone or mail questionnaire. Prior to the focus group sessions, the
respondents were sent an e-mail message with a link to the URL address for the
questionnaire. This kind of questionnaire offered great advantages in terms of data
analysis since the responses easily could be downloaded into a spreadsheet.
The questionnaire was divided into 3 logical parts - Communication habits, Games
and Mobile games. In total 22 questions were formulated. The questions and the
wording were revised in several rounds by posting the preliminary questionnaire in
different game- and community related forums. By giving the respondents the
possibility to leave their own alternative answers other than the ones proposed, these
could in turn supplement the questions that had been created based on the findings
from the deep interviews and the desktop research. For the questions included and
the results obtained from the questionnaire, the reader is referred to Appendix VII.
2.6 Focus Groups
2.6.1 Methodology
Focus groups is a qualitative method that is conducted in the form of structured
group interviews with 6 to 10 participants (4-5 is a mini focus group). As there are
15
Runa Patel and Bo Davidson, Forskningsmetodikens grunder : Att planera, genomföra och rapportera en
undersökning. 2nd ed.(Sverige: Studentliteratur, 1994).
-8-
2. Method
no restrictive cross questions and as the participants are encouraged to discuss with
each other to create group interaction, focus groups usually create a more natural
environment than individual interviews. The focus group participants are influencing
and are influenced by others, just in the same way as they are in real life.
Focus groups aim at generating multiple views and attitudes, opinions, ideas,
experiences and therefore very insightful information.16 By taking a step back, the
moderator will make it possible for the participants to discuss between each other,
but still keep the sessions focused. It will therefore be very important to create a
relaxed environment for the focus group sessions, so that the participants feel
comfortable expressing their opinions and thoughts. In some cases it is desirable to
conduct focus groups without telling the participants what they will talk about, but in
most cases it is not. Many decisions are made after conscious reflection, over time,
when having talked with other people or in groups.17
One drawback is that focus groups, as they are a qualitative methodology, can never
represent a larger population. Focus groups are neither a reliable method to
determine an individual’s authentic point of view as social norms get in the way.18
2.6.2 Aim
The main objective of the focus groups was to investigate the interest in Social
Gaming on the mobile platform and to identify consumer requirements and demands
on such gaming solutions. As mobile gaming was studied in the context of means of
communication – thereby the term Social Gaming – the participants’ communication
habits were discussed as well as their demands on tools for social interaction with
friends, family, partner, acquaintances and in some extent strangers. Consequently, an
understanding was to be acquired of how mobile gaming could be transformed into a
tool for social interaction and how it has to be designed so that it would appeal to a
mass market audience.
As will be explained in the theoretical background covered in chapter 3, successful
services usually build on existing behaviors. Since the main use of the mobile handset
still will be for communication - with gaming as a part of the value proposition - it is
explicable to know how current communication tools are being used, for what
information and with whom. By having the participants’ discuss their communication
habits and their demands on tools for social interaction with friends, family, partner,
acquaintances and in some extent strangers, an understanding was acquired of how
mobile gaming can be transformed into a tool of social interaction and how it has to
be designed so that it will appeal to a mass market audience.
2.6.3 Segmentation of Target Groups
As the best results usually tend to derive from homogenous focus groups and the
aim was to get a cross section of views from a diverse population, it was necessary to
conduct multiple focus group sessions. Due to the personal nature of the mobile
phone, playing Social Games against a friend or family member was believed to be
more viable than playing against a stranger in a game lobby. It was therefore decided
at an early stage of the study that each and every focus group was to deal with a
16
Lia Litosseliti, Using focus groups in research, (London: Continuum International Publishing, 2003).
George Silverman, “How to Get Beneath the Surface in Focus Groups,” Market Navigation Inc.,
http://www.mnav.com/bensurf.htm, accessed September 2006.
18
Ibid
17
-9-
2. Method
different kind of relationship. The five constellations were then chosen based on the
findings from the desktop research and the pre-study (see Chapter 3, Theoretical
Background, and chapter 9, The Gamer, for these findings).
The segmentation is illustrated in Figure 2 on the basis of a report by the mobile
operator Telenor19. In this report, Telenor has segmented mobile subscribers into
five life phases Youth, Establishment, Family, Good life and Senior. As our model is to
represent both gaming and mobile gaming consumers, some modifications had to be
made; a Childhood segment was added, and the Good life and Senior segments were
merged together into one.
1. PHASE IN LIFE. Which phase in life a person currently is at reflects the types of
relationships that for him or her are the most valued. Phase in life is also correlated
with the lifetime value to mobile service providers as it decreases rapidly with age.
In addition three other parameters are used to describe the segmentation. Together
with Phase in life these parameters were found the most important when determining
potential target groups for Social Gaming and consequently the constellations.
2. INTEREST IN GAMES. To obtain valuable insight and feedback from the
participants it is important that they hold a certain degree of interest in games.
3. ADOPTION RATE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES. Degree of openness to
new technology is important in the identification of potential early adopters.
4. PURCHASING POWER. This variable decides the way in which the different
target groups consume a service as well as the influence of other qualities.
5
12
Childhood
25
Youth
35
Establishment
55
Family
Phase in life (age)
”Good life”/ Senior
Interest in games
+
Parents &
the best
friend
-
-
Life time value
Class
mates &
friends
Partner &
children
Friends &
partner
Partner, Circle of
friends & family
Important relationships
+
Purchasing power
Adoption rate
+
Figure 2: Segmentation model
1. The different phases in life are illustrated by the main axis represented by five boxes
Childhood – “Good life”/Senior. The different ages that each and every phase comprises are
written above each phase. “Life time value” and “Important relationships” are two important
elements of the factor “Phase in Life” and have therefore been added in the figure.
2. The degree of “Interest in games” is represented by the shade on the main axis “Phase in
life” – the darker colour the bigger the interest.
3. & 4. “Adoption rate” and “Purchasing power” are demonstrated by the two last axes.
The purple shading shows the area of interest from which the target groups have been selected.
19
Caroline H. Heitmann, ”Telenor Norge – Mobil,” PowerPoint presentation, Norsk Markedsanalyse
Forening, http://www.markedsanalyse.org/login/seminar/att/65_A3yhrf.ppt, accessed December 2006.
- 10 -
2. Method
WOMEN AND THEIR FRIENDS FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT SEGMENT. This group
was interesting to examine due to the fact that the game industry always have had
difficulties in attracting more females to the world of gaming. What is even more
interesting is that recently women have started to show a large interest in games.
Table 2 presents some of the interesting findings concerning women and gaming
which clarify why this specific target group is of interest. More information on the
female gamer can be found in the chapter 8.5 The Female Gamer.
Based on this and to ensure as much valuable feedback as possible, it was decided to
conduct one of the focus groups with women that already are gamers of different
categories.
Why this target group?
o Women and casual gamers will drive mobile games revenues over the next three years.*
o 69% of the mobile gamers in the US are women.*
o Women spend more time playing mobile games than men.**
o The mobile phone could be a more suitable gaming device for womeno The console and PC games The Sims, SingStar and World of Warcraft have been very
popular among women.
o Women aged 30-40 years account for a significant segment of web game enthusiasts,
playing everything from solitaire and puzzles to casino and retro shoot-em-up
classics.***
*Source: Juniper Research **Source: Yankee Group ***Source: Imedia connection
Table 2: Facts about women and gaming
Group constellation:
o 5 females, ages 28-40 years
o Higher education
o Big interest in games, due to that
they either:
>> have an interest in game
programming
>> are hard core console gamer
>> work with game development
>> work to support and strengthen
women’s positions in the gaming
industry
>> are heavy mobile gamers
o Adult Pioneers/early majority
regarding Internet and mobile
services, as well as computer
applications
Table 3: Group constellation of the Female focus
group
The participants share a large interest in
games. The majority are PC and console
gamers, whereas one is a heavy mobile
gamer with the longest time played on the
mobile being between 46 minutes to 2
hours. The frequency of playing games is
either almost every day a week or 1-2 days a
week. See Table 3 for more information on
the group constellation.
- 11 -
2. Method
MEN AND THEIR FRIENDS FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT SEGMENT. There were two
thoughts behind having this specific constellation for the second focus group. First
of all, as a female group had been formed, it was of great interest to have a male
group to compare the results with. As seen women in games are showing very
different behavioral patterns especially when it comes to choice of platform and
types of games.
The second reason was not related with the gender of the participants, but instead
with other characteristics such as interest in new technology and trends as well as
larger purchasing power than the younger male teens (Table 4 ). These characteristics
were hoped to prove the participants belonging to the early majority or even the early
adopters when it comes to mobile services.
Why this target group?
o Belong to the ”active (traditional) gamer” segment - 30 and 35% of the market
o Are or have been avid PC and console gamers
o Larger purchasing power than male teens
o For them the mobile becomes an alternative channel for gaming
Table 4: Facts about men and gaming
What made the focus group even more interesting was the constellation of this
specific group. It was evident that this group of friends was split in smaller subgroups, supposedly due to the different ways in which they had gotten to know each
other - either through work, university or that they went back a long time.
Both extremes could be found in the group – the ones for which it was a great barrier
to start playing games and others that even could easily see themselves playing
against strangers.
Group constellation:
o 9 males, ages 26-30 years
(establishment segment)
o 2 Brand consultants - 2 ADs
o 1 Private equity - 4 IT consultants
o Higher education
o Career orientated
o Adult Pioneers regarding Internet
services and computer applications
o Early majority regarding mobile
applications
o Majority very open-minded to new
Table 5: Group constellation of the Male focus
group
Most participants started playing games at a
young age and are still playing on consoles,
computers or portable devices. See Table 5
for more information about this specific
group constellation.
- 12 -
2. Method
LATE TEENS AND THEIR PEERS FROM THE YOUTH SEGMENT. This group is the
early adopters when it comes to new technology. Despite not having the economy
most of the time to afford the latest trends, they however introduce to and inspire
both their younger and older peers. A new product or service will not be taken up by
the early majority without being accepted by the innovators and early adopters first.
Young pioneers as these late teens, are not afraid of telling their point of view and
are at the same time the ones that have the strongest interest in new and fun services
including music downloads and games etc. All these facts (summarized in Table 6)
sum up to that late teens are a highly interesting target group for data services
including Social Gaming.20 More information about Youth and mobile consumption
is found in the theoretical background, chapter 3.3 Mobile Youth.
Why this target group?
o Belong to the young pioneers – youth are the early adapters of mobile services
o Hard core console gamers with big interest in connected games
o Limited purchase power but make up the main target group for mobile content
o Influence younger and older teens
o Youth provide invaluable insight into how a value added services can be best deployed
Table 6: Facts about youth and mobile services/gaming
This group of late teens was characterized by a high level of computer knowledge as
well as familiarity with games. The majority of the participants are hardcore gamers,
including both those playing all different kind of games to those playing specific
games such as Massively Multiplayer Online Games or even more specifically, one
particular game such as Super Mario Party.
There is a difference between the way that the females and the males are involved in
playing games – the females play with a close group of friends (mostly platform and
arcade games) whereas the males play online to a greater extent. All the participants
play either on consoles, computers or portable gaming devices.
Playing mobile games is however not as widespread among the participants in the
Late Teen focus group. One of the female teens mentioned that she had enjoyed
playing on the N-Gage when it first was launched, but that the device design was
lacking severely in different ways. It was simply not designed for what the games
demanded which decreased the life time of the device. See Table 7 for more
information about this specific group constellation.
Group constellation:
o 3 females, 4 males, ages 18-19 years
(youth segment)
o Group of friends from the same
Computer science high school class
o Majority avid gamers
o Massive multiplayer online games
common among the male participants
o Have been active in communities
o Signs on that the cost for portable
devices has stopped for teens to bring it
with them.
Table 7: Group constellation of the Late Teen focus group
20
C. Andersson et al., Mobile Media and Applications, From Concept to Cash: Successful Service Creation and
- 13 -
2. Method
THE PARTNER RELATIONSHIP FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT SEGMENT.
Mobile communication is very
significant and well-suited for the most Why this target group?
o They communicate frequently already
intimate form of relationships - the
partner relationship. The mobile
o Distance relationships and foreign
connections – a way to do something more
handset enables them to communicate
both general as personal information,
o Greater purchasing power than the late
exchange thoughts and feelings, or
teens, even though some are still studying
simply organize their daily needs
Table 8: Facts about the partner relationship
(Table 8).
One of the main reasons for choosing this focus group constellation was the interest
in trying the concept of Social Gaming on long distance relationships as well as on
couples where one or both are traveling a lot. As the focus in this focus group is on
couples and them playing Social Games, there has been an attempt not to involve
friends and family members as potential opponents in the discussion. Consequently
there has not been any deeper investigation of how Social Gaming could suit the
needs of socializing with family and friends abroad.
In the partner relationships the males where the only ones playing on consoles and
computers, whereas the females did not show any interest in the above mentioned.
See Table 9 for more information about this specific group constellation.
Group constellation:
o 3 couples, ages 24-30 years
o Career orientated
o Hectic lifestyles (studies, work or
even both)
o Majority with technology
backgrounds
o 5 out of 6 with foreign origin (living
in Sweden since 0-6 years back)
o Adult Pioneers regarding Internet
services and computer applications
Table 9: Group constellation of the Partner Relationship focus group
CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS FROM
THE FAMILY SEGMENT. Children in the
ages 4 to 9 already play games on
portable consoles such as Game boys
and Nintendo DS. What is more, mobile
phone usage is becoming more common
among this younger generation. These
two reasons makes them to possible
candidates for Social Gaming.
See Table 10 and chapter 5.4 Children
and Games for more facts on why this
target group is of interest.
Why this target group?
o Children already play on portable gaming
devices
o Keeping in touch with hard working
parents
o Mobile usage starts in young ages
o Parents pay the children’s mobile bill
o The active/mobile family
Table 10: Facts about children and their parents
and mobile services/gaming
Launch (Chicester: John Wiley & Sons, 2006)
- 14 -
2. Method
However, individuals in a target group must have the authority to purchase the
specific service, and there are many ethical, economic and social questions regarding
addressing children as consumers. This concludes to another approach when putting
together this specific focus group. The parents cannot be excluded in the purchasing
process – both in their roles as direct or indirect purchasers. This motivates for a
mixed focus group consisting of both children and their parents. The consumer role
will therefore be shared by both of them, letting us to examine both the child’s and
the parent’s purchase role. Furthermore it would be interesting to investigate if there
would be any potential for Social Gaming as a way for hard-working parents to keep
in touch with their children.
All the children that participated in
the focus group have portable gaming
devices such as Nintendo DS and
Gameboy. They play about one hour
once or twice a week, either by
themselves or in turns with their
parents or siblings – one play as the
other watches. The one tending to
master a certain level better than the
others, is the one that gets to play.
The games that are played are more
or less the same, all very famous titles
Group constellation:
and the majority based on movies
o Group constellation:
such as Ice Age 2, Pokémon and
o 2 girls, 1 boy, ages 8-9 years
Harry Potter. The play games when
o Group of friends from the same class, 3rd
they are bored and without anything
year Elementary school
else to do. The parents and the
children do see portable gaming
o All the children are owners of portable
gaming devices (Nintendo DS and
devices as a great asset when being
Gameboy)
abroad or traveling longer distances.
On these occasions even some of the o 2 mothers, 1 father, ages 47-51 years
parents play with their children.
o Families belonging to middle-upper class
Traditional board games are however
o Business travels are common
preferred at home.
Table 11: Group constellation of the Children and
Parents focus group
The parents strongly believe in balancing as they all identify games as something
habit-forming. They have both experienced their older children’s increased game
playing as well as themselves getting absorbed by such games as Tetris and Solitaire
which they sometimes play on the computer. One of the parents do however believe
that there is a difference between the genders as he has not yet experienced such a
problem with his daughter, compared to his older son.
See Table 11 for more information about this specific group constellation.
- 15 -
2. Method
2.6.4 Realization
THE FOCUS GROUP DESIGN
Size
Length
Number of sessions
Participants
Forms of data
Data collection
Moderator
Observer
6-10 per session
1,5 to 2 hours
5
o Selected by invitation only
o Based on similar characteristics – the same kinds of
relationships:
1. Women and their friends
2. Men and their friends
3. Late teens from the same high school class
4. Partner relationships
5. Children and their parents
o Conversation
o Silences
o Body language
o Jokes
o Videotape
o Transcribe
o Flexible but focused
o Modifies based on early sessions (which will show in
differences between information gained from the
different sessions)
o In the background
o Facilitates for the Moderator and decreases the else
disturbing interruptions (i.e. changing tapes etc)
Table 12: Focus Group Design
As the focus groups followed a very open design with only the larger guidelines being
decided upon in advance, the participants were encouraged to by themselves raise
and discuss different topics. To reach a greater depth the participants were informed
of the theme and purpose of the focus groups in advance.
As the concept of Social Gaming on the mobile platform, most likely would be very
unfamiliar to most of the participants, some special techniques were used in the
focus group to facilitate interaction, stimulation and revelation.
See Table 12 for the focus group session design and Appendix IX for the session
script.
2.7 Reliability
Reliability implies that if a researcher would perform the same study, he or she would
reach the same results.
The importance of high reliability justifies the conducted industry analysis as it
explains the prevalent situation. Since the online and mobile gaming industry is
facing a big change with IMS, it would be hard to conduct a similar research in
general after that this change has occurred. Today this kind of cross-platform gaming
- 16 -
2. Method
is still in its early stage and the focus group participants were not expected to have
any prior experience of Social Gaming. The information shared with them was
furthermore very limited in order to not constrain them in their discussions.
However, if such a study would be conducted in a couple of years, when this kind of
gaming services would have become a triviality in everyday life, it would most likely
generate very different results. By detailed documentation of the current situation as
well as the deployment of the study, the reliability is increased.
In addition, when designing the preparatory questionnaire and the interview
questions, pilot tests where conducted and consultation with supervisors was done to
identify mistakes in formulations and design and then to be corrected before the
actual send-out. The interviews where furthermore recorded when the situation
allowed it, to ensure that nothing would escape the interviewer.
Even though additional questions were added and others were modified to suit the
specific interviews, the basis of the interviews was a number of standardized
questions. This enabled the researcher to confirm information as well as making
comparison between the information gained from different stakeholders. The
researcher did also aim at not leading the interviewee so that true opinions and
thoughts would be obtained.
2.8 Validity
With validity one means to which extent the used research method succeeds in
answering the problem - in other words, that what is to be measured is really
measured. Validity also implies to which extent the performed study can be
generalized.
Relying on primary source material by conducting focus groups and interviews in
person, made it possible to focus on the research question and explore it more in
detail. This in turn increased validity. With such a topical subject as Social Gaming
being researched, turning directly to the source was also important to be able to
obtain up-to-date information. This was achieved through focus groups and
interviews in person.
By using several methods in the survey to examine the same things a greater validity
has been reached. It has enabled us to confirm observations made with one method,
with another. The same applies to the use of several focus groups, as it enables us to
compare results also between groups.
- 17 -
2. Method
2.9 Summary
To summarize this chapter and by that the carrying through of this qualitative study
we are using Figure 2.
step 4
ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS
step 3
FOCUS GROUPS
step 2
IDENTIFICATION OF TRENDS
ONLINE AND IN THE INDUSTRY
IDENTIFICATION OF FOCUS
GROUP CONSTELATIONS
CASE STUDIES
step 1
INTERVIEWS WITH INDUSTRY
STAKEHOLDERS
DESKTOP RESEARCH
Figure 2: Scheme over the study
- 18 -
3. Theoretical Background
3. Theoretical Background
The theoretical background consists of three different areas that provide an
understanding for why it is important to deploy consumer focus in today’s
telecom businesses and consequently why the consumer focus of this study is
justified. The facts obtained have had great importance in the decision making
regarding the focus group constellations. The first area concerns game
mechanisms and how the adoption of these in services and applications is slowly
erasing the border between games and virtual communities. The second area
regards the importance of the consumers in service creation and the reasons for
why they have to be involved during the whole development. The third area is
about the young consumers – the mobile youth.
3.1 What Makes a Game a Game?
Game
1. something played for fun: an activity that people participate in,
together or on their own, for fun
2. competitive activity with rules: a sporting or other activity in which
players compete against each other by following a fixed set of rules
3. competition: an occasion when a competitive game is played
Definition of a “game”.
(Source: "Game." Def.1, 2, 3. Encarta Online Dictionary.)
An online presentation by the design studio Shufflebrain discusses the use of game
mechanics in the creation of fun, compelling and addictive applications and services.
Doing so, they create an understanding for multiplayer games and games in general
as well as why it is getting harder to draw a line between games and community
driven online activities today (exemplified with Image 1 and 2). Section 3.1.1 is based
on the findings from their presentation by the name “Putting the Fun in Functional”.
Image 1: The virtual community Habbo hotel
(Source: Sulake Corporation Ltd., “Habbo Hotel,”
The Swedish Habbo Hotel site,
http://www.habbo.com/hotel, accessed January 2006.
Image 2: The online multiplayer game The Sims online
(Source: Electronic Arts, “Screenshots,” The Sims
Online site, http://www.ea.com/official/thesims/
thesimsonline/us/home.jsp, accessed January 2006.)
Where is the border between a video game and a virtual community – i.e. the game The Sims online and the
community Habbo hotel?
- 19 -
3. Theoretical Background
3.1.1 Game Mechanisms
A game can be seen as a system, a structured experience, which engages players in an
entertaining artificial conflict with rules and goals21. In multiplayer games there is in
addition a social side. Five game mechanisms are said to make up this structure:
1. COLLECTING. An example of collecting games is collector cards, i.e. hockey and
Pokémon cards. “Bragging rights” are obtained by achieving as large of an
amount as possible or just simply to acquire the whole collection. This collecting
mechanism has been implemented successfully by for example communities such
as MySpace where members are collecting friends.
2. POINTS are an easy way to keep score in a game and constitute at the same time
the goal – i.e. to reach the highest score possible. This game mechanism has been
adopted in the form of voting on sites such as YouTube where people may vote
on other members’ uploaded photos, videos etc. The most interesting or fun
content receives the highest scores. Game lobbies and other communities online
do also reward their users with points according to their activity, increasing in
this way the value of the community and consequently customer loyalty.
Members may in addition have the possibility to rate each other. Points and highscores then lead to the creation of leader boards.
3. FEEDBACK in the form of sound, explosions and other notifications enhances
the gaming experience and may make everyday tasks more fun – e.g.
bjornsbytare.se the online marketplace for housing bjornsbytare.se that makes
search for housing more entertaining.
4. EXCHANGES. Giving and receiving can take on many forms in games and
communities as for example by trading of items or taking turns in chess.
5. CUSTOMIZATION. To customize game characters or the own community page,
almost in the same way as doing with ones desktop on the computer, is
something that has grown immensely popular. This increases time investment
and engagement, which in turn creates bigger barriers to exit.
3.2 The Creation of Successful Mobile Services The Importance of the Consumer
3.2.1 Consumers and Mobile Services
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE. It takes time for customers to adapt new
technologies and to feel comfortable using them. Even the today “never-leavethe-home-without-it” gadget, more commonly known as the mobile phone,
had to fight quite some time to gain acceptance – more exactly 13 years to
reach 25% penetration. As the size and price of the device started to diminish,
21
Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, “Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals” (Cambridge: MIT Press,
2003), quoted in Jesper Juul, “The Game, the Player, the World: Looking for a Heart of Gameness”, 2003,
http://www.jesperjuul.net/text/gameplayerworld/, accessed March 2007.
- 20 -
3. Theoretical Background
so did people’s skepticism towards mobile voice communication. With the very
same slow pace, they are now starting to glance at mobile data services.22
THE EARLY ADOPTERS of mobile data services are the young consumers.
When a service is affordable for the young consumers, they are the ones to first
try it out and if they like it, adapt it to their every day communication patterns.
SMS is a perfect example on that. 23
PROMOTION OF BENEFITS, NOT TECHNOLOGY. People do not care about
the technology per se, but how it improves their lives. Ringtones and
wallpapers has become a greater business than anyone ever expected. It fulfils
young people’s desire to differentiate themselves and be individuals, just in the
same way as music and fashion do. 24
SERVICES ARE USUALLY NOT USED FOR WHAT THEY WERE DESIGNED
FOR. When a new mobile service is launched, the developers, service providers
and the operators etc. usually share a common vision of how a service will be
used. This is however something that the consumers tend to redefine
completely. What an SMS message contains is for example less important than
the actual sending of messages. MMS on the other hand never became a
substitute to SMS as predicted – instead it became a complement. The built-in
lamp in the camera mobile is used as a flash light when in the dark. These are
only a few examples of how people turned around on the actual function that
the service or feature was supposed to have. 25
Gaming solutions must therefore meet the consumer requirements and succeed
in integrating with the consumers’ communication habits, in order to be
successful.
3.2.2 Why the Consumer Is Important
KNOWLEDGE OF EXISTING BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS. As seen in section 3.1,
“What makes a game a game?”, companies are starting to employ game mechanisms
in their online activities. Why? Because these are familiar to consumers and fulfill
their needs to compete, collect and socialize etc. Successful services are often built on
existing behavioral patterns, and knowing the consumers and their way of socializing
and communicating therefore becomes decisive in mobile service creation.26
INVOLVING THE CONSUMERS ALL THE WAY. Just by the statements in the
previous section 3.2.1, one understands that the consumer has to be involved in the
service creation process from the very beginning. Marketing, when meaning matching
services with the needs of the market, is extremely important. The key to successful
service creation is to start with the consumers and to end with the consumers.
Understanding the consumer needs enables the creation of a service that fulfils these
22
C. Andersson et al., Mobile Media and Applications, From Concept to Cash: Successful Service Creation and
Launch (Chicester: John Wiley & Sons, 2006)
23
Ibid
24
Ibid
25
Ibid
26
Wireless World Forum, MobileYouth 2006, July 1, 2006.
- 21 -
3. Theoretical Background
needs. This in turn makes it possible to address the market with the proper
promotion strategy.27
CONSUMER SEGMENTATION. Consumers are individuals and it would be
practically impossible to conduct a research that addressed each and every individual
in a specific market. In the same way, a service would never satisfy all people in that
market. To simplify the situation, people are grouped based on equal characteristics i.e. segmentation. In this way it gets manageable to create an overall picture of the
consumer segment and develop services that will suit the different consumer
segments. 28
Segmentation of consumers is to be done in a manner so that the segments clearly
distinguish themselves form each other. Age, nationality, occupation, personal
interests, phase of adoption etc. may all be factors that determine the different
segments and depends heavily on the specific industry that is affected. 29
3.3 Mobile Youth
As has been stated afore, the early adopters are the young consumers, which
consequently make them a very interesting target group for this study. A more
extensive explanation of the segmentation and why youth is an important target
group for mobile services will now follow. It is however not enough to target youth
as one homogenous group of consumers but instead with a more intelligent level of
segmentation. This chapter is mainly based on the report mobileYouth0630.
3.3.1 Industries Need Youth - Why Youth Is Important
HAVE A HIGHER LIFETIME VALUE THAN ADULT CONSUMERS. Although
teens and young adults represent a lower ARPU31, their lifetime value to mobile
providers is significantly higher. At the age of 27 the average customer will
already have consumed half of his or her lifetime data service spending, and at
40 the value will be down to 10%.
USE DATA SERVICES TO A GREATER EXTENT. Youth spend significantly more on
mobile data services than older consumers. Voice communication is consumed
increasingly less, while SMS is becoming their main means of communication within
their peer groups.
PROVIDE INVALUABLE INSIGHT into how value added services can be best
deployed. Young mobile consumers should therefore be targeted already in the
product development phase.
ARE KEEN BRAND ADVOCATES. Youth play an important role as introducers. First
of all they influence family purchases. Second of all they heavily influence and are
influenced by peer group opinion. 65% tell others about products they like and
27
C. Andersson et al., Mobile Media and Applications, From Concept to Cash: Successful Service Creation and
Launch (Chicester: John Wiley & Sons, 2006)
28
Ibid
29
Ibid
30
Wireless World Forum, MobileYouth 2006, July 1, 2006.
31
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): A measure often used in the telecom industry and states how
much money a company makes from the average user.
- 22 -
3. Theoretical Background
especially core gamers indicate that they download on the basis of reviews or
recommendations by friends. Marketing costs could therefore be reduced extensively
through employing the brand advocacy of youth.
3.3.2 Youth Has to Be Segmented
The two fundamental drivers of young consumer behavior are based on social needs
- the need to belong and the need to be significant. The relationships are strongest in
youth because youth experience the greatest social pressures. “Good” is therefore
not enough when it comes to mobile services. It has to be relevant, and relevant for
youth means that it has to add benefit to the social lifestyle. Youth will therefore
consume the product to increase their feeling of belonging and significance.
As can be seen in Table 13, youth is also more likely to use certain products and
services, such as mobile games and messaging, when at home.
AT HOME VS. OUTSIDE
Percentage of time playing
mobile games
Number of messages sent
Use of mobile email
75%
25%
34-56/day
82.3%
6-9/day
29,4%(street), 21,9 (waiting for bus)
Table 13: Percentages of mobile communication performed at home and outside the home
(Source: Wireless World Forum, MobileYouth 2006, July 1, 2006.)
The need of segmenting youth is essential, as their social behaviors and drivers
change significantly when “growing up”. The influence of peer pressure for example,
changes markedly as youth mature. The difference in consumer behavior between
youth age groups is in fact more distinct than the one between youth and adults. In
the report mobileYouth0632, four demographic youth segments have been identified:
o
o
o
o
Primaries (5-9 years)
Early Teens (10-14 years)
Late Teens (15-19 years)
Young Adults (20-24 years)
PRIMARIES. Consumers as young as 5 to 9 years are starting to use mobile phones.
Initially it is the parents’ mobile handset that is explored, until that they eventually
start having their own mobile phones. Rather than the mobile industry, the primary
driver is the parents that want to have contact with their children. Except for interfamily communication, the second purpose that the mobile phone fulfills for the
youngsters is being a mobile toy.
The report "Kids Consumer Analysis" by the Berlin-based Egmont Ehapa Publishing
House indicates that the parents of 41 percent of 6- to 9-year-olds pay their
children's mobile phone invoices in full. This number decreases to 24 percent for the
10- to 13-year-olds. About half the children meet at least some of the costs
themselves.33
32
Wireless World Forum, MobileYouth 2006, July 1, 2006.
Robert W. Smith, “Children's mobile phone-related expenses amount to almost 300 euros annually,” Heise
online. August 3, 2005, http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/62417, accessed November 2006.
33
- 23 -
3. Theoretical Background
Children are turned into consumers at a very young age. Already at the age of four or
five it starts with the encouragement of parents who strongly want to prepare their
children for adulthood or at least for self-sufficiency, which includes economic
responsibility. Children, thus, have funds to spend on objects of their choice.
Potentially, children constitute the most lucrative market there is for many businesses
because the youngsters are actually three markets in one:34
o A current market - that spends $4.2 billion a year of their own money on their
own desires.
o A future market - manufacturers and retailers find it important to create
awareness at an early stage.
o A market of influentials - children cause many billions of dollars of purchases by
their parents.35
EARLY TEENS. Youth peer pressure reaches its peak in the ages of 12 to 13 and
declines thereafter gradually into adulthood. Early teens are under an intense peer
group pressure to conform and their fear of group isolation therefore heavily shapes
the consumer behavior of this demographic. Consequently not only will early teens
be more influenced by the opinion of peers regarding mobile services, but they will
also very likely invest in services to reinforce their peer bonds and maintain the
network – both in terms of personalization and communication. 10-14 years olds are
therefore among the heaviest users of SMS, as well as a ready market for
personalization products.
Despite this high demand for mobile services and consequently increased mobile
spending as consumers enter their early teens, usage is heavily restricted due to their
economic capacity.
LATE TEENS do not only influence the own peer groups but younger peers and
siblings in the Early Teen demographic.
The social activity of the late teens get more focused and move from large peer
groups to smaller circles of regular friends and significance within a particular niche
corresponding to lifestyle, music, sport etc. The demands of this social network are
high enough to demand immediate response to interaction – i.e. late teens will
respond immediately to SMS. The anonymity and rather depersonalized nature of
text based communication make communication, and especially flirting, perceived as
rather safe from risks and embarrassment.
The interest in mobile services other than SMS increases to a large degree when the
consumers enter the late teens. They also start to demonstrate the initial signs of
economic independence and although not being the largest market, the levels of their
spending in relation to levels of income are higher than any other age group.
YOUNG ADULTS spend more on mobile services than any other demographic group,
which makes them key market for mobile service providers. The latest handsets,
34
James U. McNeal, “From Savers to Spenders: How Children Became a Consumer Market,” Media&Values,
(Originally published Fall 1990 / Winter 1991), http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article61.html, accessed
December 2006.
35
Ibid
- 24 -
3. Theoretical Background
iPods, cars, entertainment systems etc. are all ways in which to show how much
money and earning potential they have achieved. Social interaction occurs
increasingly in niche groups.
3.4 Summary
This chapter has shed light on the meaning of the game and the game mechanisms collecting, points, feedback, exchange and customization. In their role as essential
corner stones of games, they create the fun and addictive nature of the game. In
addition the importance of the consumers, specifically the youth segment, has been
explained. Insights as the consumer resistance to change, the value of benefits over
technology and the youth target group being the early adopters, justified the fact that
consumers have to be involved all the way through the development as well as that
consumers have to be segmented to ensure successful service creation.
- 25 -
4. The Online Gaming Industry
4. The Online Gaming Industry
This chapter is mainly based on the stakeholder interviews and has the purpose
to give a general overview of the traditional gaming industry.
4.1 Key Industry Facts and Market Predictions
o Online gaming is possible via both PCs and game consoles and enables gamers to
play against each other independent of location36.
o The online gaming market is composed by three segments37:
1. Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) usually involve role playing in
fantasy worlds and have thousands or even hundreds of thousands gamers
worldwide playing simultaneously. These games can be played over long
periods of time as weeks or months.
2. Online games where a limited number of console gamers compete over a
shorter amount of time.
3. Easy online gamers, such as strategy or puzzle that are offered by sites such
as MSN38 Games and Yahoo Games. These games are usually provided for
free or subscription-based and have a large consumer base of casual games.
The largest share of their revenues comes from advertising.
o Currently, around 85% of online gaming is PC-based, but the large device
manufacturers Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo has provided their consoles with
Internet connectivity, consoles are gaining a larger share of the online gaming
market39.
o Total global revenues are predicted to be over EUR12 billion by 201140.
36
Matthew Hester, “Networked media market,” PowerPoint presentation, May 23rd 2006. Analysys Research
Limited.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2006-2010 – Video Games, June 2006
38
MSN: Microsoft Network, a collection of Internet services provided by Microsoft, e.g. the webmail service
Hotmail and the instant messaging service MSN Messenger. www.msn.com
39
Matthew Hester, “Networked media market,” PowerPoint presentation, May 23rd 2006. Analysys Research
Limited.
40
Ibid
37
- 26 -
4. The Online Gaming Industry
4.2 Value Chain
Figure 3 shows a simplified model of the online gaming industry structure/value chain.
Stakeholder representatives that have been interviewed have been added to the model
and are also listed in Table 14.
Game organisations
and networks
Media
Gamer
Distributor
Content/
rights owner
Developer
Publisher
Content
Device
manufacturer
Retailer
ISP
Figure 3: Online Gaming Value Chain, combination of two models with interviewed stakeholders indicated.
(Source: Matthew Hester, “Networked media market,” PowerPoint presentation, May 23rd 2006.
Analysys Research Limited.)
(Source: Dymek, M. and A. Rehn, Polygonmakarna : spelbranschens högteknologiska upplevelseekonomi
(Stockholm, Royal Institute of Technology, 2003), quoted in Mikolaj Dymek, ”Game Industry Economics,”
PowerPoint presentation, March 2006. KTH, Stockholm.)
STAKEHOLDERS
INTERVIEWED REPRESENTATIVES
Developers
Device Manufacturers &
Content Aggregators
Game organizations/
networks
Media
Distributors
Johan Kristiansson, CEO, Starbreeze
Stefan Lampinen, Responsible for Emerging
Markets, Xbox Microsoft
Annika Olofsdotter Bergström, SuperMarit, Project
Leader
Martin Lindell, Chief Editor, Manual
Patrik Johansson, PR Manager, Bergsala
Jens Alex, CEO, Nordisk Film
Martin Björling
Gamers
Table 14: Interviewed stakeholder representatives
- 27 -
The Market
4. The Online Gaming Industry
CONTENT AND RIGHTS OWNERS are studios and larger brands such as Atari and
Disney that license to publishers.
VIDEO GAME DEVELOPERS may be anything between one-person operations to
large international companies with 300 employees including programmers, game
designers, artists, sound engineers, producers and testers. There are three main
categories of video game developers:
1. Third-party developers that usually are subcontracted by publishers to develop a title.
2. In-house41 developers/studios held by publishers. Such a solution increases the
publishers control over the productions and makes them at the same time able to
spend less effort controlling the development as the interest of the developers is
aligned with that of the publisher. It is becoming more common that large
publisher acquire third-party developers. These would be seen as in-house, but
they usually continue operating in an autonomous way despite the change in
exclusivity and financial details – e.g. Electronic Arts acquired Digital Illusions
(2006).
3. Independents that are small software developers of which some publish their own
games. This enables them to explore game concepts and styles of gameplay that
mainstream publishers would not have risked investing in. They rely on the
Internet and word of mouth for publicity, and therefore their games tend to
become overshadowed by the productions of the larger publishers.
PUBLISHERS publish video and computer games that they have either developed inhouse or have let develop by a third-party developer. This function includes the:
o financing of the development
o marketing
o deciding on and paying for any license that the game may utilize
o paying for localization42
o layout, printing, and possibly the writing of the user manual
o creation of graphic design elements such as the box design
CONTENT AGGREGATORS are sites such as MSN Games or Yahoo Games which
gather games from different publishers and developers for reuse or resale. Microsoft
is with its Live platform also a content aggregator.
DEVICE MANUFACTURERS have a very strong influence on the market and on the
other stakeholders, as the launch of a new console automatically translates into new
games and software. By becoming more powerful and more advanced, with higher
resolution and larger hard disk capacity, the consoles are constantly extending the
limit for what kind of games and game experiences that can be created.
DISTRIBUTORS market, sell and deliver products related to a specific console. They
are the ones managing the physical transport from console manufacturers and other
partners to the retailers.
41
In-house: internal staff of developers
Localization: means of adapting products such as publications, hardware or software for non-native
environments, especially other nations and cultures.
42
- 28 -
4. The Online Gaming Industry
RETAILERS. Despite the existence of online stores and digital distribution,
interviewed stakeholders find the physical sales point of great importance. It is
nonetheless where most of the purchase decisions are made due to the consumers’
physical shopping behavior.
The online store is in practice an intermediary of customers. To run an online store
at the own website may sound as a great opportunity for developers in which to
break into the market. There are in fact some developers that have made it in this
way. The chances to succeed if you’re not Xbox live or a larger online store, are
however rather small.43
”No consumers would probably go to a game developer’s web site to shop. One just does not
have the strength to look and search in that way. ’Who was it now that made GTA?’ ”
Johan Kristiansson, Starbreeze
INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISP) provides the necessary broadband service that
enables gamers to get connected.
GAME ORGANIZATIONS & NETWORKS, MEDIA AND GAMERS have been
included in the value chain as they exercise influence on the gaming industry.
4.3 The Traditional Business Model
To make a game today is as making a movie. Some years ago a game production
would take 18 months, now it takes nearly 24 months. A large project may require
150 employees and 18 to 20 million dollars in development costs.44
These immense development costs, explains the traditional business model which
includes a publisher subcontracting a game developer studio for developing a game. The
publisher then funds the development and takes on the financial risk in return for a
major share of the future revenue. Even though the developer has a great deal to say
as to design and content, the publisher is the one that usually gets the last word as it
is him paying for the development.
4.4 Pricing Models and Strategies
4.4.1 Traditional Pricing Models and Strategies
1. FIXED PRICE AT RETAIL LOCATION OR ORDERED THROUGH A WEBSITE
This is a very old pricing strategy that comes from the hundreds of years old book
publishing. Usually the price starts high and drops as the product gets older. The idea
behind it is good – to attract as big of a consumer group as possible, both those
happy to pay 70€ or 60€ for a new-released game and those who want to pay less
and do not mind waiting. This however, seems to work well only for games that are
popular in the first place.
43
44
Johan Kristiansson, interview by author, Stockholm, September 8, 2006.
Stefan Lampinen, interview by author, Stockholm, September 23, 2006.
- 29 -
4. The Online Gaming Industry
2. SUBSCRIPTION
This pricing model imply that the consumer first pays at the actual purchase of the
game, and then pay a monthly fee to get access to the device manufacturers network
to play online against other gamers. This is a pricing model currently used by Xbox
and its Live service, unlike Sony Playstation that has chosen to offer free onlinegaming.45
“I believe that it is completely right to work with
open platforms and then let the consumers decide what they want to purchase.”
Jens Alex, Nordisk film
3. ADVERTISING
Internet sites that provide casual games have Internet advertising supplying the
necessary revenues. Gamers do therefore have the possibility to play games for free
or during a limited period of time or number of levels.
Other less common pricing strategies are Rental and Merchandising.
4.4.2 A Dynamic Product with a Static Price - Why Change Is Needed
As long as content was of a limited complexity and required physical distribution,
these pricing models have been more than sufficient. With new technology enabling
more advanced games and digital distribution, today’s situation has changed.
Advanced games equal high development costs; digital distribution on the other
hand, cheap delivery. These changes are not taken into account by the old pricing
models, and this in turn concludes to bad pricing.
o A static price will never be right for all consumers – for some it will be too much
for others less than they actually would be ready to pay.
o A game purchased in a store or ordered by mail, is closed as soon as the
transaction is done. As the game is not tied to a network anymore, it will require
extra marketing expenses and investments to sell the customer a follow on
product or an expansion.
o The static nature of the game box eliminates the possibility for personalization
and making changes to the content.
Technical advancement is simply calling on new and innovative pricing strategies.
There is yet another fact supporting the need of change. One could believe that the
expensive productions would be caused by a more and more demanding consumer.
And it is true to some extent. The industry has over time become more “hit driven”
with consumers buying the games that are best in quality and marketed the best in
their category. This has in turn led to larger and larger game development budgets as
game publishers are trying to ensure the number one spots for their game. Many
gamers do however never play through an entire game46. The games are too long or
just seen as too difficult which becomes tiresome for the consumers.47 The majority
of the games have a play time of 10 to 12 hours, but the big mastodon games count
up to 45 hours. According to Martin Lindell at the industry magazine Manual, the
length of the games could among other things be caused by the ones reviewing
45
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
47
Ibid
46
- 30 -
4. The Online Gaming Industry
games in the US. These are confirmed gamers that play for long hours. A game that
according to them is to short, receives bad criticism, which in turn makes the game
developers feel the need to develop longer games.48
4.5 Summary
Online gaming consists of massive multiplayer online gaming, online console gaming
and online gaming on gaming sites. By 2011 this industry is predicted to generate
revenues over EUR12 billion. The value chain and the roles of the stakeholders are
clearer than the ones in the mobile gaming industry (see chapter 5 The Mobile
Gaming Industry for a comparison). This in turn facilitates the growth of the
industry. With the increased bandwidth and digital distribution the industry is
currently looking into new pricing strategies to match the dynamic product.
48
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
- 31 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
The objective with this chapter is to give a comprehensive picture of the
structure of the mobile gaming industry. Stakeholder representatives have
been interviewed, and it is these interviews together with industry
analysis that are the basis of this chapter. The interviews have had the
focus on mobile gaming and the consumer.
5.1 Key Industry Facts and Market Predictions
o Global mobile gaming revenues reached $2.5 billion (EUR1,9 billion )in 200549
o Key drivers such as handset ubiquity and an increased numbers of Java game titles
(also Symbian to some extent) has made the industry in Western Europe to grow
at an average of 50 percent over the last two years.50
o According to the consultancy firm Analysys total mobile gaming revenues will rise
to over EUR17 billion by 2011.51 Frost & Sullivan do however predict a much
more modest development and forecasts the European mobile gaming markets to
reach EUR 2,400 millions by 201252.
o Mobile games are expected to become a compliment to traditional games53.
Revenues will therefore come from increased usage and not substitution.
Connectivity revenues will be minimal since charges are being used less and less
by operators.54
o 2D Java games are the most popular today and the development cost may add up
to EUR 160,000 and another EUR 160,000 for porting to multiple handsets,
testing and validation. A single game therefore costs EUR 320 000 in total.55
o Like for other mobile content applications, the largest markets for mobile gaming
in Europe are the United Kingdom, followed by Germany, France and Spain.
Together these markets account for almost 45 per cent of the total European
gaming markets in 2006.56
o However, of the 69% mobile subscribers that have played a game on their mobile,
only 25% have tried to download games and only 5% completed a download.57
o In Europe only 13 % of the mobile subscribers are downloading mobile games.58
49
U.S. Mobile Gaming Market Poised For Further Growth, eMARKETER press release (New York, NY, January
10, 2006). From Emarketer Web site, http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003771, accessed December
2006.
50
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
51
Matthew Hester, “Networked media market,” PowerPoint presentation, May 23rd 2006. Analysys Research
Limited.
52
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
53
Ibid
54
Matthew Hester, “Networked media market,” PowerPoint presentation, May 23rd 2006. Analysys Research
Limited.
55
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
56
Ibid
57
Ibid
58
Ibid
- 32 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
With constantly increasing graphic quality, memory capacity, mobile game complexity
and wider deployment of 3G networks, stakeholders in the mobile industry are
aiming at re-creating some of the success that portable gaming devices such as the
Gameboy have experienced. Gaming audiences are in addition often loyal and
lifetime users of a service or product, making gaming even more important.59
Another market driver is the mobile operators that open up their networks to other
distribution channels such as those newly created by aggregators. In this way they
provide their subscribers with a large range of games and several ways in which to
make the purchase.
Consumers are starting to get used to the changing role of the mobile phone - from
only being a communication tool to also being a multimedia device.60 The fact that a
ubiquitous device such as the mobile phone moreover gives access to millions of
users across all age groups has made mobile gaming to gain attention from the
gaming industry as well as the entertainment industry in general. In their eyes the
mobile handset is seen as an own channel that will serve as a complement or an
extension to console and computer gaming, rather than being a gaming machine.61
Gaming on the mobile handset is consequently not seen as a substitute but an
opportunity to attract new gamers.
Despite these promising predictions, what has to be taken into account is that the
mobile gaming industry has already been overvalued once in the past, with industry
stakeholders forecasting major growth. What can be seen today in retrospect is that it
never reached these predicted heights. During this thesis it has therefore been very
important to consider whether one is creating a consumer demand rather than
satisfying one.
5.2 Value Chain
The mobile gaming value chain in its most basic form, works in the following
way:
1. A consumer accesses the mobile operator’s portal either directly through the
handset or a computer. He finds a game that he wants and orders it.
2. The game is thereafter charged for by the operator and sent to the
consumer’s device.
3. The revenue is then shared between the publisher and the other stakeholders. The
share of the publisher is normally between 10 and 30 percent depending on
which party takes on the marketing and promotional campaigns, content
formatting and customer support62.
Figure 4 shows a simplified model of the mobile gaming industry structure/value
chain. Stakeholder representatives that have been interviewed have been added to the
model and are also listed in Table 15.
59
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
Peter Lindström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 15, 2006.
61
Johan Kristiansson, interview by author, Stockholm, September 8, 2006.
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
Peter Lindström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 15, 2006
62
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
60
- 33 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
The Market
Content /
rights owner
Content
aggregator
Developer
MNO
Mobile
portal
Device
manufacturer
Platform
supplier
Figure 4: Mobile Gaming Value Chain with interviewed stakeholder indicated.
(Source: Matthew Hester, “Networked media market,” PowerPoint presentation, May 23rd 2006. Analysys
Research Limited.)
STAKEHOLDERS
Developers
INTERVIEWED REPRESENTATIVES
Marcus Legler, Public Relations, Jadestone
Peter Lindström, CEO, Mobile Interaction
Publishers & Developers Tom Söderlund, Head of Games Publishing, Blaze (in-house
development)
Content Aggregators &
Mobile Portals
Johan Brunius, Co-founder, NewGamesEveryDay AB
(gratismobilspel.se)
Inge Conradi, Category Manager Games, Aspiro
Mobile Network
Operators & Mobile
Portals
Sonia Kavs, Responsible for Content Services, Telenor
Jeffrey Danley, Product Manager TV/Video, Sprint
Barbara Teicher, Mktg Tech Support Spec, Sprint
Randy Ulvenes, Product Manager II, Sprint
Lyle W. Paczkowski, Senior Product Manager, Sprint
Joe Ariganello, Sprint
Mobile Portals
Klas Karlsson, responsible for a former multiplayer service at
Lunarstorm, Lunarworks
Device Manufacturers & Peter Ahnegård, Content Acquisition Manager, Sony Ericsson
Mobile Portals
Platform Suppliers
Daniel Glifberg, IMS, Ericsson
Table 15: Interviewed stakeholder representatives
- 34 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
The real world is however a bit more complicated than this, making the value chain
to resemble more a value network rather than a chain, with several of the
stakeholders taking on multiple roles and working with each other in many different
ways. In many cases there is also a content aggregator involved that relieves pressure
from the operator or off-portal by taking on some of the work load in exchange for a
share of the revenues. Almost all publishers also act as aggregators of content to
some extent and larger publishers usually also have their own in-house development
studios.
Furthermore, it is becoming more usual with other large channels such as print media
and TV, through which the customer may order games. In those cases it is the
specific channel that bills the customer and the revenue is shared by the specific
channel and the publisher. For the operator, it is the airtime and game transfer
charges that generate the revenues.
Seeing this, it gets evident that even though the mobile gaming value chain contains
similar players as the traditional gaming industry, they are not necessarily engaged in
the same business.
DEVELOPERS create and produce the game. Due to the fact that they not only have
to create the games but also have to make sure that these games run on a wide
variety of handheld devices, the challenge is of a very different kind than just
developing one variant of a specific game as in the traditional gaming industry.63
The situation does not become any better with the fact that all of the real power and
opportunity is in the hands of the operators, publishers and license holders. 64 In
addition the aggregator turns into yet another step to overcome, eating a considerable
share of revenue - 5-8% of the price of the game.65
DEVICE MANUFACTURERS play a key role in the value chain as:
o they set market direction of technology.
o most customers buying handsets based on the model and vendor’s brand
o they often have a customer base much larger than the customer base of the
mobile operators
o they are a distribution partner to publishers and game design studios when it
comes to pre-loaded games.
o they aim at creating an easier way to find, play and share games across the mobile
community.
The lifecycle of devices are much shorter than portable or home consoles. It is
therefore in the device manufacturers’ biggest interest to provide as many channels
as possible to the consumer and to ensure that there is enough content and games
available so that it in turn will drive customers to buy their devices and consequently
create a new revenue stream. See Appendix VIII: Case Studies (Sony Ericsson –
Increasing the Value of the Handset with Content) for an industry example of how
Sony Ericsson is working with extending the value of their handsets by providing
many channels to market.
63
D. Wisniewski et al., IGDA International Game Developers Association, IGDA Online Games White Paper,
June 2005.
64
Ibid
65
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
- 35 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
PLATFORM SUPPLIERS. There are two types of gaming platforms – open and
closed/proprietary. J2ME (Java) is the most popular and commonly used platform,
whereas platforms such as BREW, Mophun and Symbian that need the mobile
devices to have a certain and proprietary game engine enables superior game quality
to standard Java games (3D graphics e.g.).
CONTENT AND RIGHTS OWNERS receive royalties from the publishers by letting
them license IP (between 50 and 70 per cent of the earning or a minimal fixed
amount every year)
PUBLISHERS manage the:
o creation and/or licensing of IP from larger brands and studios (e.g. Warner Bros,
Atari and Disney)
o distribution to different operators and independent portals
o funding of the development (anywhere up to EUR 300,000 to develop a good
mobile game66)
o marketing and promotional efforts
o funding (usually) of the porting process as well as the marketing and PR-activities
CONTENT AGGREGATORS can be responsible for such functions as supply and
management of the games on the operator’s portal. In this way they create a large
portfolio with selected games from multiple publishers and game suppliers. The
content aggregators have been instrumental in developing the market, by providing a
variety of access points for the customer both in the form of Web and Wap portals.67
“We aim to create game shops, both for own channels and for our partners,
where the end users can find a wide variety of games from a wide range of content providers.
In short, we want to have something to offer everyone who stops by a game shop run by us, so
they do not leave that store empty handed.”
Inge Conradi, Aspiro
Another possible model is when the operator still wants to run its own mobile
gaming network but rather want to see the aggregator managing the publisher
relationships.
OPERATORS have for many years been the most powerful stakeholder in the mobile
gaming industry due to the fact that they own:
o billing relationships
o the handset window interface
o the delivery channel to the end user
o a trusted and iconic brand.
Simply put, the operators are the closest link to the consumer. But with the role as
the closest link to the consumer, comes a large degree of responsibility that could
damage the brand if something would go wrong. Large operators have therefore
complete control by hosting and managing their own gaming platforms as well as
publisher and aggregator relationships. Furthermore they have direct relationships
66
67
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
Ibid
- 36 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
with some key publishers such as Gameloft and Electronic Arts (EA) and then
contract large aggregators such as Aspiro and i-touch to manage a variety of multiple
smaller vendors. Smaller operators especially in the Scandinavian region prefer to
outsource the platform and publisher relationship management to other service
providers.68
INDEPENDENT PORTALS/OFF-PORTALS are all Web and Wap portals not owned by
the network operators, instead often run by device manufacturers (Club Nokia, Sony
Ericsson), publishers through their Web sites (Gameloft, EA) or mobile portals
(Jamba).69
When EA bought the game developer Jamdat they realized that the distribution
model was not working very well and started their own portal providing gamers with
a downloadable application. This application was similar to MSN Messenger70 in such
a way that it stayed in the background and enabled EA to update their customers of
new released games and to create an easy way for the gamers to download games.71
Marcus Legler at Jadestone means that initiatives of this kind are the ones needed to
kick-start the industry and eventually enable that more money are spent on games.
5.3 Traditional Business Models
5.3.1 The On-portal Model (the walled-garden approach)
The walled-garden approach stands for the way in which many mobile operators used
to control content distribution. They were therefore not only providing access and
transport, but services available only on their own portal. This is however changing.
Despite advantages such as clearly defined quality and responsibility, lack of
innovation, marketing and product promotion have made operators to begin
abandoning this approach and instead opening up and offering their subscribers
access to content from other channels.72
5.3.2 The Off-portal Model
The off-portal model implies that the operator has decided to either host their
gaming platforms but not manage, or not host nor manage them (see Figure 4). The
disadvantage with the off-portal model is the risk that mobile operators run due to
the fact that they do not have the control over the content but still are the closest link
to the consumer. If something would go wrong the consumer will think the portal
belongs to the operator, even though it does not.
68
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
Ibid
70
MSN Messenger: A free instant messaging client that was developed and distributed by Microsoft. MSN
Messenger was renamed to Windows Live Messenger in 2006 as part of Microsoft's Windows Live series of
online services and software. Other features included are support for voice conversations, webcams, file
transfer, and built-in two-player online games. Messages can be enlivened with graphical emoticons (also called
smileys), Flash animations (winks), animated display pictures, styled text, and many more with third-party addons.
71
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
72
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
69
- 37 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
Figure 4: Mobile Gaming Markets: Off-portal Business Model (Europe)
(Source: Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.)
The operators are the ones that get the largest share of the revenues when the games
are downloaded directly from their portal, otherwise they tend to get a smaller share
with the rest distributed among the content providers.
Until recently all mobile operators often charged a separate amount for the data
transfer when the game was downloaded over their network to the consumer’s
handset. This is however something that is changing. Many operators have started to
include the download cost into the price for the game itself as they have understood
the importance in providing the consumer with more transparent price models that
cannot be mistaken for including hidden costs73.
In multiplayer gaming friends must buy a game to play against friends, which in turn
leads to increased downloads as well as increased network usage. Today, all different
community activities related to gaming do all drive usage and for the operator
multiplayer gaming is therefore a very interesting business opportunity.
There are a lot of discussions regarding the future role of the operators, whether they
are going to become so called “bit-pipe” providers, charging purely for best-effort
connectivity and billing, or if they will manage to maintain a strong position possibly
by leverage upon the IMS enablers such as interoperability, presence and payment
security.74 See Appendix VIII: Case Studies (Telenor – Unblocking the Walled
Garden) for an industry example of the unblocking of the walled garden.
5.4 Traditional Pricing Models
PAY PER GAME. The most popular way is paying a one time fee of about EUR 4 to
6 when downloading the game from operator portals and from independent gaming
portals. Games move along the product life-cycle chain and with time the price of
premium games are transformed to standard.75 At the end the games end up in the
sales category76.
73
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
Ericsson, Mobile Core Evolution, June 19, 2006.
75
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
76
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
74
- 38 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
PAY PER PLAY. The consumer receives access to the game that expires after a certain
time or specific number of plays.
BUNDLE. To bundle different kinds of content such as video, free voice minutes and
music with games, is a way to entice usage and ensure that subscribers try using all
the different services offered.77
SUBSCRIPTION. The gamer gets access to the server or to a game during a limited
period of time. Such a pricing model does however result in a fast saturation of the
market already with a limited number of stakeholders78.
5.5 Challenges & Barriers of Use
The mobile game industry faces rather difficult challenges with the main one being to
convert the big share of mobile game players to mobile game buyers. The majority that plays
mobile games are usually satisfied with playing embedded games that come preinstalled with the mobile handset.79 What is positive with this is that consumers at
least already are using their handsets as gaming devices, and that it is therefore not
unfamiliar.
There are some fundamental barriers that are well known in the industry and that
have to be solved to succeed with the above mentioned challenge. Through the
desktop research and stakeholder interviews the most important ones were identified.
Limited connectivity, limited network capacity and limited battery life were identified as the
main barriers regarding technical limitations. Other big barriers connected to the
handset itself are the small screen size and poor input mechanism. It is not the most
convenient thing to use the key-pad to write an SMS. Despite increased game quality
for mobile games, it is in fact the small screen size together with the poor input
mechanism that causes many from not playing on the mobile handset. Consumers do
simply doubt the gaming experience a handset could give them80. What is more, nonconfigured phones, force the consumer to in many cases download settings to be able to
wap or send MMS. This is a big barrier which has been overcome in the US since the
vast majority of the handsets are sold via carrier-retail-shops and consequently come
pre-configured. It is seen as one of the reasons behind the relatively high number of
mobile gamers in the US-market.81
In the following sections some additional very important user barriers and related
inhibitors will be explained in more detail, including what implications they have for
the mobile gaming industry and the consumers.
77
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
Pogo.com
79
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
80
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
81
Thomas Langer, Adrian Hopkinson, and Jonathan Crozier, WestLB, The third screen - New developments in
the mobile content industry, October 2005.
78
- 39 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
5.5.1 The Most Popular Games are the Famous Brands or the Ones with
Explicable Names
“Commercial screening does not equal with difference in quality
and strengthens the large sales numbers of portings. The question that one could ask is
whether the games that sell well do so because they are on the top ten list after having been
elevated in some way.” 82
Marcus Legler, Jadestone
Nobody waits for a license or a branded mobile game in the same way as it usually is
when new console and PC games are to be launched. Mobile gaming is characterized
by impulse gaming and it is the famous brands and the games with very explicable
names, almost describing the game that sell the best83. Aspiro’s best sellers have until
today been casual games that are easy to understand and famous concepts such as
“Soduko”, “Ice Age” and “Who wants to be a millionaire?”84. The biggest reason for
it being so is in fact because the consumers do not have any other information at
hand and are therefore forced to fall back on the title of the game.85 Remakes of old
PC and console games do also bring a lot of associations, which drives sales despite
that they are not always that well suited for the mobile phone86. With EA having
entered the mobile gaming business, there are those that look with interest on what
this giant will be able to produce by remaking their games into mobile games and if
they will be able to attract the hard core PC and console gamers.87
“Low price levels on mobile games
compared to the development costs, this creates a very tough situation for those developers
that want to be creative and create new innovative mobile games.”
Marcus Legler, Jadestone
Many of the interviewed stakeholders expressed the importance of developing games
that were adapted to the mobile platform. One of them was Peter Lindström at
Mobile Interaction that especially emphasized this issue when it comes to mobile
games in real time. The existing time delays in the network makes it harder to affect
each other in the games and a game developer has to take this into account – a
successful concept on the computer or console does not automatically become
successful on the mobile platform.88
Sonia Kavs at Telenor did also mean that more consumers will become enticed to
play when an increased number of quality games such as 3D and Symbian games will
be launched.
5.5.2 Difficult Content Discovery - The Need of Real Mobile Game Stores
Imagine this. You want to buy a book. It is not a specific book that someone has
recommended you instead it is a book whatever. It may sound easy, but not if you
live in this special town. First of all in your town you do not have a big book store,
instead you have to go to small book stores and department stores that have books in
their range of products. As you do not know their exact location you try in the book
82
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
Ibid
84
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
85
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
86
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
87
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
88
Peter Lindström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 15, 2006.
83
- 40 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
store on your street. Unfortunately they do not have a book that convinces you to a
purchase and you have to continue looking. After having spent some time searching
for the book you manage to find an interesting book in a small book store. As you do
not really know what the book is about you turn it around to read on the back just to
discover a one line description and a picture on the cover. As you cannot really figure
out so much more from the title either, you decide to trust your instincts. But as you
have reached the cashier to pay, you just receive the notice that you are one of the
persons that cannot read this book because your glasses are not of the right type.
This may seem as a strange story, but now change the “book” to “mobile game”, the
“town” to the “world of mobile game downloading”, the “bookstore at your street “
to “your mobile carriers portal”, the “small book stores” to “all the other portals”
and of course “the glasses” to “mobile phone”, and voila, this is how many mobile
users today feel like when trying to purchase a mobile game – more commonly
known as difficult content discovery. Difficulty in content discovery is a very big
barrier of use as it discourages the users to a next purchase attempt. It also makes it
more evident of the non-existence of a store with a complete range of games89.
“Today, it's difficult to find a decent retailer for mobile games - a single place
where I can be sure to find all games available, and provide me with all the information I
need before I make my purchase.”
Tom Söderlund, Blaze
The stakeholders agree all on one point – the accessibility of mobile games have to be
changed to facilitate the transformation of mobile game players to mobile game
buyers. But here the similarity stops – because the thoughts and opinions on how this
change should occur differ among the different stakeholders. As the operator for a
long time has been the last link to the consumer, it is also they that get blamed for the
unsuccessfulness in the distribution. The most popular way in which to download
mobile games is today still through the mobile phone via the operator portal.90 The
opinions are divided regarding whether the operators should continue having the role
as store front to the consumers or if they should give it up to other stakeholders – i.e.
independent portals run by big web game stores (e.g. yahoo games, msn zone) or big
physical game stores (e.g. EBgames). Tom Söderlund is one of the ones who mean
that the mobile operators should stop trying to be game stores and concentrate on
IP-traffic and possibly billing.
“The mobile operators stand for a majority of the mobile game sales today,
and they handle it badly. Only five per cent of those who can buy a mobile game actually do
it, and I would give the operators the biggest blame for that.”
As a publisher they have an own small store but as they are just a publisher their
range of games will always be limited and hence they will never have the possibility to
become that demanded game store.
The need of a real mobile game store is clear. Today’s portals that offer mobile games
lack a complete range of games and satisfactory information about the games before
the purchase. And as there is no obvious place where to buy mobile games, the
89
90
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
- 41 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
consumers do not know where to go. The issue of the lack of complete range of
games implies even a bigger problem – the problem that if the consumer find a game
that he really likes and wants to recommend it to friends, it is not sure that the friend
may buy the game.
” If you are to buy a PC- or console game, you will find physical stores where you
expect a complete supply of at least the latest games. You have the game boxes where you see
screenshots of how the games look like, and you have extensive text descriptions. Before you
go to the store you can read reviews of the game in newspapers or on-line. You may receive
recommendations from a friend or a store clerk, and for some games you may also download
demos and try them before you buy. On the mobile phone, the supply of games is very
different based on where you go to shop. When searching, you are limited to browsing a text
list of game titles, getting a brief text description and in best case a screenshot of the game.
And based on this, you are expected to make a decision –
‘is this game worth 5 Euro to me’”
Tom Söderlund, Blaze
The operator Telenor and aggregator Aspiro do however disagree, meaning that they
both provide game stores as complete as they should be and in which all consumers
should be able to find what they are looking for. Telenor provides approximately 500
game titles today including everything from hardcore, Tetris, board games to sport
games.91
The content discovery issue is also associated with shortcomings in the interface
design. A search function92 or a simplified access through a pre-installed application
on the mobile phone through which the consumers could access content easily93, are
some of the suggestions originating from the interviews.
The problem does however not end here. Even if the content discovery will be
facilitated, the fact still remains that when the consumer decides to acquire a new
mobile handset, there is no way to transfer the purchased games - unless they are on
a memory chip- from the old mobile handset to the new one. It is difficult to reload a
previously purchased game unless the consumer has kept the certificate numbers and
other information about the purchase. This is a gap that needs to be fixed in the
gaming industry, particularly if games are loaded on smart phones that have continual
flash updates that wipe out the BIOS.94
5.5.3 The Interoperability Issue and Lack of Standards
Interoperability issues are caused due to lack of standards. As mobile handset devices
have different screen sizes, graphical capabilities, user interfaces and run on different
platforms, it is not possible to have one game developed in J2ME environment
working equivalently on every single device. This constrains mobile game
developers95 to test and port (modify) their games for all different handset models
and operators. What may have worked well on one handset device might have to be
completely re-designed to work well on another type. As new mobile phones always
keep on coming, the developers have to continuously update the games.
91
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
Ibid
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
94
Lyle W Paczkowski, ” RE: Master Thesis Report - Social Gaming,” to Susanna Leidegrant, March 6, 2007.
95
This issue concerns mobile application development in general.
92
93
- 42 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
Unlike focusing on three big gaming platforms as in the traditional gaming industry, a
publisher in the mobile gaming business has to make sure that their game works on
as many platforms as possible to achieve full sales potential. This is of course not
only something driven by the publishers, but also the carriers, for which it is
important to be offering games that are available for as a big part as possible of their
customer base.96
In addition, there are several software platforms, of which two have to be supported
to please the various operators – J2ME and BREW. This increases the complexity
even more and consequently the development costs significantly. The handset churn
rates in Europe are less than 12 months, which mirror the rate with which mobile
handsets are launched and make the porting issue more evident.97
Interoperability problems have also been a big issue for MMS as the consumers have
been highly limited to whom they could send MMS.98 Often these situations occur
when companies create proprietary solutions that enable them to enter the market
first. As explained earlier these have a down side –a fragmentation of formats and
solutions. Several different formats make it much harder to exchange for example
logos and ring tones with owners of phones from different manufacturers. To
produce content in various different formats increases the cost considerably.99 For
the consumer the consumption becomes more difficult as they have to be aware of
what phone they have100. This is a key issue especially for multiplayer mobile gaming.
5.5.4 The Messy Billing Landscape
The mobile content industry with its billing landscape is very messy, in other words
how revenues and costs are divided between the stakeholders. The different
stakeholders watch their own interest which creates a situation similar to a
chessboard with two pawns that stand against each other without anything
happening, Stefan Lampinen explained in an interview. In the traditional gaming
industry the billing landscape has been very clear and the stakeholders have
understood the return of investment which has enabled the industry to grow to its
current size.101
Stefan Lampinen is the former Director of Strategy and Business Development at the
Games Business Unit at Nokia and today responsible for the Emerging Markets at
Xbox Microsoft. He means that a clearer billing landscape is not only necessary for
bringing the industry forward, but also for the consumers that want to know how it is
charged and where the money goes.
”For the consumer perspective to take effect and become flawless, then the
billing landscape has to work. And today the billing landscape is a mess on mobile content.
In the console gaming business there are rather clear game rules which makes it easy for the
consumers to understand what applies.”
Stefan Lampinen, Xbox
96
D. Wisniewski et al., IGDA International Game Developers Association, IGDA Online Games White Paper,
June 2005.
97
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
98
C. Andersson et al., Mobile Media and Applications, From Concept to Cash: Successful Service Creation and
Launch (Chicester: John Wiley & Sons, 2006)
99
Ibid
100
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
101
Stefan Lampinen, interview by author, Stockholm, September 23, 2006.
- 43 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
5.5.5 Old, Non-Innovative Pricing Models
Lack of options, difficulty in relating costs to Megabyte and not knowing whether
being charged for data traffic or not. Just as it was with e-commerce some years ago,
buying something with the mobile handset is still rather frightening for many
consumers. Data traffic costs and at the same time accessing content through a Wap
page has not been as intuitive as aspired. The situation has not become any better
with some service providers receiving negative publicity due to the use of
subscription models that have had consumers not only purchasing a game, but a
subscription that they had not thought of acquiring. This discourages from future
purchases.102
Pricing is a good tool to use when wanting to attract new consumers – especially the
price sensitive ones. But a cheap game will not make a consumer more satisfied, and
it is certainly not the best solution. Quality and game play is as important as for
games that cost more. Having cheap games just to have cheap games, is not a
strategy that will last if that implies that the games have to be of inferior quality. By
being fast on following product cycles, the aggregators and operators have the
possibility to offer older but good games to a good price.103 More pricing models are
however needed. A heavy gamer should be able to have a game subscription that
supports his or her gaming, while a beginner should have the possibility to test a
game for a small amount during a couple of days.104
5.5.6 Creating a Critical Mass
”It’s more fun to play Counterstrike that all are playing, because then you can
find people to play with rather than playing a game that nobody else is playing.”
Martin Björling, avid Counterstrike gamer and community user
In services that are depending on the network effect – i.e. that become more valuable
the bigger the customer base is – reaching a critical mass is of highest priority. This
has been one of the reasons why game initiatives such as the N-Gage failed105 and it
has also been one of the obstacles found by Mobile Interactive's Peter Lindström to
make operators jump on the train.
”There is an interest, but it is still somewhat new and most operators want that
others shall try before and that a critical mass is reached so that they easily may take second
place. That is why the corresponding web games are needed to increase the consumer base.”
When Aspiro works with their multiplayer games they actively work with creating a
critical mass. Except for marketing they have for instance a specific category for
multiplayer games that is accessible from all their channels.106
102
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
Ibid
Peter Lindström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 15, 2006.
105
Stefan Lampinen, interview by author, Stockholm, September 23, 2006.
106
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
103
104
- 44 -
5. The Mobile Gaming Industry
5.6 Design Rules to Follow
There are some rules that a mobile service developer has to keep in mind during the
development phase. These rules, if not followed, are the main source to the basic and
most well-known barriers of use107:
EASY AND QUICK ACCESS. Few clicks and no log-in.
INTUITIVE TO USE. No need for manuals.
COMPREHENSIBLE NAMING of menu options and folders.
SHORT LOADING TIME
UNCOMPROMISED MOBILE PHONE FUNCTIONALITY
GOOD TECHNICAL FUNCTIONALITY AND RELIABILITY
INFORMATIVE FEEDBACK. A user’s action has to be clearly confirmed with sound
or graphic.
INSTANT GRATIFICATION (in mobile games) Instant gratification in mobile games
are achieved by having short game sessions that do not require one hour of
continuous play to achieve next level . Together with the possibility to save progress
and resume the game later, this creates loyalty to a game.108
5.7 Summary
The mobile gaming industry is still very young and is experiencing a lot of difficulties.
First of all the value chain is much more complex than the one of the online gaming
industry and the unclear roles of the stakeholders are causing a messy billing
landscape. Moreover, interoperability issues render mobile game development more
expensive and time consuming.
This chapter has also shown that there are many criteria that hamper the conversion
of more game players to game buyers. It is not only technology and device
limitations but issues that concern pricing and content discovery. Better marketing109,
high quality games110, possibility to test games111, more information and descriptive
promotion material112 are just some issues that have to be improved to increase the
awareness among consumers.
Despite all these issues the European mobile gaming markets are estimated to reach
EUR 2,400 millions by 2012. IMS, handset ubiquity, more advanced handsets and
game titles, as well as the wider deployment of 3G networks, are believed to be the
key drivers.113
107
C. Andersson et al., Mobile Media and Applications, From Concept to Cash: Successful Service Creation and
Launch (Chicester: John Wiley & Sons, 2006)
108
Ibid
109
Peter LIndström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 15, 2006
Annika O. Bergström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 13, 2006.
110
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
111
Peter Lindström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 15, 2006.
112
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
113
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
- 45 -
6. Networked/Social Gaming
6. Networked/Social Gaming
This following chapter discusses the convergence of the online and mobile gaming
industries from a consumer perspective – in other words, the possible gaming
solutions that we can await. For information on the effect on industry
stakeholders and the industry as a whole the reader is referred to Appendix I:
IMS.
6.1 Key Industry Facts and Market Predictions
The following facts are based on “The networked media market” by the consultancy firm Analysys.
o Networked gaming consists both of mobile gaming and online gaming, and
therefore comprise:
>> online console gaming
>> massively multiplayer online gaming
>> multiplayer Internet gaming
>> mobile multiplayer gaming
o The number of users worldwide is expected to reach over 500 million by 2011
o Total global revenues will grow to almost EUR30 billion by 2011 and surpass the
revenues from traditional gaming
30
25
20
15
10
5
Connectivity revenues
Volume increase
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
0
2006
o Connectivity revenues will mainly be
limited as the majority is bundled into
broadband subscriptions. Additional
revenues will come largely from ingame advertising (Chart 3).
35
2005
1. traditional gamers paying an
additional amount, usually a
subscription, to compete against
other gamers online
2. mobile users paying an
additional amount for
downloading games onto their
handsets
3. computer users playing online
only and that will account for
substitution revenues
Networked gaming market revenues (EUR billions)
o Total growth worldwide will be based on traditional gamers starting to go online
to play against other online users, and mobile gamers having access to a larger
range of better quality games. The majority of the gamers will therefore consist of:
Substitution
Additional
Chart 3: Networked gaming revenues by source,
forecast 2005 - 2011
(Source: Matthew Hester, “Networked media
market,” PowerPoint presentation, May 23rd 2006.
Analysys Research Limited.)
- 46 -
6. Networked/Social Gaming
Following in this chapter, characteristics and functions of Social Gaming that have great
importance from a consumer perspective will be presented. Even though these functions
could be ensured with the adoption of other technologies, the thought with IMS is to have
one standard and in this way avoid interoperability issues.
6.2 Network and Client Independency
Network and client independency will
enable gamers to meet and play
disregarding whether they play in front
of the PC, TV or on the mobile phone
(see Image 3 for illustration).114 A global
online presence will moreover provide
consumers with unique virtual identities
that will enable them to act under one
single gamer name in different game
lobbies and games regardless network
or device.
Cross-over advantages are believed to
cause marketing opportunities as well
as big cost-savings.
Image 3: Client Independency in Networked Gaming
6.3 Presence as the Generator of Game
Opportunities
Today online gaming requires a desire to play a game. It means that the gamer has to
intentionally start the game and first at that point, see if there is a friend or potential
opponent to be found in the portal or community. With IMS based Presence
Enabled Phonebook (PEP)115 the gamer could instead see that a friend is online and
through the presence information get an indication what that person is doing. A
friend that in his presence line states that he is bored could very likely become a
potential game opponent. The availability of presence information will generate more
communication both in the form of more gaming opportunities as well as any other
kind of activity that enables socializing.
” A lot of the player-to-player communication in online multiplayer
game is actually non-game related”.
Tom Söderlund, Blaze
6.4 Game Share
Multiplayer gaming is one of the content types for which Super Distribution suits
very well as a distribution model and a way to increase content usage. A game related
form of Super Distribution enabled by IMS is the concept Game Share which could
also be seen as a pricing strategy. The industry itself sees Super Distribution and
consequently Game Share as having big potentials.
114
115
Markus Nilsson, “Ericsson Gaming,” PowerPoint presentation, August 9, 2006. Ericsson.
See Appendix 1: IMS for information specifically on the IMS based Presence Enabled Phonebook
- 47 -
6. Networked/Social Gaming
“It may become a very powerful driving force because it is a recommendation
from a friend that says that something is good”.
Peter Ahnegård, Sony Ericsson
The concept of Game Share builds on two types of licenses – A and B. Example:
1. When 19-year-old Anna purchases a game she will automatically receive an A
license. Except for the game itself, this entitles her to send game invitations to
an unlimited amount of friends when she wants to play in multiplayer-mode.
2. When Emma, one of Anna’s friends, receives a game invitation from Anna, she
gets the opportunity to download the game with a B license for free. However,
this B license only entitles her to play this game session with Anna.
3. If Emma wants to be able to send game invitations to friends by her own, she
will have to purchase the game in order to obtain the required A license.
6.5 IMS and Game Lobbies
Initiating game sessions through a Presence-Enabled-Phonebook is a great
opportunity in which to attract new audiences that do not necessarily have the
mindset to play a game but the one to communicate.116
But for those that specifically are searching to play games, it is important to provide
game access through game lobbies. Game lobbies are especially important for hard
core gamers that already have a specific game that they play. They want to play, they
enter a game lobby and then they find someone to play against.117
As with different tools for communication, without a customer base large enough a
gaming portal is nothing. Ericsson is therefore using IMS to enable seamless
interactivity for the construction of larger mobile communities118. The key issue is
interoperability119 - both interoperability between games and between portals. An
integration of multiple portals that have the same game, would lead to the
convergence of gamers from different portals into one single large consumer base120.
”The big thing is however that the gaming industry has to
agree upon their protocols and how one actually should manage in-game and between-game
signaling and communication. [ ] That is a problem, a challenge that IMS could help out
with, but the gaming industry has to take a hold of it – if they want to achieve it.”
Daniel Glifberg, Ericsson
6.6 In-game Communication
IMS based Push-to-Talk is a VoIP feature for voice communication in half-duplex
similar to a “walkie-talkie” service and has the main purpose to facilitate fleet
management and group chatting121. In the US the service has been very successful
after it was launched by Nextel122 and is now the principal communication feature
that is planned to be integrated with the first IMS multiplayer games. A very
116
Daniel Glifberg, interview by author, Stockholm, October 20, 2006
Ibid
118
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
119
Ibid
120
Daniel Glifberg, interview by author, Stockholm, October 20, 2006
121
Ibid
122
Ibid
117
- 48 -
6. Networked/Social Gaming
important factor to the success of Push-to-Talk in the US was the pricing picture123
which enabled much cheaper voice communication than regular mobile phone calls.
In countries such as Sweden where the costs for mobile phone calls are low in
general, the service has however not really received a significant breakthrough. This
situation could be exemplified with the operator Telenor that despite having Push-toTalk in their offering, only has communicated the service to the corporate segment.124
Due to this the potentials of having Push-to-Talk integrated with games can therefore
be questioned. It is still a matter of cost. It is a fact though, that mobile systems in the
start are more suited with half duplex services. Over times, when quality and
efficiency is improved, it will become feasible to implement more demanding services
seeing that they may be offered to more reasonable price levels. In this case, Push-toTalk could in the future more than likely be exchanged for a more telephony like
service such as full duplex VoIP.125 The pricing might however turn out to be not the
only thing that could make Push-to-Talk successful.
”There are many that, after having been text chatting for a longer
while, make a phone call instead. But at the same time there is a large group that
finds it very formal to call. Maybe an informal ”in-between” could be created with
which you exchange some short and quick information”.
Daniel Glifberg, Ericsson
Enriching a game with voice communication is not the only way to combine the two.
The opposite way would be to enrich voice communication, i.e. a conversation, by
playing a game. To make use of this niche is a potential as important as any for the
gaming industry. It provides the consumers with a new way to socialize and increases
the spontaneous gaming opportunities. At the same time it becomes an opportunity
to generate more voice traffic:
”Our conversation that would last 2 minutes turns into 5 minutes.
Suddenly the operator got 6 crowns extra if it costs 2 crowns per minute. From such a
perspective there could be an incitement for operators to actually provide some games
for free to their customers. So instead for me, you and other individuals purchasing the
game the operator would become the one that pays for it”
Daniel Glifberg, Ericsson
6.7 Summary
The convergence of online PC and console gaming with multiplayer mobile gaming
will imply several important changes for the consumers:
o Network and client independency enabling gamers to play against each other
independent gaming platforms
o Presence information facilitating the identification of potential opponents
o Game Share using the concept of Super Distribution to introduce gaming
o Game Lobbies ensuring large gamer bases
o In-game communication increasing spontaneous gaming opportunities
These changes are in turn predicted to increase game-play and the current number of
gamers.
123
Daniel Glifberg, interview by author, Stockholm, October 20, 2006
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
125
Ericsson, Mobile Core Evolution, June 19, 2006.
124
- 49 -
7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
7. Trends and Tendencies – the
Industries’ Predictions and
Visions
This chapter is based on findings retrieved during the desktop research and the
conducted interviews with industry stakeholders. The aim is to inform the
reader of current trends that in some way are related to gaming and Social
Gaming– both trends online and in the online gaming and mobile gaming
industries. This chapter will provide the reader with a glance on the two
industries from the perspective of media companies, operators and other service
providers.
7.1 Online Trends
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES. With success stories such as Lunarstorm and MySpace, to
become community driven is something that many companies active online are
striving for. It is seen as one of the success factors to retain customers. Communities
come in different sizes and shapes, some with features such as forums, guestbooks
and profiles, and other where people have the possibility to communicate with
avatars in virtual realities.
CONVERGENCE OF COMMUNICATION TOOLS INTO ONE APPLICATION.
Instant Messaging clients such as MSN Messenger and VoIP applications as Skype126
are getting more and more advanced. Today they are not only used for text based
communication anymore, but for voice calls, video conferencing, file sharing and
even to play games against one and other. We have a vast amount of communication
tools converged into one and only application which supports our hectic and
multitasking life styles. Even the presence aware contact list fulfills a role as a
communication enabler, despite it being in a very subtle way. The world has suddenly
become much smaller. We can easily keep in touch with friends and loved ones, or
get to know new people just in the way we want to, regardless on which side of the
globe they are at.
PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING. The peer-to-peer (P2P) model of file sharing is one
of the most common ways in which to make files available for other users to
download over the Internet and smaller networks. In peer-to-peer file sharing the
files are stored on the personal computers of the users. This means that there is no
need for a centralized server and therefore no uploading is required. There are many
free peer-to-peer programs available on the market such as e-mule, BitComet127 and
DC++.128
126
www.skype.com
www.bitcomet.com
128
Source: “Wireless/Networking - Peer to Peer File Sharing - P2P Networking,” via About.com,
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/p2ppeertopeer/Peer_to_Peer_File_Sharing_P2P_Networking.htm,
accessed November 2006.
128
Source: Mary Billis, “The History of Puzzle, Card, and Board Games - The inventors behind life's greatest
diversions,” 2006,via About.com, accessed November 2006.
127
- 50 -
7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
As mentioned before, using the Instant Messaging client is another popular way to
share files with friends and other contacts.
CREATE AND SHARE – USER GENERATED CONTENT. The sharing of content has
moved on from an impersonal level to the point where users themselves create the
content being shared. With user created content “everyone can be seen”. A current
example is Youtube.com. With easy to use movie editing software, increased
computer capacity, the Internet and sites such as Youtube.com everyone can be the
director of their own movies.
SUPER DISTRIBUTION – VIRAL MARKETING. Word of mouth is the single-most
important influence on consumer electronic purchases.129 With the online world,
word of mouth has evolved into vibrant link and file sharing over the Internet. With
this in mind, it is not surprising that publishers and media companies are looking into
ways in which to take advantage of the viral marketing effect that this is creating but
still having the content protected. Digital Rights Management (DRM), technologies
that are used to protect content for digital distribution, do however run the risk to be
too intrusive and kill the system.130
The idea of the digital rights management technology Super Distribution is to allow
content to be wrapped and rights to be ascribed to the use of content as it travels
over the Internet. Super Distribution is very similar to the concept of Viral
Marketing131, where the users themselves are the marketers and creating a buzz for
the product or service. It enables for example a user to purchase content and then
send it to a friend. As this content has Super Distribution rights associated to it, the
receiver will be able to access the file, but maybe only play and review it once. To use
it after that, the receiver has to purchase a separate license for his or her own
unlimited use. In this secure environment content is really protected and the content
providers and IP-owners have an opportunity for revenue.132
7.2 The Age of Online Gaming
As games became connected, many of the trends already taking place on the Internet
space have started to rub over to the online gaming world.
SOCIAL ASPECTS CHANGING THE STRUCTURE OF GAMES
“World of Warcraft changed the map. It really defies everything;
all the rules for what one should do to create a mass market game. But when looking to the
consumers, then it definitely is a mass market game.”
Marcus Legler, Jadestone
129
Wireless World Forum, MobileYouth 2006, July 1, 2006.
Ziff Davis, “Super-Distribution Turns Pirates Into Friends,” Find Articles, October 2002,
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdcis/is_200210/ai_ziff32258, accessed December 2006.
131
Viral Marketing: A marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a
marketing message.
132
Ibid
130
- 51 -
7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
With the two most popular features in
online gaming being the chat133 - both
voice and text based, it is getting
harder to see where the border runs
between communities with avatars
and multiplayer games. Image 4 shows
a screenshot from the multiplayer
game The Sims Online where the
gamers can communicate with each
other. In-game voice communication
is so common nowadays according to
Martin Björling that gamers are very
used to talk with each; there is hardly Image 4: The Sims Online
(Source: Lee Cieniawa, “The Sims Online,” The
any barrier of use.
armchair empire, April 5, 2003,
http://www.armchairempire.com/Reviews/PC%20Gam
es/sims-online.htm, accessed January 2006.)
In addition, features such as sharing
and recommending reinforce the
community feeling even more between the gamers. Except for better graphics that
make games more realistic, it is in fact the emphasis on story and character
development that is gaining more importance134. More games are starting to turn up,
in which there are no real goals and nothing that stresses. The gamers are instead
allowed to walk around in these fantasy worlds and just “be”.135
INTEGRATION OF MEDIA AND CONTENT – THE HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM
”What was said already when launching PlayStation2 was that the next machine would
become a strategic part of the home. Ken Kutaragi, the father to Playstation, called Sony
PS3 a super computer.136“
Jens Alex, Nordisk Film
Consoles are not only about games
anymore, but are instead becoming
entire home entertainment systems
where games, movies, music,
Internet and more is mixed
together. The fact that game
consoles are taking over the roles of
home entertainment systems, makes
the integration of other forms of
content more prevalent137.
Sharing music within games or
playing a game with the background
of a music video, are just two
examples of what the device
manufacturers and software
Image 5: Xbox Live Arcade’s Lumines Live integrated with
music videos
Vladimir Cole, “Engadget & Joystiq’s live coverage of
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 E3 event,” Joystiq, May 9, 2006,
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/09/engadget-and-joystiqslive-coverage-of-microsofts-xbox-360-e3-ev/, accessed January
2006.)
133
Peter Lindström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 15, 2006.
Howard Wen, “Analyze This: Will 'Casual' Games Dominate the Future of the Industry?,” Gamasutra, March
8, 2006, http://gamasutra.com/features/20060803/wen_02.shtml, accessed September 2006.
135
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
Annika O. Bergström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 13, 2006.
136
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
137
Howard Wen, “Analyze This: Will 'Casual' Games Dominate the Future of the Industry?,” Gamasutra, March
8, 2006, http://gamasutra.com/features/20060803/wen_02.shtml, accessed September 2006.
134
- 52 -
7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
developers are proposing. Image 5 shows one of the games on Xbox Live Arcade Luminces Live, integrated with music videos.
MERGING HOME AND PORTABLE CONSOLE MARKETS. The console is however
not limited by the walls of the home. Anticipated evolution in the console market is
the merging of the home and portable consoles. In practice, a gamer will be able to
in the near future start a game on the Sony Playstation and then seamlessly switch
from the home console to Sony’s138 portable version the Sony PSP as leaving the
house.139
”In the future the Playstation Portable will be integrated very much with the Playstation 3
in such a way that you for example can use the hard disk and access it wirelessly from the
PSP. You could also use the PSP as a rear-view mirror when
playing Formel1 on the Playstation.”
Jens Alex, Nordisk film
EXTRA SERVICES AND A CHANGED MARKET PLACE. As gaming devices got
connected, it opened up a whole new world of not just online gaming, but also
content services that enable changing, adding, altering or unlocking content. The
digital market place made the consumer to experience a great change in how games
and related content are presented.
Samples of games, free
games, articles, opinion
polls, game statistics, talent
calculators, additional
maps, event calendars,
character management and
forums, are some of the
extra services all available
for the consumer directly in
the own home through the
computer screen. Image 6
shows an example of how
this can look like.
Extra services related to
Image 6: World of Warcraft community services
gaming are seen as an
Source: Source: Blizzard Entertainment, “Armor sets,” The World of
important feature in
Warcraft site, http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/armorsets,
creating a complete
accessed December 2006.
consumer experience and
consequently an important revenue source. Just imagine what extra services could be
created around an idol concept for a game such as SingStar where consumers could
enter a competition online with their own music videos.140
138
Sony is one of the companies that have all entertainment forms in-house – music, movies and games. When
it comes to the gaming business, Sony is active throughout the whole gaming value chain. Though their main
role is being a console manufacturer, they are publishers and developers as well. Games developed by thirdparty for the Sony Playstation platforms have to in addition be acknowledged by Sony. The importance of
having a broad range of games makes it more important to work with third-parties than trying to handle all the
development in-house. (Source: Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.)
139
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
140
Ibid
- 53 -
7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
”Today it does not have to be just games, it can be more –
it can be communities, voice communication, sharing music within the games. It is in
this way that the target group is widened.”
Stefan Lampinen, Microsoft Xbox
Another interesting development that as well is being seen in the gaming world,
regards the business models that are being applied in virtual communities such as
Habbo Hotel141 and Second Life142. There the members use avatars and create their
own spaces. The desire to develop the own characters and spaces has evolved into
business models where the revenue is generated from the selling and purchasing of
virtual items. Habbo Hotel does for example create virtual items that the users then
may purchase. Second Life on the other hand, benefits the users to a greater extent.
The users are in this case also the content creators and Linden Labs, the company
behind Second Life, does only take a processing fee for moving between Linden
Dollars and real money.
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION ENABLES INNOVATIVE PRICING STRATEGIES and the
more online functional and innovative pricing strategies are something that the
industry has been waiting for. Suddenly shelf space has become infinite and there is
no need to guess how many copies to manufacture. This could in the future lead to
an explosion of niche markets where small developers can serve smaller markets143
“The present-day situation is that there is room for 20 to 30 songs per disc for the game
SingStar. Through online distribution the number of songs could be increased a lot”.
Martin Lindell, Manual
Some of the trends identified through the stakeholder interviews are:
o
o
o
o
o
Wider range of prices
Less money up-front
Micro payments
Extension packs and upgrades
Advertisement revenues144
For the consumers the flexibility will be the largest advantage.145 By creating more
options for the consumers, the industry is hoping to make it easier for the consumers
to choose and pay exactly for what they want. In turn the maximum amount of
content will be sold146.
A good example is Microsoft’s platform Xbox Live Arcade. By taking advantage of
digital distribution, Microsoft has re-introduced older classical puzzle and board
games that nobody would have paid SEK 350 (EUR 38) for in physical format.
Through the Live Arcade, a complementary game portfolio has been created to the
one that includes games ranging from SEK 200 to 600 in price (EUR 22-65).
141
www.habbo.com
secondlife.com
Ernest W. Adams, “The Future of Computer Entertainment, 2005-2050,” PowerPoint presentation,
April 19, 2005, http://www.gamesandstorytelling.net/material/EWA.pdf, accessed October 2006.
144
Johan Kristiansson, interview by author, Stockholm, September 8, 2006.
145
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
146
Alastair Brydon, Mark Heath, and Alex Zadvorny, Analysys, Pricing Mobile Services for Success: towards
bundled future, June 30, 2006.
142
143
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7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
Consumers may here instead find games for SEK 10 to 30 (EUR 1-3), many of
which have not been available before. 147
“This makes the game justifiable commercially where it would not have worked with
packaging and sales through retail stores.”
Martin Lindell, Manual
Even though each industry has its unique attributes, it is worth looking at other
industries for ideas. 148 One other pricing model that is found promising by the
industry is the Episode model. It has a resemblance to how it works with TV series.
Instead of creating one enormous game, shorter chapters are created which offer two
hours game play for a significantly lower price compared to the whole game. Each
new episode would thereafter be released with a six weeks interval.149 Both the
consumer and the industry would benefit from such an approach, according to
Marcus Legler at Jadestone. Large games that contain 60 hours of game play create
the risk of gamers getting tired when not managing to play through the whole game.
This does not drive sales.
CASUAL GAMES – THE GAMES FOR THE MASS MARKET? On the PC side casual
games have been achieving enormous success for many years with sites such as
Yahoo! Games attracting a large audience looking for accessible games that give
quicker payoff and require lower time investment.
Graphics realism does not make the game in this case and casual games therefore do
not require million dollar development budgets. This has made the casual gaming
space the one area where creativity is allowed and the indie gaming community is
very active150.
And now, casual games are
coming big on consoles and
mobile handsets151. Nintendo is
going more and more in this
direction152 and Microsoft has
found success in Xbox Live
Arcade.
By introducing casual games on
these gaming platforms, even
hardcore gamers are rediscovering this category of
games (image 7).153
Image 7: Re-experiencing casual games
Beth Dillon, “Event Wrap Up - 2005 Indie Games
Conference: Casual Games,” Gamasutra, October 18, 2005,
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051018/dillon_01.shtml,
accessed October 2006.
147
Stefan Lampinen, interview by author, Stockholm, September 23, 2006.
Tom Hunter, “Game Pricing Strategies: A Hypothesis,” Gamasutra, September 20, 2005,
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050920/hunter_02.shtml, accessed September 2006.
149
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
150
Howard Wen, “Analyze This: Will 'Casual' Games Dominate the Future of the Industry?,” Gamasutra,
August 3, 2006, http://gamasutra.com/features/20060803/wen_01.shtml, accessed January 2007.
151
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
152
Patrik Johansson, “Re: Frågorna,” to Susanna Leidegrant, September 8, 2006.
153
Howard Wen, “Analyze This: Will 'Casual' Games Dominate the Future of the Industry?,” Gamasutra,
August 3, 2006, http://gamasutra.com/features/20060803/wen_01.shtml, accessed January 2007.
148
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7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
FLASH GAMES. Flash is a very popular technology for adding animation and
interactivity to web sites through e.g. advertisements, web-page components and
animations. Since the former American graphics and web development software
house Macromedia Inc.154 launched Flash and its programming language Actionscript
in 1996, the online gaming industry has grown extensively together with the number
of sites that offer flash games for download. At the same time Flash content is
becoming a more and more popular type of content to create and share online with
others.
OTHER EXPRESSIONS – MORE THAN JUST GRAPHICS.
”There is a dangerous game development today that focuses on graphics
and colors all the time. And this costs millions in bug search.”
Stefan Lampinen, Microsoft Xbox
During the last years of technological advancement, graphics have reached new levels
of realism. A large screen and graphics are however not a prerequisite to create a
good game experience. Casual games do not require it, and as portable gaming
devices are becoming more advanced they start to allow other expressions than just
visual. Nintendo DS Lite is such an example. With voice control and one of the two
screens being a touch screen, the gamer has suddenly the possibility to interact by
touch or the use of his voice to generate reactions in games.155
“Nintendo have accomplished to find the innovation in front of the screen. [ ] They have
invented something new that ads funlevel and playability.”
Stefan Lampinen, Microsoft Xbox.
“Expectations on graphics depend very much on the target group.
Someone who buys Doom 3 will probably say that cutting-edge graphics is very important.
Outside of that, there is a vast audience that plays simple web games, Solitaire, etc on their
computers, and for them the technical quality of the graphics is not that important”
Tom Söderlund, Blaze
IN-GAME ADVERTISEMENT. Except for in sport games such as football games, ingame advertising has never really become a big hit. Already in the early 90’s
McDonalds and 7Up tried to create games but the consumers saw through it. Both
parents and consumers reacted very negatively.156
In-game product placement is on the rise and today there are advertising agencies
that sell advertisement space in games. According to Jens Alex at Nordisk film there
is however a need to master this kind of advertisement in the same way as it has been
mastered in the movies. This mastering, he states, is a prerequisite for an up-take.157
The big question is however whether this extra revenue source will lower the prices
on games or not. Letting content being ad-financed is the business model used by
many online gaming sites today. This enables them to offer a major part of their
154
http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/
www.nintendo.com
Stefan Lampinen, interview by author, Stockholm, September 23, 2006.
157
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
155
156
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7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
games for free. With technology advancements, dynamic advertisements to gamers in
real time will enable new business models.
CREATE AND SHARE GAME RELATED CONTENT. The social function that games
have started to take on, has made games to adopt the new online trend of user
created content. Online it has been YouTube and MySpace having the lead, and in
the game world one good example is the game ”The movies” where everyone can be
a director and make their own movies that they later can upload for others to see.158
As games themselves are rather difficult to develop just like that, it is the game
related content that is being shared – videos, music remixed with sound from
games,159 characters or even modifications of games.160 Second Life, an MMO game
created by Linden Labs161, allows gamers to own the IP of their creation, and some
gamers have even gone on to sell their in-game creations for real money.162
7.3 Mobile Gaming – Game Trends Going
Mobile
A general trend in the telecom industry is the increased network bandwidth and more
advanced handset devices which are opening up the possibility of multimedia
services. Furthermore, service options like flat-rate are lowering the entry barrier for
the consumer.
FUTURE INNOVATIVE PRICING MODELS AND STRATEGIES. Companies
integrating innovative pricing strategies with their marketing and product design
make huge impacts in their market. A good pricing strategy can impose big changes
across whole industries.163 Innovative pricing removes price as a barrier and helps
consumers to purchase what they want and how they want.164
Consumers want to be aware of how much they pay and how much things cost. To
relate cost to data traffic is very hard compared to time and SMS. Technology today
allows very high data capacity and consequently flatrates but it is up to the operators
to invest in network expansion165. The operators have understood this and are today
looking into ways in which to implement flatrate offerings to in such a way facilitate
for the consumer to relate to his expenses.
“Are you to kick-start this market then it is wrong to have the consumers
using the service while knowing that it ticks money all the time. Then it is better to have a
fixed sum. When we have worked with our portal we have always had the strategy that it
should not cost anything to window shop, i.e. to move around within the portal.”
Sonia Kavs, Telenor
Telia SurfPort has implemented a limit of SEK 9 (EUR 1) a day which ensures
consumers that they will never pay more than SEK 9 a day. They do not have to be
158
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
160
Ibid
161
www.lindenlab.com
162
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
163
Tom Hunter, “Game Pricing Strategies: A Hypothesis,” Gamasutra, September 20, 2005,
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050920/hunter_02.shtml, accessed January 2007.
164
Ibid
165
Daniel Glifberg, interview by author, Stockholm, October 20, 2006
159
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7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
frightened of having expenses accumulating beyond all levels. This is a way to get
people start paying for multimedia services on the mobile.166
To rent games and to enable gamers to try games for free before purchase are other
ways to support the consumer. What Aspiro has seen is that people that buy, want to
buy a lot of games. It is usually the same people that buy over and over again. But for
the new consumers that never have bought a mobile game in their whole life, it may
be easier to pay less and try a game for a limited time and then to pay full price. This
will enable them to test and see if it is something that suits them. 167 People that have
been accustomed to a service and feel comfortable using it, are more wiling to pay
for an upgrade as they know what they will receive for the money168.
THE CONCEPT “TEST AND BUY”. The possibility for the consumer to test play
before purchase is something that the industry is seeing as a very important element
in future game services.
“It is a way to get a feeling of the product before you buy.”
Tom Söderlund, Blaze
“It is a way in which to get this market on the roll and for the
consumer to test before the purchase. To test play a level of the game and then buy the rest of the
game is very consumer friendly.”
Sonia Kavs, Telenor
Those who have made the most progress in this way of thinking are the ones who
develop web-games. They put a lot of effort in studying how people play games and
for how long they should allow them to play for free before starting to charge them
for it.169 According to Tom Söderlund it is usually estimated with one hour for these
kinds of games, and for a mobile game it would be something similar if not shorter.
There are however some difficulties that one should be aware of concerning the
“Test and Buy” concept. First of all, it is not the easiest task to determine how big a
demo should be as the “perfect” size differs from game to game. It has to be long
enough to get people “hooked” so that they decide on purchasing it, and at the same
time it cannot be too long so that people get satisfied with only playing the demo.
Second of all, there are implications with the implementation itself. In an interview
with Telenor it became clear that they as an operator would never take on the
responsibility to realize concepts such as “Test and Buy” or pricing strategies such as
“hiring”. “Since it is the game providers that own the games and we are not game
developers, it is very much up to their own good will to make it”, Sonia Kavs stated
in the interview.
But despite the “Test and Buy” concept being desired both by the developers,
publishers, aggregators and operators, to sacrifice even more time, money and effort
to create such a solution, is not always what the game providers are willing to do.
The aggregator Aspiro is therefore currently developing their own solution that will
enable them to let customers rent the games they offer. Another way in which the
166
Daniel Glifberg, interview by author, Stockholm, October 20, 2006
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
169
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
167
168
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7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
“Test and Buy” concept has been implemented is with the service Gratismobilspel
which enables consumers to test-play games for free an entire day170. This seems to
be what the industry needs – a third party that will provide the tools needed171.
COMMUNITY DRIVEN PLATFORMS. Stakeholders today see a great interest in
building up community features around their gaming offering172. Today the
availability of game related community features on the mobile handset is still limited
to hit lists and news. Features such as user rated games are however to be expected in
the near future.173
Despite the possibilities being rather clear, there is as well a backside to consumer
ratings. In an interview, Inge Conradi explained the risk of casual games such a
Soduko receiving negative reviews by for example hard core gamers which in such
way would create a misleading picture.174
CONTENT CONVERGENCE. A good example on content convergence is the way in
which Sprint is creating an Entertainment centre through which they will provide
their consumers all different kinds of content (see Appendix VIII: Case Studies.
Learning from a Success Story – The Sprint Game Lobby). Something else that
proves the thesis of “content drives content” is the way in which content is offered
to consumers as bundled themes by operators and aggregators. For operators it is in
general important to offer a wide range of content services to be able to appeal to a
wider demographic175.
“ I believe that a variation is needed - you have to have
TV, music, ring tones, games, pictures, because all of it drives the content market.
So I do not believe in just focusing on games or just TV or music.
You have to have everything.”
Sonia Kavs, Telenor
RICH PRESENCE. With rich presence mobile users may automatically obtain context
information about their buddies in their mobile phone book. This information could
include contact information such as their presence line, availability, location, calendar
events, and nearby bluetooth devices.176
By the integration of rich presence in the mobile phone book, consumers obtain a
way in which to feel connected without having to always call or message each other.
Just by glancing on the mobile phone it becomes possible to see that friends and
family members are felling well and what they are doing. In a study conducted at the
University of Helsinki regarding mobile awareness it has actually been stated that by
having rich presence available about the buddies’ current situation, the number of
failed communication attempts are reduced with 12%. In the same study, a group of
170
Appendix VII: Gratismobilspel – Taking the First Steps
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
172
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
Peter Ahnegård, interview by author, Stockholm, October 3, 2006.
173
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
174
Ibid
175
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
176
Juri Engeström, “Response to Questions about Paper,” to Susanna Leidegrant, September 20,
2006.
171
- 59 -
7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
teenagers updated their presence line over 5000 times in a few weeks, using it as a
form of mobile communication.177
“I love the idea of rich presence, because my friends are the content. [ ] You would know so
much about your community, it’d be as though your buddy list was a game.”
Justin Hall178 at the Mobile Game Conference in Seattle, 2006
“A service like Jaiku that allows people to share their rich presence is a
way to entertain, surprise, and communicate with your friends by letting them know what
you're thinking and doing”
Juri Engeström, Jaiku179
AD-FINANCED GAMES. It is actually no wonder why there is a growing interest in
in-game advertising among advertisers and the mobile gaming industry. Mobile
games are after all a direct channel to the very sought after 18-34 male demographic.
Furthermore games support a larger creativeness than simple WAP pages, which
make them even more ideal for the integration of advertisements.180
For stakeholders in-game advertisement is both a new revenue source and a way in
which to try lowering the price for the consumers.181 One of the major reasons for
why mobile gaming has not by far reached the fullest of its potentials is the price
sensitivity among mobile service consumers. In a situation as this, when it is
important to get more people to discover content, ad-financing is looked upon
positively since it removes the price barrier182
But despite successes such as Coca-Cola’s mobile game that resulted in more than
350,000 game downloads each week, mobile advertising has not yet exploded.183
Inhibitory factors such as low consumer acceptance, concerns about mobile spam
and device fragmentation might explain why industry stakeholders are adopting a
wait-and-see policy.184 There is a necessity to keep in-game advertising on a very
sensible level that does not disrupt game play.185
” The risk in all forms of ad-financed games is that it would weaken the perceived
quality of the product. But there are ways to go around it,
and the obvious upside is a new revenue source.”
Tom Söderlund, Blaze
177
Juri Engeström, “Response to Questions about Paper,” to Susanna Leidegrant, September 20,
2006.
178
Justin Hall: American freelance journalist. Known a as a pioneer blogger and for writing reviews from game
conferences (E3 and Tokyo Game Show among others)
179
Jaiku is a service that enhances the mobile phone book with rich presence. The target group of the service
consist today of 20-40-year-old young professionals with an active social life. In the future, with Jaiku becoming
available on more affordable handsets, younger groups of teenagers and students will become one of the target
179
Juri Engeström, “Response to Questions about Paper,” to Susanna Leidegrant, September
groups. (Source:
20, 2006.)
180
Jim Durrell, “Mobile Game Marketing,” iMedia Communications, May 30, 2006,
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9790.asp, accessed November 2006.
181
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
182
Peter Ahnegård, interview by author, Stockholm, October 3, 2006.
183
Jim Durrell, “Mobile Game Marketing,” iMedia Communications, May 30, 2006,
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9790.asp, accessed November 2006.
184
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
185
Ibid
- 60 -
7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
CROSS-MARKETING – TO RIDE ON THE MARKETING WAVE OF OTHERS. With
the premiere of the movie ”The da Vinci Code”, based on the best-seller by Dan
Brown, the mobile game publisher Blaze186 saw the opportunity to reach both the
more established gamers as well as the novice in mobile gaming. To appeal to the
different consumer segments a portfolio with four games was created, containing
both easily accessible games as well as more advanced games.187
Tom Söderlund, Head of Games Publishing at Blaze, sees big opportunities in
launching mobile games in connection to events such as movie premiers and other
product launches – both regarding co-marketing and creating a mobile game with
mass market potential. A narrative type of game could be designed to complement
for example a movie, providing the consumer with more information or presenting
an alternative or parallel story. From a pure marketing point of view there are also
large opportunities in tying the game and movie together with competitions and
other similar activities. Even though there is a lot to win from these kind of
simultaneous launches, it does not come without difficulties. Tom Söderlund
explains:
”We made this launch (the Da Vinci Code games) to
ride on the wave of the movie launch that was rather massive. But then it is
always difficult to co-ordinate such activities, especially when being an external company
that wants to ride on the marketing wave of another. If we would have been the same
company, controlling both the movie production as well as the game production, then one
could have done a much more integrated marketing. We had some co-operation with the
ones that released the PC game, but it was really marginal.”
At the premier of the movie, the game aggregator Aspiro received “Da Vinci” mobile
themes, ring tones and two of the games. By gathering the movie related content and
putting up a specific “Da Vinci Code” link to it on diverse Wap sites, they managed
to provide an offering that worked very well with the consumers.188 The success of
these kind of attempts depend however to a great deal on the content itself, how
long media is writing about it and for how long the related movie remains in the
movie top.189
The opportunity to piggy-back and bundle services on the back of movie franchises
is also being adopted in connection with PC and console game releases. To align with
the PC and console gaming industry and time launches, brings the benefit from
popular titles and creates awareness in short time durations.190 A common sight is
therefore game publishers such as the giant Electronic Arts entering the mobile
gaming industry and taking advantage of their marketing power to create inroads into
mobile gaming.
186
Blaze: The mobile game publisher has an own development studio with four programmers, a couple of
graphic artists and an internal test division. Blaze provides community-features such as online highscore lists,
online-chat as well as real time multiplayer games. The publisher has been looking at including Gamer tags as
well as invitation functions in their offering, but yet has none of these ideas been implemented. The company
was recently acquired by the casual games solution provider Oberon Media. (Source: Tom Söderlund, interview
by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.)
187
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
188
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
189
Ibid
190
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
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7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
Likewise, the mobile cannel has the possibility to be used as a teaser and promoter of
the big console/computer game or movie releases. Using the mobile channel as a
marketing channel and publish the mobile game ahead of the actual PC or console
game, will become a way for publishers to raise curiosity among consumers for the
PC or console game.191 One example are the 150 000 downloads that were made of a
puzzle game intended to create pre-release buzz for the Bollywood film “Jurm”.192
THE HOLISTIC GAME PUBLISHER – BEING CROSS-PLATFORM. Large game
publishers entering the mobile game industry, is something that could be seen as a
wake-up call for the mobile game publishers. Moreover, the difficulties in
coordinating a joint marketing campaign when there are more companies than just
one involved, makes it clear of the importance for a company to be cross-platform
and be active on several platforms.193
Having control over all the different productions connected to a specific brand, leads
to the possibility of achieving enormous cross-marketing effects. This is something
that the mobile game publisher Blaze already has had possibility to experience. With
their mobile version of Slingo, a bingo game on the web, they were able to directly
market the mobile game to the already existing web community – something that
resulted into a mobile game that has become very popular.194
There is basically not that big of a difference in competence when it comes to being a
mobile game publisher and being a publisher of web- and PC-games. That is why it
is too narrow to think that one can be just a mobile game publisher in the long run.195
Small movements in the industry can already be seen. Gameloft, for example, is one
of the mobile publishers that are expanding their business by transforming their
mobile games to web variants. And when investing in one of the own brands, Blaze
has made sure that the games now can be found both on the mobile, web and
console platform.
Having this kind of holistic view is very important to Tom Söderlund at Blaze:
“I believe that you cannot think so narrow - that this is a brand or that this is a game that
will only exist on the mobile. Then it will be brief brands”
In the future we will see more of this kind of convergence. Mobile game publishers
will expand their business either by working with game developers that work on
other platforms or also by partnering with other traditional game publishers when in
need of marketing competence. Today’s publishers on other platforms will therefore
not remain in their neutral role for that much longer, but instead become tomorrow’s
competitors or partners.196
MOBILE-TO-TELEVISION INTERACTIVE GAMES. The US operator Sprint Nextel
recognized that 50 per cent of their customers consume content when being at home.
A big factor is the very successful American integration of mobile services with TV
shows and contests. One of their services had their viewers to “participate” in the
191
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
193
Ibid
194
Ibid
195
Ibid
196
Ibid
192
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7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
Emmy awards, by letting them answer on trivia questions during the broadcast and
voting in real-time polls on the best and worst-dressed celebrity at the event.
THE MOBILE AS A MACROMANAGEMENT TOOL. Despite industry stakeholders
seeing the mobile phone as a separate channel, the structure of management games
supports its potential role as an extension to the console and computer. In practice
this means that consumers involved in a game in which they manage their own
football teem, would be able to make the easy decisions using the mobile phone – i.e.
what to do with a certain football player. The more detailed actions, the
micromanagement, would on the other hand be made in front of the computer or
console. In this way, the mobile phone becomes a tool for macromanagement.197
One of today’s most spoken about concept “Xbox Live Anywhere” is promoting this
kind of usage. A specific example can be found in Appendix VIII: Case studies
(Xbox Live Anywhere – A Vision).
ONLINE COMMUNITIES GOING MOBILE. Extending online communities to the
mobile platform is something that the operators have longed for very long and today
things are starting to happen in this direction.
What Sonia Kavs at the operator Telenor is hoping for, is a situation with many
linked partners where Telenor is neither responsible for the content, what it looks
like nor any consumer relations. What they will offer is a place for online
communities to set up their mobile activity.198
SIMPLER GAMES, SIMPLER GRAPHICS. In the same way in which casual gaming
has grown in importance on the online side, diminishing the importance of graphics,
the very same thing may be seen in the mobile industry.
The publisher Blaze is one of those that have moved away from making games for
the typical gamers where the technical graphics have been important. Today the
focus is instead on reaching the non-playing segment with more easy games that have
high replayability values. They believe that most of the consumers that could be
reached with more advanced 3D and shooter games are the ones already having
discovered mobile games.199 Peter Ahnegård agrees on this point by stating that he
believes more in games such as The Sims where some specific elements could be
isolated and made portable.
FLASH VS. JAVA. Just recently Flash has entered the consciousness of the telecom
world and the mobile game industry has started to look into the possibility with this
newcomer. Both publishers and developers have for some time now longed to find a
replacement to J2ME. Whether it is going to be Flash or some other game platform
turning up on the market, JAVA will most certainly be around for quite some time200
as the programming language has been promoted quite heavily both in the academic
world and the industry.
Compared to Java Games, developing games with flash would cut down time and
money investments with a substantial share since the games are much easier to
197
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
200
Ibid
198
199
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7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
program as well as there is no more necessity to port games. Symbian and Brew
enable more advanced games such as 3D-games, whereas the majority of today’s
JAVA games would be possible to be remade in flash according to Tom Söderlund at
Blaze.
“…if it would come to a critical mass of flash phones then we would directly start making our
games in Flash […] I believe that it would be possible to
translate all our Java games to Flash.”
Tom Söderlund, Blaze
There is much that speaks in favor of phones supporting Flash to become a standard
in the closest future. Verizon Wireless is one. The big North American operator was
the first to decide to launch mobile devices supporting flash and today developers
have the possibility to sell their Flash Lite applications and content to Verizon
Wireless subscribers. In this way the company is hoping to provide developers with a
new way to make money, distributing their Flash Lite content and applications. Peter
Ahnegård at Sony Ericsson did also confirm that they already have devices
supporting Flash Lite (1.1) and that all their new handset models will have extended
Flash Lite support.
At the Swedish operator Telenor, Sonia Kavs, the responsible for content, sees it as a
great possibility as well:
“It is going to be big and it is heading our way now,
both flash and consumer created content”.
Developers, publishers and carriers are today forced to be extremely conscious about
which phones support and do not support their specific games. It is estimated that
between one third to half of the development costs are due to the necessity to port
games, and this takes a lot of energy from the game development itself. This hinders
the developers to concentrate on the game creation itself.
At the same time this complicates the consumption for the end user. They have to be
aware of which phone they have and they have to compare telephone lists when they
buy games if the games are supported by the phone.
“The big, potential advantage with Flash is that it would take away a lot of the
compatibility issues we face today. You would buy a game and it just works.”
Tom Söderlund, Blaze
This fact increases the importance to develop support to the Flash-community in the
same way as effort is put to the JAVA one. This means that one has to look into
what adjustments has to be made and which so called IMS-hooks developers have to
be provided with to be able to start creating games based on IMS.201.
THE URGE FOR MORE CHANNELS FOR INDEPENDENT DEVELOPERS. The lower
production times and the no longer necessary porting costs, would in addition
support the creation of a very large developer community for mobile games –
something similar to what MySpace is for aspiring musicians today. Programmers,
201
Daniel Glifberg, interview by author, Stockholm, October 20, 2006
- 64 -
7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
game students, professionals and independent labels would be able to meet, distribute
their games as well as easily get updated on the developments in the industry. It
would as well allow grass-root tips, i.e. a small developer that releases a game,
receives a million downloads and the success story becomes a fact202. We’ve seen it
happen with different web-sites acquire immense popularity over night, and just
recently the same trend hit content such as videos, flash movies and music. YouTube
could be one of the most topical examples on this phenomenon.
There is a lack of channels for independent game developers today.203 At the same
time as the independent developers are having trouble to make breakthrough, the
industry is looking with interest on these players204. This lack of a real meeting
platform for these smaller independent developers and the big publishers,
aggregators and operators is therefore not only identified as a problem by the
developers themselves, but also by the industry as a whole.
The concept of this kind of distribution channel and meeting place, was therefore
something that the interviewed stakeholders found very interesting and something
that they gladly would like to see in the future - not only for mobile games but as well
for games on the web205. For a publisher this would have the potential of becoming a
very good channel to keep themselves up-to-date about what is happening, new ideas
and new talented developers that they would like to work with206.
7.4 Summary
This chapter gave an overview of the trends and tendencies online, in the online
gaming industry and the mobile gaming industry. Bellow is a short summary of the
topics examined:
Online
○ Virtual communities
○ Convergence of communication tools into one application
○ Peer-to-Peer file sharing
○ Create and Share – User generated content
○ Super Distribution – Viral Marketing
The online gaming industry
○ Social aspects changing the structure of games
○ Integration of media and content – the home entertainment system
○ Merging home and portable console markets
○ Extra services and a changed market place
○ Digital distribution enables innovative pricing strategies
○ Casual games
○ Flash games
○ Other Expressions – more than just graphics
○ In-game advertisement
○ Create and Share game related content
202
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
Ibid
204
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
205
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
Peter Ahnegård, interview by author, Stockholm, October 3, 2006.
206
Tom Söderlund, interview by author, Stockholm, October 6, 2006.
203
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7. Trends and Tendencies – the Industries’ Predictions and Visions
The mobile gaming industry
○ Future innovative pricing models and strategies
○ Community driven platforms
○ Content convergence
○ The concept “Test and Buy”
○ Rich presence
○ Ad-financed games
○ Cross-marketing
○ Cross-platform
○ Mobile-to-television interactive games
○ The mobile as a management tool
○ Online communities going mobile
○ Simpler games, simpler graphics
○ Flash vs. Java
○ Channels for independent developers
With games becoming connected, many of the trends already seen on the Internet
started to rub over to the online gaming world. What this chapter showed is that with
some minor modifications the same thing is happening today to the mobile gaming
industry.
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8. The Gamer
8. The Gamer
This chapter is based on industry analysis and reports, as well as interviews
with stakeholder representatives. The aim is to provide the reader with general
understanding of “the Gamer”. This information has been the basis for deciding
upon the constellation of the focus groups.
8.1 Driving Forces – Why We Play Games
Each individual has probably his or her own specific reason why he or she plays
games. In an interview with Johan Kristiansson the CEO at Starbreeze207 was asked
the very same question.
”It is all about the challenge. It is about being exactly on the verge
to what you can handle either intellectually, strategically, through the ability to move or to
collaborate in multiplayer games. Moreover there is a driving force that is not about
challenge, but the emotional and esthetical experience. Just as for a movie, the visual has a
big significance for the success of the game. And in the production it is to a great extent
where you invest the money – the creation of the characters and environments.”
Johan Kristiansson, Starbreeze
When it comes to what actually makes people to start playing games, the power
of introduction and word-of-mouth should not be underestimated. The influence
of friends, partners or family members have shown to be one of the main factors
which make people start playing games. In the case of SingStar, the game was for
example circulated by word-of mouth between families208. Media has also an
ability to inform what one should purchase.209
In an interview with the avid Counterstrike gamer Martin Björling he explained what
had made him to first start playing online games and to eventually become an
introducer of the game.
”Just friends. My friends started playing Counterstrike when it
first was launched. You started playing it at home in networks, against each other. But with
the origin of the Internet and increased bandwidth that enabled game play over the Internet,
you started playing with your friends on servers online where you eventually found new people
to play against. [ ] I was maybe 10 years old when I started playing shoot them up games, at
home and at friends’ and classmates’ places.”
We have gone from playing Trivial Pursuit with the whole family in the living room
to single player computer games and now to online multiplayer games. This shows
that the desire for community is as important, if not more, as fulfilling individual
entertainment needs. Community games as The Sims and World of Warcraft are
already experiencing big success in the online genre. We have seen sport, arcade and
party games as Fifa, SingStar and Mario Party being played by families and friends on
207
Starbreeze: A developer of action and adventure games with their main target group being males in the ages
20 to 25, that recently also has started to include male gamers up to 30 and 35 years.
208
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
209
Patrik Johansson, “Re: Frågorna,” to Susanna Leidegrant, September 8, 2006.
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8. The Gamer
consoles in front of the TV screen, and now industry stakeholders are foretelling
their future success as online games210 211.
8.2 The Console/PC Gamer
8.2.1 The Stereotype Hard Core Online Gamer
There is a typical stereotype that all associate with when addressed with the
expression “hard core gamer” – the 14- to 28-year-old male. Today it is however not
that easy to generalize anymore as this picture is eroding and the group of hard core
gamers is expanding both in ages and over the genders.212 Real gamers are in general
multiplayers, playing on all platforms including the mobile phone. However, loyalty
to a game makes it less probable that the gamer would prefer a mobile game.213
“The mobile games are not that sophisticated when you are used to better games.
We usually do not find them that fun. You usually find more fun things to do than playing
mobile games. [ ] The computer is the platform I play on. [ ] I need the keyboard and all of
it to be able to play. The mobile key pad does not have enough buttons to play larger games
fluently, and the buttons are not large enough. Sure, there are occasions when I feel that I
want to play, but then I do not fell ‘Oh, I want to play on the mobile’
but more that I want to go home and play”.
Martin Björling, avid Counterstrike gamer and community user
What is more, the hard-core gamer is not a demographic that is growing heavily in
number and is therefore more about getting more revenue per user.214
“I believe that the ones that are hard core gamers on console are more after
titles on mobile games. Maybe they are curious what it looks like on the mobile. But I also
believe that hard core gamers play everything.”
Inge Conradi, Aspiro
A general expectation is that most online gamers will be existing traditional gamers.
For the industry this means that the major part of the revenues will be generated
from increased usage.215
8.2.2 The Casual Gamers
The genre casual games, has with its non-steep learning curve won many peoples
hearts, transforming them into confirmed gamers. Casual games are not loaded with
difficulty to learn how to control and understand the game.216 Here, prior experience
does not matter. Accessibility is maximized - you just have to surf to one of the big
game portals online, choose a game and then you’re ready to go.
But despite being a larger audience than the hard core gamers, casual gamers are not
larger in the sense of euros spent. They are easily satisfied by playing Bejeweled or
210
Patrik Johansson, “Re: Frågorna,” to Susanna Leidegrant, September 8, 2006.
Johan Kristiansson, interview by author, Stockholm, September 8, 2006.
212
Ibid
213
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
214
Howard Wen, “Analyze This: Will 'Casual' Games Dominate the Future of the Industry?,” Gamasutra,
August 3, 2006, http://gamasutra.com/features/20060803/wen_01.shtml, accessed January 2007.
215
Matthew Hester, “Networked media market,” PowerPoint presentation, May 23rd 2006. Analysys
Research Limited.
216
Annika O. Bergström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 13, 2006.
211
- 68 -
8. The Gamer
Solitaire for free on their PC during a break at work or at home.217 This is one of the
reasons why the young male demographic is so heavily targeted. They simply spend
much more per user. What is more they are fairly easy to reach via a targeted
marketing campaign. The casual mass market is much more challenging to reach and
can be very much “here today, gone tomorrow”.218
8.2.3 Identity Creation: “I’m Playing Nintendo”
When visiting different online game communities and forums, it becomes evident
that it is an ever more important issue what gaming platform one plays on. Nintendo
and PC gamers are turned into passionate supporters, which leaven the discussion
threads with their avid opinions concerning everything from new-released games to
initiatives of the respective game companies.
For the industry this is a very important development. The ability to tie consumers to
a specific brand creates consumer trust and consequently consumer retention. From
a stakeholder point of view, gamers have for a long time been “schizophrenic”219.
Today one specific game can exist for all platforms which increasingly make many
consumers indifferent about whether they play Xbox or Playstation. Competitors’
pricing of gaming devices and games can therefore easily veer round the sales for a
device manufacturer.220 For industry stakeholders, such as Sony and its Playstation,
supplying exclusively to different platforms is therefore becoming an important tool
when creating identity and building brands.221 Today Sony Playstation has SingStar
and Buzz, just as Nintendo has Super Mario and Xbox has Forza.222
8.2.4 Extending to Other Consumer Groups
The hard core gamers are still one of the bigger target groups, but during the last two
years the picture has become much broader. Looking at sale numbers and hit lists, it
is above all party games that have experienced great success by attracting new
consumer groups both age- and gender-wise. In total five to six of the games on the
hit lists today that are party games, with EyeToy, the karaoke game SingStar and the
quiz game Buzz being some of the most popular.223
Two of the success factors to reach new target groups are according to Jens Alex,
CEO at Nordisk film224, to keep nuanced dialogues with the consumers and work
with localization. The communication is essential for the game industry if they are to
succeed erasing the general stereotype picture of the gamer and show the width of
today’s games.225 The design of the products, creating games in more genres and
above all make them easy to start playing, are other factors that are of utmost
importance and stressed upon by Patrik Johansson, PR Manager at Bergsala.226
Attracting new consumers when they are in a later stage of their lives is always
harder, especially if they have not grown up with PC or console games. Besides that,
217
Howard Wen, “Analyze This: Will 'Casual' Games Dominate the Future of the Industry?,” Gamasutra,
August 3, 2006, http://gamasutra.com/features/20060803/wen_01.shtml, accessed January 2007.
Ibid
219
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
220
Ibid
221
Ibid
222
Ibid
223
Ibid
224
Bergsala: The distributor of Sony Playstation and related products in the Nordic region,
225
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
226
Patrik Johansson, “Re: Frågorna,” to Susanna Leidegrant, September 8, 2006.
218
- 69 -
8. The Gamer
the game control with its many buttons and joysticks, are not making the situation
easier. This is also one of the explanations why PC gaming has grown as big as it is.
Many use and work on a computer. They simply know how to use the keyboard and
the thought of playing a game with the keyboard as a control is therefore not that far
away as starting to play using a joystick.227
8.3 The Segmentation of Mobile Gamers
The live-cycle of the average consumer often begins being a hard-core gamer, then
active, ending up as casual. While this does not apply to all, it is what happens with
most consumers manly because of other commitments that increase with age.228 As
reference, on the console game side the gaming declines between 25 and 40.229 The
segmentation used in this study can be seen in Chart 4.
5-10 %
30-35 %
55-65 %
The Casual gamer
The Active (Traditional)
gamer
The Hard-Core Gamer
Chart 4: Segmentation of mobile gamers
(Source: Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.)
8.3.1 The Casual Gamer
The casual gamer is in the age 25-49. She or he plays mainly when bored and the
games played are usually the ones preloaded on the mobile phone. Excellent quality
is not really an issue, instead it is more important that the games are inexpensive and
easy-to-understand. Popular games therefore tend to belong to the game categories
Trivia, Puzzles, and Quiz. Casual gamers constitute between 55 and 65 per cent and
in certain regions maybe even more.230
8.3.2 The Active (Traditional) Gamer
Young professionals and college students who are or have been avid PC and console
gamers are the ones that usually constitute the active gamers segment. For them the
mobile becomes an alternative channel for gaming. They play a wide variety of games
and constitute between 30 and 35 percent of the market.231
8.3.3 The Hard-core Gamer
The very typical hard core gamer today can be found among the preteens and teens –
both female and male. They put a lot of time on playing games and are loyal to
specific game genres.232 Despite their limited purchasing power, the hard-core gamers
will pay a premium for their favorites and consequently generate the highest amounts
of revenue. Today this target group constitutes 5 to 10 per cent of the market233.
227
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
229
Jens Alex, interview by author, Stockholm, September 14, 2006.
230
Ibid.
231
Ibid
232
Patrik Johansson, “Re: Frågorna,” to Susanna Leidegrant, September 8, 2006.
233
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
228
- 70 -
8. The Gamer
These facts were confirmed by Sonia Kavs at Telenor and Inge Conradi at Aspiro.
From the whole mobile game buying consumer base that consists of consumers from
9 to 50 years, the core group is teenagers from 16 to 35 years old. In a research
conducted in Sweden the median showed to be 19 years. 234 Telenor has identified a
somewhat narrower core group of downloaders among their consumers. Users in the
18-30 age group, equally balanced between male and female users, are those who
download games the most according to Sonia Kavs.235
What is more, people tend to spend more time on playing mobile games than they
actually believe. In a survey conducted by Aspiro in Sweden, 50 per cent that had
downloaded mobile games played 20 minutes or more each time they played on the
mobile. 236
8.3.4 Another Classification Than Just Casual and Hard-core
For Inge Conradi at Aspiro the normal classification of gamers into casual and hardcore gamers is too limited when marketing towards the consumers:
“I think it is important to not classify people like this in two groups, but more after who you
are and what you would wish to do.”
Inge Conradi, Aspiro
One example would be so called “time killers” - games for occasions when sitting on
the bus wanting to kill some time. These can very well be marketed both towards
casual gamers and hard core gamers.237 It is important to start having an interest for
who you actually sell games for, is Inge Conradi’s opinion.
8.4 Children and Games
Children at the age of four are already starting to play on handheld gaming devices238.
Pokémon and Mario games are the ones dominating.239 Pokémon is one of
Nintendo’s strongest titles and the game became an enormous success with the very
youngest gamer segment including children from 7 years and up to early teens.
Pokémon’s direct association with Nintendo explains the strong presence Nintendo
has with children and early teens.240
8.5 The Female Gamer
8.5.1 Constituting the Majority of Mobile Gamers
Together with the casual gamers, it is the female gamers including women up to their
30’s and 40’s that will drive mobile games revenues over the next three years.241
234
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
236
Ibid
237
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
238
“Report From The NPD Group Shows Consumer electronics Devices and Video Game Systems Are
Becoming More Entrenched in Kids Lives,” NPD press release (Port Washington, New York, May 24, 2006).
From NPD Web site, http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_060524.htmlmes-pcs, accessed January 2007.
239
Patrik Johansson, “Re: Frågorna,” to Susanna Leidegrant, September 8, 2006.
240
Ibid
241
“Casual Gamers and Female Gamers to Drive Mobile Games Revenues Over the $10 Billion Mark by 2009,”
Juniper Research press release (Hampshire, UK, October 5, 2006). From Juniper Research Web site,
http://www.juniperresearch.com/shop/viewpressrelease.php?pr=16, accessed January 2007.
235
- 71 -
8. The Gamer
Excluding hardcore gamers, women are in general more interested in mobile games
than men242, which also the following numbers shows:
o 59 per cent of the mobile phone gamers in the US are women. 243
o Both in the UK and Germany that number is over 64 per cent. A study conducted
by Aspiro showed however a male/female ratio rather closer to 50/50.244
o Even more interesting is the fact that women spend more time playing mobile
games than men - 61 per cent of the women playing games mobile games one to
four hours per month.245
Women represent however merely 30% of the subscribers who download mobile
games. When it comes to downloading mobile content in general, that number is
much larger. 46% of the subscribers that download mobile content are female. This
translates into large potentials in the female subscriber base. 246
8.5.2 The Console/PC Gamer that Abandons Gaming in her Teens – Geek
Hallmark or Lack of Appropriate Games?
One of the big problems that the female gaming community has experienced is that
many of the girls that play games during their childhood and their early teens quit
when they reach the age of 15-18. Before that, reports show that there is no real
gender difference among the young console and PC gamers247 248
There are many speculations going on online and in the industry what could be the
reason for these early dropouts. Playing games is still being considered a very male
and geeky activity and in an age in which identity creation is very important, this may
very well be why many girls stop playing.
“One of the benefits with the mobile handset as a gaming device is that you do not have to
show yourself outside with a game console. There’s still a very old stereotype picture of
gamers. It is therefore even more important to establish the behavior
that it is natural to play games – as natural as sending SMS”
Peter Lindström, Mobile Interaction
Others blame the lack of games designed for and marketed more specifically towards
the teenage girl crowd. Today the party games are starting to fill the gap between the
children’s and adult’s games, and maybe that is the missing link.249 Some do however
mean that it is more behind it, that it is socio-cultural reasons why a lot of girls stop
playing - that gaming is more of a social experience for boys, whereas for girls it is
not. These are however all speculations and outside the scope of this study to
investigate. Nevertheless they are important to be aware of.
242
Thomas Langer, Adrian Hopkinson, and Jonathan Crozier, WestLB, The third screen - New
developments in the mobile content industry, October 2005.
243
“Casual Gamers and Female Gamers to Drive Mobile Games Revenues Over the $10 Billion Mark by 2009,”
Juniper Research press release (Hampshire, UK, October 5, 2006). From Juniper Research Web site,
http://www.juniperresearch.com/shop/viewpressrelease.php?pr=16, accessed January 2007.
244
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
245
Adrienne Sanders, “Reaching women on the phone - Game target: Phone-toting females,” San
Francisco Business Times, August 5, 2005,
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2005/08/08/story2.html, accessed November 2006.
246
Thomas Langer, Adrian Hopkinson, and Jonathan Crozier, WestLB, The third screen - New
developments in the mobile content industry, October 2005.
247
Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, “Computers, Cell Phones And Multitasking A Look Inside The Entertainment Life Of 12-24 Year Olds,” August 2006,
http://www.latimes.com/media/acrobat/2006-08/24767411.pdf, accessed December 2006.
248
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
249
Annika O. Bergström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 13, 2006.
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8. The Gamer
8.5.3 …Or When Other Commitments Come With Age
Despite the decreased number of female players after the early teens, there are still
women in the ages 14 to 20 that are playing quite a lot. As women reach an age closer
to 30, other commitments cause them to decrease their gaming. Games are no longer
something that they want to prioritize and are instead turned into a thing that women
want to do ”between things” – in gaps – as when on the bus, waiting on someone or
for the ones with children, when the children have fallen asleep. Time gaps are
simply more forgiving than losing other valuable time for gaming.250 The creator of
The Sims believe that women do not want to have games where they have to set
aside a lot of hours at a time but games that they can play a bit at any time251
” ..but the problem is not entirely due to the lack of time, because I am
almost sure that I would be able to spare one hour each day to play without it affecting my
studies or my life considerably. The problem lies more in my head, on the psychological level.
In some way I cannot allow myself to play with good conscious, as I somewhere within me
know that there are more rational things I could use the time for. And with that, the
temporary desire to play disappears as well.”
Extract from a column in gamingeye.com by Elin “Ariez” Stridsberg252
8.5.4 Games for female gamers?
“If one were to follow marketing surveys the majority of games targeting
women would be Barbie games. But these kind of games work just up to a certain age.”
Martin Lindell, Manual
That “pink is beautiful” is
maybe true for younger girls,
but to create good games for
women that are in a later stage
of their lives is much more
difficult.253 Women want
different kinds of challenges254,
and due to lack of experience
in that field many developers
tend to fail when trying to
develop games for women.
This could explain the lack of
appropriate games for females
that are being mentioned by
industry stakeholders.
Image 8: Alex, a strong female character in Half-life 2
(Source: PRO-G, “PC, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Screenshots
The PRO-G site, http://www.pro-g.co.uk/pc/ halflife_2_
aftermath/screenshot-2.html, accessed January 2006.)
In the same way as there are some men enjoying card games and some enjoying
adventure, what female players want is not something that can be generalized. Pink is
250
Annika O. Bergström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 13, 2006.
Helena Hugosson, ”En massa killar och så SuperMarit – datorspelsbranschen,” Paraplyprojektet, April 29,
2005, http://www.paraplyprojektet.se/news.php?id=492&categoryID=4, accessed November 2006.
252
Elin Stridsberg, ”Vart tog mitt spelande vägen?,” Gamingeye, March 12 2006,
http://www.gamingeye.com/konsol/kolumner/kolumn.eye?&id=765, accessed September 2006.
253
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
254
Ernest W. Adams, “The Future of Computer Entertainment, 2005-2050,” PowerPoint presentation, April 19,
2005, http://www.gamesandstorytelling.net/material/EWA.pdf, accessed October 2006.
251
- 73 -
8. The Gamer
not beautiful for all women. There are however some important guidelines when
trying to pinpoint the perfect game for female gamers.
IDENTITY-CREATING, NONE STEREOTYPE CHARACTERS. Identity is something
that is of great importance for women. This has been seen during workshops
conducted within the scope of the project SuperMarit. The women think lot about
the main character in the games, which usually is a cool woman or of some other
kind of female sex. The character should not be everything about “a lot of breast”,
but good female role models (Image 8).
SOCIAL ASPECTS. World of Warcraft which has become very popular among
women is based on social activity.
“I have several friends that play World of Warcraft that want me to start playing so that
we can spend time together – to talk, do thing together but over the net.”
Annika Olofsdotter Bergström, SuperMarit
So why has World of Warcraft become so popular even among women?
o Fast level up => creates dependency as it is easy to advance, reach goals and
develop the character. It creates the feeling of being successful.
o Freedom over the character => gives the possibility to create an identity.
o No time limits => No stress, and the players may as well just walk around in the
game.255
o Easy to start playing
NOT RELATED TO VIOLENCE. It has been shown that the “kill games” is the only
category that is dominated by males.256
NO REAL GOALS as to conquer a ”Boss”. These non-linear games do instead enable
the gamers to take control over things and manage the progress of the character257 as
well as develop the relationships.258 The Sims shares many of these factors with
World of Warcraft.
The game was moreover created by a developer team where the majority were
women. If one looks at the industry today there are many women within marketing
and business development, but on the game development level the majority is men.
That is where the biggest problem is.259 Game developers tend to develop games that
they would like to play themselves, which concludes to games that are not developed
with the female gamers in mind.
“The gamers that play these games become the new game developers. It becomes a spiral that
if broken would lead to a very unexplored territory – games that appeal to women.”
Johan Kristiansson, Starbreeze
255
Annika O. Bergström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 13, 2006.
Peter Lindström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 15, 2006.
Inge Conradi, interview by author, Stockholm, October 16, 2006.
258
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
259
Ibid
256
257
- 74 -
8. The Gamer
For Starbreeze it has been a strategic decision to keep themselves focused on one
game genre and one target group. The game market is fragmented, Johan
Kristiansson, CEO at the developer Starbreeze, pointed out in the interview. If you
are not a big player as EA or Microsoft, it makes it quite hard to try and target the
whole market. Even though the company is seeing other interesting possibilities, this
has lead to the decision to continue develop games within the genre that they have
been producing and that their personnel themselves like and want to create. 260
”It may sound strange to not start out from the market, but in this way we keep up the
productivity and avoid that the production becomes soulless.”
Johan Kristiansson, Starbreeze
SingStar is another game that has been developed by women, where a concept from
real life has been brought in and transferred to a game. By doing so you immediately
have rules that are self-explanatory and that most consumers already will be familiar
with.261
8.5.5 The Fear of Loosing the Male Consumer
During her career Annika Olofsdotter Bergström has often wondered what the
reason could be for the deficient marketing towards women. A responsible for the
marketing of Halo in the US once told one of the SuperMarit members that if Halo
would be marketed for girls, it would be considered as a “girl game” which would
scare of the male gamers. The risk of loosing their biggest target group – a consumer
base that they already had - simply made them scared of marketing games towards
women. Annika has observed the same thing when the game educations are to
market themselves towards female students:
“They are scared to death that the male students will disappear”.
Except for some successful marketing initiatives including the marketing of The Sims
on the wedding pages in DN 262, Annika Olofsdotter Bergström at SuperMarit means
that marketing is very focused on the male part of the population and often on
specific media. Within the framework of the project SuperMarit Annika has been
involved in co-operations to produce products targeting women. During this time
she has become aware of how large the gap is between the gaming industry and the
female target group263:
“We were thinking nice bags and tank tops, whereas the suggestion from their side was big tshirts and caps. That’s how narrow it is.”
8.5.6 The Male Introducer
Many women start playing by being introduced to the world of games by a close male
relative or friend, e.g. the boyfriend or the big brother. Regarding casual games found
online this is not the case. It is more probable that the game sites are found due to a
Yahoo mail account and Yahoo cross markets their game section, or that it is wellknown sites such as TV channel sites that run their own game section. 264
260
Martin Lindell, interview by author, Stockholm, September 12, 2006.
Annika O. Bergström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 13, 2006.
Ibid
263
Ibid
264
Ibid
261
262
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8. The Gamer
8.5.7 Why More Women Do Not Play?
Some of the answers to the question why more women do not play has been
answered above; time restraints, lack of appropriate games, the boyish geek hallmark
and the deficient marketing addressing women. According to Annika Olofsdotter
Bergström, lack of technology know-how is an important factor:
It is more distant for a woman without prior experience of gaming to spend such a significant
amount of money on a gaming console that moreover is “technology”.
The large supply of games and gaming devices becomes a big jungle in which women
just do not want to get into. Due to this, there are those industry stakeholders that
mean that the mobile phone is a more suitable gaming device for women as it is
much closer than a computer or the purchase of a portable gaming device265.
8.6 Summary
Despite the existence of individual reasons for why people play games, there are
consumer segmentations today accepted in the industries. Online gamers are usually
segmented in hardcore and casual gamers, with hard core gamers being the heavy
users while casual gamers being the ones playing on a more moderate level and in
general more simple games.
Lately console and computer games have started to win new audiences among nontraditional target groups. The new genre party games that has emerged recently, with
SingStar and Buzz in the lead, are seen as one of the reasons to this.
On the mobile side the hard-core and casual gamers are complemented with the
active (traditional) gamer. The segments are somewhat different to the ones
regarding online gamers. Mobile casual gamers play mainly pre-installed games. The
active gamers have been avid PC and console gamers and now use the mobile
handset as an alternative channel for playing games. The hard core gamers constitute
the smallest percentage of the market but are despite that the core target group for
mobile operators and mobile game publishers. Two other interesting target groups
when it comes to online and mobile gaming are females and children. Females have
for a long time been underrepresented in the gaming community, but are now
coming strong. Numbers show that women constitute the majority of mobile gamers
today and do as well play longer and more often than the male mobile gamers.
265
Annika O. Bergström, interview by author, Stockholm, September 13, 2006.
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9. Results
9. Results
In the beginning of this report one main question consisting of four subquestions was introduced. This chapter is designated to answer these questions
and present some recommendations based on the material gathered during the
study.
The results from the preparatory questionnaire hold additional information to what
this chapter will present about the focus group participants. The reader is therefore
referred to Appendix VI if interested in obtaining more information about the
participants’ mobile multimedia service usage as well as gaming behavior.
9.1 Main question: Is there a consumer interest in
Social Games and how should such gaming
solutions and related services be developed so
that they by meeting the consumer
requirements become successful?
The following chapters will prove that there is in fact a consumer interest in Social
Games. The degree of interest does however differ, mainly between the different
focus groups but also between genders and between participants in the same group.
The following chapters will answer the earlier presented sub-questions and
consequently give a more detailed answer to the very main question.
The sub-questions are as follows:
1. Which are today’s communication habits, mobile usage as well as consumer
related online and gaming trends, and how can these be translated into peoples’
future consumption of mobile game services?
2. What problems do consumers have today when using their mobile phones as
gaming devices?
3. Is there any interest in Social Gaming and in that case which are the consumer
requirements?
4. What kind of pricing strategies should be used?
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9. Results
9.2 Sub-question 1: Which are today’s
communication habits, mobile usage as well as
consumer related online and gaming trends,
and how can these be translated into peoples’
future consumption of mobile game services?
9.2.1 Phone Calls Come With a Social Barrier
Despite being one of the most popular ways in which to communicate with friends
and loved ones266, there is a social barrier to overcome with mobile phone calls and
phone calls in general. SMS on the other hand is seen as something that can be sent
to almost whoever you want and is at the same time perceived as convenient and
comfortable.
During the Male focus group session, different expressions and statements made it
evident that SMS is not loaded with the same high values as a phone call – both
when it comes to priority and credibility. The males happily answer in an ironic way
on questions received from friends by SMS. They also expect to receive answers in
the same joking nature – even when regarding a serious matter. They are in addition
prepared not to get answers on all the included questions in an SMS, since they are
used to frequently receive responses on just one out of several questions, or even get
responses to the wrong questions.
Not receiving an answer or confirmation SMS creates uncertainty and sometimes
also annoyance for some as they cannot be sure it has been received. These situations
often eventually lead to a phone call - especially if being in a hurry receiving an
answer. This was a topic brought up in the Male focus group. It was however in the
Partner Relationship focus group that it became clearer that not answering an SMS
was for some participants something very common. Despite there being a solution to
this with automatic SMS notifications, that service is not used to a large extent.
Due to this general acceptance of the lesser value of the SMS, the use of SMS is
regarded as a means of communicating that does not require any prior thinking and
decision making. This consequently makes it a communication tool that is easy to use
and convenient for maintaining contact with a larger group.
The possibility to be simple and very straight in one’s communication, does also
contribute to this. In the focus groups where SMS was discussed267, it became
obvious that the possibility to give short and straight answers and likewise ask
straight questions – “yes” or “no”, “Are you there?”, “I’m on my way” – makes the
separating line between the use of voice and text communication even clearer. In
other words, the type of information that is to be transmitted and how it is
formulated is very different depending on the communication tool used. SMS does
not require the same polite words of greeting as a phone call and is consequently
seen as a good way in which to avoid long conversations or conversations overall. To
send an SMS requires simply less time than to make a phone call. For the women in
266
267
Appendix VII: Question 1. Preferred way to communicate with family and friends.
SMS as a communication tool was discussed in the Male, Female and Couple focus groups.
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9. Results
the Female focus group avoiding conversations could occur due to lack of time, the
risk of the actual meaning of a conversation to get blown out of proportions or
simply the unwillingness to speak with the person in question. Another reason
brought up by one of the participants in the Male focus group, is when the
information that is to be forwarded should not be received immediately by the
recipient – i.e. when knowing that the other person is in a meeting or for example
sleeping.
Due to all this, SMS becomes less personnel and is therefore used by many in
situations where they could feel intimidated contacting a certain person. It is also
used as a way to check if the other is available prior to making a phone call. Together
with MSN, SMS is the most popular way in which to re-establish contacts before
eventually switching to voice communication. Making a phone call the first thing you
do would require courage to some extent and the assurance that the other actually
would like to be contacted.
But the safety wall that it creates can also be misunderstood by the recipient and
some therefore prefer to call or mail.
“SMS you send just to say something,
but if it was somebody that I had not had contact with for a long time,
I would take it as a rejection if he would have sent me just an SMS”.
Participant in the Male focus group
9.2.2 Phone Calls are Effective Communication and Way to Spend Time
Together
If it is for joking, you use SMS. If you’re after information, then you call.
Participant in Male focus group
To communicate fast or get an answer on a very important or urgent question, phone
calls are seen as the most effective way. Moreover SMS still is perceived as rather
inconvenient to write – and writing several SMS back and forth is something that
many of the focus group participants avoided.
Due to the fact that making a phone call requires more than just sending an SMS, it is
preferably used with the closer friends and family. Independent whether it is the
mobile phone, fixed phone or VoIP, phone calls are therefore a way to spend time
together both with people living in the same area as oneself as with relatives and
close ones in other countries.
There is a general trend of stopped fixed telephony usage – both when it comes to
receiving and calling to fixed telephones. Despite this, the extent to which the mobile
phone is used for socializing differs a lot between the participants in the Male focus
group. There are both those that said they socialize more through the mobile phone
now than before with up to 1 or 2 hours, while others said that their usage had
declined drastically.
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9. Results
9.2.3 Instant Messaging – A Support and a Stress Factor
Regarding Instant Messaging there are divided feelings between the focus groups.
For the women in the Female focus group IM clients such as MSN and Skype are
good tools at work since it facilitates communication between colleagues working at
different locations. The conversation log enables them to easily return to IM
conversations to find information that had been communicated.
As for the couples living very busy lives – working, studying or doing both – their
daily work includes a lot of time in front of the computer and consequently
communicating with the partner is mainly done through MSN or Skype. Their
communication pattern changes from being intense during shorter periods of time to
asynchronous with time gaps. Two out of three couples would actually be more likely
to use MSN over SMS and phone calls. Mobile phone calls are used if the other is
not logged on to MSN or Skype. The third couple used phone calls rather than IM
due to that this way of communication caused annoyance with the male. Incoming
messages would interrupt him in his writing, forcing him to start all over again to be
on track in the conversation.
The late teens are as well big users of IM, with the most popular clients being MSN
Messenger and IRC. Some indications were identified, that the users had explored
and used some of the extra services bundled with the IM clients. Unlike MSN, IRC268
enables them to chat simultaneously with all the buddies on their own contact list,
almost as broadcasting. One of the female late teens even stated that she searched
her buddy list on IRC when wanting to contact a specific friend.
At the same time, MSN comes by as tedious since people do not respect the busy
status. The Male focus group was the one the least enthusiastic about MSN,
perceiving it as very stressful.
9.2.4 The Instant Messaging Account – A Long Lasting Identity
A common opinion is that the Instant Messenger user account is more continuous
than a telephone number.
“People will always be there and not change name due to
subscription campaigns or lost SIM cards.”
Participant in Partner Relationship focus group
What is even more interesting, is what this associated continuity has come down to
among the late teens. The principally used IM account (usually MSN Messenger and
IRC) has explicitly become an identity of importance and consequently not handed
out to whomever.
“You have MSN for your friends and then you have AIM, ICQ and Yabber to talk with
all the strange people.”
Participant in the Late Teen focus group
268
IRC: (Internet Relay Chat) is a multi-user chat system, where people meet on "channels" (rooms, virtual
places, usually with a certain topic of conversation) to talk in groups, or privately. There is no restriction to the
number of people that can participate in a given discussion, or the number of channels that can be formed on
IRC. www.mirc.com
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9. Results
9.2.5 The Separation of Accounts
The desire to separate accounts is also a trend seen in the Female and Male focus
groups. The females mentioned that they used different mail accounts concerning
different activities, and the males found it relieving to be able to separate the office
phone from the private phone
9.2.6 Children’s Mobile Usage and Parental Control
Only one of the three children in the focus group had a mobile phone. Today, the
main communication tool used at home and by the children is the fixed-line phone.
The parents would prefer to stall the children from using mobile phones for as long
as possible, because of their belief in a potential health risk due to radiation.
However, when approaching the age of 9 to 10 - when the children start going home
from school by themselves - the parents feel the need to provide their children with a
mobile handset. The use of the mobile phone is nevertheless something that they see
a need in regulating. The main purpose should therefore be to be able to reach each
other, and not having their children communicating with their friends.
The children on the other hand are longing to get a mobile handset as it would make
them feel more grown up as well as they simply find the mobile handset as a very
“cool” item.
When it comes to the costs, the parents confirmed that they would be the ones
paying the bill for the children’s mobile phone usage. They are today funding their
somewhat older children’s mobile use by:
o pre-paid card
o subscription, SEK 99/month (EUR 11). This enables the parents to see how the
money actually has been used.
The parents furthermore believe that it is important for their children to understand
that the use of a mobile phone implies costs. Therefore a possible option would be
to divide the costs into two parts – one that the parents pay and one that is self
financed by the children and from their own pocket money.
9.2.7 When the Price Is Decisive
A well-known characteristic of the late teens is the very big price sensitivity. Mobile
services except for voice calls and SMS have therefore not been explored to the same
extent.
The price sensitivity do also strongly influence on how they choose to communicate,
consequently leading to that the cheapest option is the one always being chosen. This
explains their use of the fixed-line phones and IP telephony (Skype) as it means
smaller costs when compared with mobile phone calls. IP telephony (Skype) is used
with friends and loved ones abroad or with friends that have abandoned the fixed
phone due to the advantage of IP telephony.
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9. Results
VoIP269 and the applications Skype and Voipbuster270 was the first topic that the
couples that were participating in the Partner Relationship focus group started to talk
about when asked about how they keep in touch. They do all have large experience
of VoIP as at least one in each relationship was of foreign origin. For them Skype
enables communication with family and friends, and as well the partner if being apart
for an affordable price. Quality balanced with price is what makes them decide on
what VoIP service they will use.
9.2.8 Content Sharing
”That is the only thing we do. We send stupid links to each other all the time.”
A participant in the Late Teen focus group
when asked about content sharing
Content is shared mainly by e-mail or through MSN in the form of links to content.
The female focus group participants did however prefer to show content directly on
the computer screen. Sharing of content was something that the women identified
being a very periodical behavior that could shift between a lot one evening to
nothing at all during longer periods.
The most important finding is nevertheless that it is very important that the content
will be relevant to the recipient – this, not to risk have it being perceived as
spamming. Consequently, shared content is remembered by the sender as it usually is
chosen with reflection.
An interesting behavior appertaining the Create and Share concept, is the logging of
IM conversations to in a later stage search for quotes to be shared with other friends.
This habit is said to be very widespread among the late teens and their circuit of
friends; a way in which to say “hahah, look what he said last week”. Otherwise content
created by the focus group participants themselves is limited to photos.
When it comes to mobile devices, file sharing is the feature that most of the
participants were interested in among existing and future mobile service271. A big
share of the Male focus group participants is also very open to in the future share
content with strangers using the mobile phone. The content that is the most
interesting is mp3-songs and pictures. Some did however say that they would find it
to be very strange to share files with strangers and to nose around on their phones.
9.3 Sub-question 2: What problems do
consumers have today when using their mobile
phones as gaming devices?
Identifying why consumers do not use their mobile phone as a gaming device or
what is holding them back from using it as such to a greater extent is valuable for the
understanding of what has to be changed – i.e. what a gaming offering should not
269
VoIP: Stands for Voice over IP and is the technology for digitizing a person's voice and sending that
digital information (data packets) over the Internet.
270
Skype and VoipBuster: Applications that enable VoIP communication; i.e. voice calls over the
Internet, which is a cheaper alternative especially regarding voice calls over country borders.
www.skype.com, www.voipcheap.com
271
Appendix VII: Question 5. Mobile services found most interesting.
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9. Results
include to become successful. Some small changes could very well be decisive for
either success or failure.
What is important to bring to light is that the majority of the focus group
participants have not yet tried to download mobile games, and that the access to
operator portals or other content through the mobile is generally low. This became
evident through the results obtained with the preparatory questionnaire272. For
example, the second favorite way in which they would prefer accessing mobile games
was in fact by downloading games from the Internet and then to transfer them from
the computer to the mobile phone273.
The same questionnaire did also show that multitasking, i.e. doing something else
while talking on the phone, should not be a barrier, as mobile users already are used
to do other things while making a phone call274.
9.3.1 Males: Reason for Not Playing to a Greater Extent
In general, the first reaction is that playing games on the mobile phone is boring, or
simply not fun enough. Too high levels of difficulty, long loading time as well as long
run-ups that prevent them to start playing immediately are what according to the
males characterize a bad game. Costs are however not mentioned as an obstacle for
the ones playing.
One of the biggest hinders for the focus group participants that actively had searched
to download games, was difficulty in content discovery. Almost 50% of the
participants had actively searched for mobile games. Not knowing where to go, not
finding a specific game as well as not knowing what your buying, where problems
identified by the group. As it required too much activity and time investment, this
was activities they only got engaged in when knowing that they had a lot of time to
spend.
One of the male participants did therefore suggest a “The game of the day” service
that would push the games, letting him try new games everyday. For him and the
majority of the Male focus group the most important thing is that it should be easily
accessed.
9.3.2 Late Teens: Reason for Not Playing to a Greater Extent
Even though there were split opinions, the Late Teen focus group expressed clear
hesitation towards the mobile platform as a game machine. For them mobile games
are equivalent to bad games, bad graphic and bad games.
”Even though I would not have a computer I would not play (on the mobile handset).”
Male participant (hard core MMO gamer)
in the Late Teen focus group
272
Appendix VII: Question 16. Access of the operator portal and other mobile sites.
Question 20. Number of participants having wanted to download a game to their
mobile phone and therefore visited a download site for mobile games.
Question 21. They visited the download site…
273
Appendix VII: Question 19. Preferred ways in which to access games on the mobile phone.
274
Appendix VII: Question 2. Preferred thing to do while talking with someone in the phone.
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9. Results
This might seem surprising as other reports have shown that hard core gamers, such
as these late teens, play on all platforms. What has to be kept in mind is that the
mobile phone is competing against other much more powerful gaming platforms.
The mobility and “always with you” is not an evident benefit for these late teens,
even though some participants argued that it could be a good pass-time when being
bored and having time to kill without any access to a computer. High costs for
portable devices seem to make teens to avoid bringing the expensive devices with
them outside the home due to fear of losing the devices.
9.3.3 The Partner Relationship: Reason for Not Playing to a Greater Extent
“I do not play on other game platforms, so the possibility that I
would play on the mobile is very slim”
Female participant in the Partner Relationship focus group
The males did on the other hand explain that their first option would always be the
computer or the console when being at home and that they therefore did not play on
the mobile handset to a greater extent.
This focus group is characterized by high level of price sensitivity as five out of six
participants still are students. This fact limits their use of mobile data services, and
consequently mobile gaming. Even though they are adult pioneers when it comes to
Internet and computer related services and applications, this behavior has not been
applied to the mobile area. The participants made it very clear that trying out new
mobile or online services was not that important and if it would involve a significant
cost it would not be worth it. Some interest in mobile games could however be
identified.
“I would love to have Internet and messenger on the mobile but I do not want to pay
anymore than today. The bill is already high.”
Female participant in the Partner Relationship focus group
9.3.4 Females: Reason for Not Playing to a Greater Extent
As other console and computer gamers, the female gamers find them being better
gaming machines which they use to explain their lack of interest in mobile gaming.
The ones that on the other hand actively have been downloading mobile games have
found prior game purchases not to correspond to expectations. The heavy mobile
gamer explicitly explained that she is trying to find games at least 2 to 3 times a week,
but that the lack of games hinders her to find anything of her preferences.
9.3.5 Children & Parents: Reason for Not Playing to a Greater Extent
When the children were addressed with the question whether it is a difference
between playing on the mobile handset and playing on their portable gaming device,
the answer was that it is more fun to play on their portable consoles mostly because
they have more fun games on it.
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9. Results
9.4 Sub-question 3: Is there any interest in Social
Gaming and in that case which are the
consumer requirements?
One of the purposes with the focus groups was to identify future scenarios for Social
Gaming. When, why and with whom would they play? Which games would they play and how?
What do they require to at all start playing? This chapter represents some of the most
important findings. For more detailed information concerning the specific focus
groups, the reader is referred to Appendix II-VI.
9.4.1 Potential User Scenarios and Requirements
AVAILABILITY - SOMEBODY TO PLAY AGAINST. Having someone to play against
may sound very basic, but there is actually a big concern regarding time and
availability among the focus group participants. Whether it is a friend, family member
or partner, both have to be available at the very same time and with the time
restraints today it is not always that easy. In general it is the friends that are the
preferred opponents. This is also supported by the results form the preparatory
questionnaire275.
A PASTIME OUTSIDE THE HOME. Social games on the mobile handset would in
general be very much of a pastime when not being at home and not having anything
else to do. Being bored was also the foremost reason, according to the results from
the preparatory questionnaire, why the focus group participants would send a game
invitation to a friend276. In addition it would have to be the “more fun alternative”
compared to all the other available alternatives. The possibility to play games on
longer travels is furthermore something that is very welcomed.
…WHEN THEY DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO A CONSOLE OR COMPUTER.
The majority will very unlikely play Social Games on the mobile handset as a pastime
when at home. In the home “there are thousands of other things to do”. If wanting to play
games at home they will choose the console or the computer. This was one opinion
shared by the console and computer gamers in the different focus groups.
However, there was one location in the home that showed to be a popular place
where to play Social Games – in bed. Some said just when having woken up, others
when going to bed.
WHEN TOGETHER – ON VACATION OR TRAVELING. Except for commuting and
traveling, the favorite gaming scenario is when on vacation. That is when people
have time and when they see each other 24 hours a day.
Plane flights were also seen as a popular choice by the participants.
BECAUSE IT IS FUN. “Fun” is the important characteristic – it is both the answer to
why they would be playing Social Games as well as a condition for why they at all would
275
Appendix VII: Question 13. Preferred opponents.
Appendix VII: Question 18. Reason for sending a game invitation to a friend.
276
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9. Results
be playing. Finding the game being fun, was also one of the reasons for why the
participants in the Female focus group would accept a game invitation.
VOICE COMMUNICATION WITH THE OPPONENT AND MUSIC IN THE
BACKGROUND. The most popular choices regarding what features to have
integrated in a gaming solution is the possibility to talk with the opponent and to
listen to music or radio in the background while playing the game.
When playing multiplayer games with friends, voice communication is a must. Doing
something else while talking on the phone is not perceived as a problem, on the
contrary, multitasking is something very common277. Even though the idea of a
Presence Enabled Phonebook enabled with IM had been introduced to the focus
groups, messaging is not as communication feature that openly was showed any great
interest to. This could be related to the experienced difficulty to write messages with
the mobile handset.
To be able to use other mobile services separately, without being forced to exit when
wanting to play a game, is the flexibility that many in the focus groups require. The
same applies the other way around – the consumers will want to be able to pause the
game and later be able to return to it.
PUSH-TO-TALK WHEN PLAYING IN PUBLIC
“Push-to-talk gives undoubtedly extra dimensions to the game if you can be a bit cruel
towards the one that is loosing”
Participant in Female focus group
Push to talk is entertaining. This conclusion could easily be drawn by observing the
participants in the two focus groups – the Partner Relationship as well as Children
and Parents focus group - in which multiplayer games where demonstrated and tried.
At the same time all focus groups required voice communication.
However there where some concerns raised. The late teens are mostly concerned
about the risk of disorder in the metro, as they mean that it is difficult for many to
keep still while playing and that conversations during gaming sessions are very
different from normal once and that they are not really appropriate when commuting
by train or metro. One of the opinions after the user testing in the Partner
Relationship focus group was that using the mobile as a walkie-talkie in public would
make them look like fools. A following statement was therefore the question where
they consequently would be able to use the function.
FAMILIAR GAMES AND WELL-KNOWN GAME CONCEPTS IN MULTIPLAYER
MODE. What became very evident when the focus group participants were asked
which games they would like to see as social games was that the participants
requested the same games and game categories that they already were enjoying.
These categories did therefore already exist. Just the women in the Female focus
group asked for more innovative game concepts. See appendix II-VI for more details
on which games the specific focus groups requested.
277
Appendix VII: Question 2: Preferred thing to do while talking with someone on the phone
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9. Results
GAME PLAY IN LOBBIES – PLAYING AGAINST STRANGERS. In general, males are
more open to play against unknown than females which may experience achievement
anxiety. Playing with strangers rather than against is however not met with the same
anxiety.
Especially male late teens find it more important with a large gamer base, than
actually knowing the opponent. As a result, males are also more open to voice
communication with strangers, even though it most likely would be limited to some
initial greeting words and insult phrases when the opponent makes a blunder or
looses. Playing a game that demands voice communication or playing strategic game
against the same gamer for a longer time period, is believed to generate more
extended voice communication. There was however those who showed reluctance,
meaning that Social Gaming would loose its point if the opponent was not someone
they knew.
“To play against whoever is like playing against the computer. It is much more challenging,
but it is almost the same thing.”
Participant in Late Teen focus group
”It is more fun if it is friends. I’m a person that wants to
beat the others and then it gives more if it is someone you know.”
Female participant in Late Teen focus group
For females to play against unknown opponents, having something in common is a
necessity:
1. The gaming itself
2. Another shared interest.
When it is the gaming itself, it is not of big importance who the opponent is. Voice
communication will nevertheless require returning game sessions.
"It does not really matter, more that it is serious – that all are there to play games“
Participant in Female focus group
The fact that community members in existing virtual communities are looking
primarily to socialize was something that one of the females had experienced. For
someone that specifically wants to play games, then a game lobby probably would be
a better choice. This is also supported by insights from the case on the multiplayer
game initiative that Lunarstorm278 was engaged in as well as the experience of the
avid gamer and community user Martin Björling:
“Sometimes I play because I am angry after a fight with a friend.
Then I play to get rid of my anger. Sometimes I am happy and I start playing to
have fun. It simply gives me a stimulation that I surely could get in another way.
But I just like it. It is the same thing with why some play football and other golf.
But communities I visit to get to know new people.”
Martin Björling, avid Counterstrike gamer and community user
278
Appendix VIII: Case Studies. Multiplayer Games for the Community Lunarstorm – A Lesson
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9. Results
When it is other interests being the connection, then a simple nick name is not
enough. The females require more information such as member profiles or member
spaces and possibly categorization to simplify the search for the target opponent. As
Martin Björling stated, except for a community to be active and consisting of people
writing in it, the type of members and the overall community is decisive for him to
continue visiting the community279.
"Of course everyone can make up their identity, but that you can do online too. You succeed
anyway quite good to find some people with the same interests as yourself.”
Participant in Female focus group
PLAYING MOBILE VS. OTHER PLATFORMS. It is important to win, especially when
playing against someone you know. Playing against an opponent that plays on a
computer – a much superior gaming machine compared to the mobile handset – may
therefore be quite a challenge. But it is when playing with strangers, that such a weak
position may be turned into something negative. Female players already feel
achievement anxiety playing against strangers and for the late teens being inferior in a
Game Lobby when playing against strangers is especially a big concern.
“There is still the fact that you enter, you are new and bad.
People are mean to you. ’You suck’. I do not see it as pastime, especially not on such a bad
platform as the mobile phone. Then I want to have the best conditions
and you do not have it with the mobile.”
Female participant in the Late Teen focus group
BEING SURE THAT THE GAME ITSELF WILL BE APPRECIATED BY THE RECIPIENT
As with all content and information that is to be shared, knowing that the recipient
will find it relevant and appreciate it is something important. At some points not
being entirely sure may as well make the sender to choose not to send. It has to
simply be good to be shared. According to the preparatory survey, knowing that the
recipient would like to play and that the game would be appreciated are two of the
four most popular reasons for sending a game invitation to a friend280.
GAME SHARE – A POPULAR WAY IN WHICH TO INVITE, RECOMMEND AND
SHARE. When the distribution model Game Share was proposed in the Male and
Late Teen focus groups, the participants showed very positive reaction. The ones
showing most likeliness to accept game invitation were the late teens:
“It is free so why not!”
The Male focus group on the other hand immediately identified it as a way to enable
”try before you buy” as well as a recommendation feature. Nothing forces to
purchase. If they like the game they will pay for an upgrade of the license, if not they
just do not do it. Then they can recommend it further in a convenient way. And they
will recommend games in this way if they themselves find the game good and if they
know it will be appreciated. As one of the participants said:
“It is a bit cool to recommend about good stuff.”
279
280
Martin Björling, interview by author, Stockholm, September 19, 2006.
Appendix VII: Question 18. Reason for sending a game invitation to a friend.
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Both the Partner Relationship focus group and the Female focus group were
however less enthusiastic about Game Share. For the participants in the Female
focus group it is the time issue that created some uncertainty. As they see it, the task
to decide a time when both could play is seen as difficult due to full agendas. The
spontaneity of people sending them game invitations is simply seen as stress-causing
which could also explain the need they see in actually having to book it in.
A participant in the Female focus group did also state that even a standard
recommendation message that could seem to be automatically generated by a game
portal or company, would make her suspicions. A personal invitation would more
likely make her to accept the invitation. For the Partner Relationship focus group on
the other hand it is still a matter of price and alternative costs. However the general
opinion was that it was a good strategy.
9.4.2 Requirements for Purchase
This question concerns playing mobile games in general, and not specific occurrences
such as boredom or having time.
AFFORDABLE PRICES
”Else you could just choose consol games because
until today mobile games have been of bad quality.”
Participant in the Late Teen focus group
Even though many of the participants clearly belong to the early adopters if seeing to
their way of technology adoption, there were those among them for which trying out
new mobile or online services are not that important so that it would make them pay
for them. This cost issue also applies to Social Gaming. The price that the
participants could consider paying today for a mobile game ranges from SEK 0 to
more than SEK 100 EUR 0-11)281. The highest price levels acceptance is found in the
Male focus group and the Female focus group.
The Late Teen focus group and some still studying participants in other focus groups
feel not being able to afford larger bills than they already have.
QUALITY ASSURANCE. For the majority in the Male focus group, quality did
however outweigh price, and there were some voices heard in the Late Teen focus
group that meant that it is the quality of the game that will make them feel getting
their money’s worth, not the communication features of the gaming service. They
mean in other words that the social part will not by itself create the entertainment,
instead it has to be appealing games with something to look forward to – i.e. the next
level in the game.
“I would absolutely pay for a good game, a game that would add value for me. The
same way a magazine for 20 crowns does that I buy before
getting on the bus”.
Participant in the Male focus group
281
Appendix VII: Question 22. Maximum price that they could consider paying.
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9. Results
To try a game before purchase was identified by the Male focus group as one of the best
ways to ensure them that they are getting value for their money. Whether the trial
would be limited by time or number of levels is really of any importance to them.
What they actually just want is a possibility to get a feeling for what they are buying.
Because of that even a free trial of only one level would be enough according to
some of the participants.
Forums and hit-lists are also asked for features by the men. They agreed on the fact
that these hit-lists probably exist online, but since they never turn up in forums that
the participants themselves are familiar with create an unawareness of the range of
games. Forums like “Nöjesguiden”282 with hit-lists and reviews would enable them to
get hold of information and recommendations on quality games, just in the same way
that they get tips about cultural events and books. “You would never be able to read all
books yourself”, was the way in which one of the participants chose to illustrate their
point.
This issue of content discovery is also confirmed by industry stakeholders including
Sony Ericsson’s Peter Ahnegård. To inform the consumers that this content exists is
seen as the biggest challenge.
DEPENDING ON ALTERNATIVE COSTS. Today’s games are seen as keeping low
quality which reflects the perception of the price level.
“For today’s games I would pay maximum 20 crowns, but as it evolves…..”.
Participant in the Late Teen focus group
Alternative costs283, is one of the topics brought up by some of the participants
themselves in the Partner and Male focus group. Games are furthermore not seen as
a necessity and mobile services as news, movies or a sitcom are therefore something
that they state are of more interest to them and something that they are more willing
to pay for.
In the preparatory questionnaire, multiplayer mobile gaming positioned itself at a
shared sixth place in popularity284 after that the participants had selected the mobile
services that they were interested in. This clearly proves the competitive situation for
Social Gaming and mobile services overall.
THE POSSIBILITY TO CHOOSE FREE AD-FINANCED CONTENT. Due to the large
price sensitivity and negative attitude towards Social Games in the Partner
Relationship focus group, ad-financed content became one of the topics discussed in
this specific focus group. There is a split opinion about advertisement covering the
costs, with some being very reluctant to have advertisement on there cell phone.
Having the possibility to choose between having to pay for the game and having to
watch an ad and then acquire the game for free, is however something that the
participants think will make more people less reluctant to ad-financed content. What
is moreover interesting is how MTV is working with advertisement together and
282
Nöjesguiden: A Swedish free magazine and online web site about entertainment, music, movies, night life
etc, including reviews. www.nojesguiden.se
283
Alternative costs: In economic it is the cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone (and the
benefits that could be received from that opportunity), or the most valuable forgone alternative, i.e. the
second best alternative.
284
Appendix VII: Question 5. Mobile services found most interesting.
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content that is available on their webpage. One of the female participants in the
Partner Relationship focus group that stated being used to the couple of seconds of
commercials before the actual media clips, showed more acceptance towards having
advertisement sponsoring content on the mobile.
FIXED FEE. Knowing that money is ticking while playing does not make up to a
viable solution, and will only discourage consumers from the service. Unlike a minute
fee which also might be perceived as a hidden cost, fixed fees make the consumers
feel in control of their expenses, unlike a minute fee which also might be perceived as
a hidden cost. The late teens have had gaming offerings being marketed to them with
the use of misleading information. This in turn has damaged the business.
“Some have said that the games are for free and they
have not provided enough information. Then there has been a cost to actually play the
games. People are not that stupid, they notice on their telephone bill what they have done.”
Participant in the Late Teen focus group
The Late Teen focus group did find a game subscription with a fixed fee – either
monthly, yearly or a one time fee of some sort - to be the best solution as it would
provide them the simplicity and control that they request. They have themselves seen
how messy payment has hindered many to play MMOGs as an own account is
required.
However, the late teens do however feel that their current telephone expenses are
already reaching a limit. Currently they are using the subscription “Comviq
kompis”285 which enables them to unlimited calls to all their friends for SEK 150
(EUR 16) a month.
”As it is now, you’re not able to play if you are to pay your normal telephone bill.”
Due to this they stated that at monthly fee of SEK 100 (EUR 11) or SEK 150-300
(EUR 16-32) including all communication would be a price that they would be
willing to pay. The quality of the game is however decisive.
ACCESS TO A LARGE RANGE OF GAMES. The results from the preparatory
survey shows that the second favorite way in which to start a game against a friend, is
through the phone book on their mobile phone where they would first choose the
opponent and thereafter the game to play286. Choosing the game first and then the
opponent, is however the option that gained most votes. This is also supported by
the results obtained from question 19 in the questionnaire, showing that the
preferred way to access a game is through a game catalogue. The importance of the
games themselves becomes in this way very evident.
Having to buy one game and then the next is very limited, especially for the late teens
for which it is important to have access to a large range of games.
285
Comviq Kompis: A subscription form that lets the user to call, send MMS and SMS for free to other
Tele2/Comviq customers for a monthly fee of 49 SEK. www.tele2.se
286
Appendix VII: Question 17. Preferred way to start playing a mobile game against a friend.
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BETTER CONTROL. An expected topic was the issue of the limitations coming with
the handset. Bigger screens, two hand grip and larger buttons are all requested
characteristics, which more or less would make the handsets to resemble portable
gaming devices. High end devices such as smart phones with touch screen are
believed to hold big potentials for the development of more entertaining games and
game concepts
9.4.3 Females: Reactions and Opinions
The social nature, possibility to get to know people as well as the fact that they are playing
against a human being, are what the female participants find most interesting with Social
Games. For them the time issue is of great concern – i.e. when both of them will be
available at the same time. Adding differing game preferences they meant that it
could be difficult to get a match when they themselves would like to play.
Something that became clear during the session is that playing against is different than
with. The females would prefer to play together rather than against, which would
cause achievement anxiety for some. When playing together the small screen size is
an advantage since one could not disappear behind the screen as behind a computer
screen. The wish to play together returned when discussing different scenarios. When
traveling or when visiting a place as a tourist was occasions when some of the women
would like to play some location-based or context-based games together with their
traveling partners.
The females’ most stereotype immediate associations to Social Gaming can be found
in Table 16.
PRO
o Possibility to get new
friends
o You become extrovert
o You’re active
o It is better playing a game
than watching TV
CON
o Lack of time
o Unsocial
o Constant interruption
o The primary aim with the mobile is to make
phone calls
o More social meeting people face to face
o Expensive
o A lot of games have flaws
o Interoperability issues with other mobile brands
o Small display
o The brain needs some rest some times
Table 16: The females’ instant “PROs and CONs” (result from argumentation activity during the focus
group session)
9.4.4 Males: Reactions and Opinions
The Presence Enabled Phonebook is a topic that the males showed great interest in. Many
had questions on how it would work and whether one would have to have it on all
the time. As the concept is very similar to the one of today’s Instant Messaging and
VoIP applications, the participants had no difficulties in understanding it.
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However, the very similarity to IM clients such as MSN Messenger does also bring
some negative values and storm clouds. The main concern addressed by the focus
group was regarding control of the application. Instant Messaging on the computer is
perceived as stressful, and the mere idea of having something similar on the own
mobile, at work and other public environments, increases the concern and stress.
“What do you do when too many of your contacts contact you at the same time or too often?” One
of the participants had uninstalled MSN Messenger on his computer as he had
realized that his status always was either set to “off-line” or “invisible”. One of the
others added that he does not care about the set status of others and that he sent
messages regardless status.
It has become luxury being able to choose not to be reached. The famous saying
does also appear in this context. The participants meant that it is relieving to be able
to switch of the mobile phone as well as separate the office phone from the private phone. It
is a way of escaping the constant flow of information. And it is this they worry about
losing if having the Presence Enabled Phonebook, even though it is said to on the
contrary facilitate contact management.
Another big concern is the platform independency. Due to experience from previous
services that have failed due to unsolved interoperability issues, this specific
characteristic did immediately cause dislike among the participants.
Despite all this, the Male focus group was the most positive group towards Social
Gaming and the multiplayer game mode in mobile games. They found it very
appealing to be able to play against unpredictable human intelligence - someone else than
just some AI.
“Human intelligence is fun to play against. Because then it is entertaining –
people do stupid things, unpredictable things that the computer would never have done.
That is fun and important.”
Participant in the Make focus group
There where some different opinions within the group, whether the opponent had to
be a friend or just anyone. Some meant for example that the whole point of Social
Gaming would be lost if they did not play with friends as social games were all about
socializing and spending more time with friends and close ones. Others on the other
hand, meant that playing against strangers was to be doing just that – i.e. meeting
new people and socialize. On the whole, the Male focus group showed a bigger
interest than the Female focus group in playing games with people that they did not
know.
Another great difference between the Male and Female groups was that the men did
not require that much more innovation regarding game design. Even though their
tastes in games could differ a lot, they mainly mentioned already existing games and the
majority asked for older, simpler games that they had played in a younger age – board
games, Pong, Tetris, Commodore 64 games etc. Easy games such as card and puzzle
games also belong to the favorites.
What these games all have in common is that the consumers are already familiar with
the games which ensure them that they will enjoy the game and that it will be very
easy to start playing , i.e. a non-steep learning curve. This proves that graphics and
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complexity is not what makes gameplay. When asked if they would find these simpler
games fun to play in multiplayer mode, it triggered some very exited reactions in the group
and a discussion started on which games that could be fun to play in multiplayer
mode. Once again the unpredictable human being was mentioned as a very positive
enhancer of gameplay. There was however one group of males for whom graphics is
of big importance, something that they both said explicitly and communicated by
their choice of games - colorful and fast racing games, as well as Olympic and super hero
games. However, all the participants agreed that the older games are the best ones.
A very important issue that the participants themselves brought up was the one
regarding alternative costs287. If they would be owners of mobiles with bigger screens to
which they would be able to rent a movie or a sitcom that easily could be interrupted,
then they would rather do that than playing a game.
The males’ most stereotype immediate associations to Social Gaming can be found in
Table 17.
PRO
CON
o It is entertainment
o Possibility to win prizes
o Eliminates real social interaction => loss of
human qualities
o It is a waste of time and addictive
o Exercise for the brain
o There are better ways to spend your money
o Relaxing – calms you down
o There is a health risk (Carpal tunnel
syndrome)
o Does not add any knowledge to your life –
reading a book is more instructive
o Hurts the eyes
o Eliminates real social interaction => loss of
human qualities
o Possibility to learn other
languages
o Expands the imagination
o You meet people/interact with
other people
o Possibility to obtain things you
cannot have in your real life
o A new hobby
Table 17: The males’ instant “PROs and CONs” (result from argumentation activity during the focus group
session)
9.4.5 Late Teens: Reactions and Opinions
The most prominent opinions regarding Social Gaming concern the concept of game
play over different platforms. Playing on the mobile phone against someone playing
on the computer is by many seen as something unworkable due to the superiority of the
computer.
“It will be very hard to develop games if you are to play them
on several platforms – for the mobile handset it will be very difficult and strange. If you are
to play on the mobile then it has to be adopted so that you can compete at the same time.”
Participant in the Late Teen focus group
287
Alternative costs: In economics it is the cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone (and the
benefits that could be received from that opportunity), or the most valuable forgone alternative, i.e. the second
best alternative.
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9. Results
Accessing platform independent games through game lobbies and playing against
strangers in gaming communities is even more unwanted.
“Often if you enter a small community it is as an own small clique.
As when meeting new people you have to be nice to get accepted. To get the same acceptance
you have to make some effort. [ ] In MMOs the people that play are very good. There is the
fact that you enter, you are new and bad, which others can be mean to you about. [ ] I do
not see it as pastime, especially not on such a bad platform as the mobile phone. Then I
want to have the best conditions and you do not have it on the mobile.”
Female participant in the Late Teen group
Another large concern that was a recurring topic during the focus group is disorderly
conduct in public. With this, the late teens mean that people tend to move more and
react in different ways when playing games. As the subway and bus travels are the
most popular occasions to play mobile games, the group discussed some “horror
examples” of children screaming and teenagers pushing and having game related
conversations with the opponent that would be non-appropriate in public.
“When you are studying to an important school test,
you do not disturb anyone else when sitting in the metro reading.
But all the other gamers will disturb you.”
Female participant in the Late Teen focus group
The sound and playability of games are seen as a much more important factor than
graphics. The sound is said to make the whole gaming experience, and the
participants draw parallels to older games with poor graphics that still are very good
due to the high-quality sound which creates an atmosphere. The sound has to be
varied, unlike how it today is looped in existing mobile games. Instead of a game
experience, it creates the will to switch of the music.
The graphics should however reach a certain level of quality with concern to the
screen size. The screen size is however seen as an issue and is wished to be
somewhat more as the size of the Nintendo DS. Some of the participants did adduce
the similarity to portable devices as an example, meaning that the entertainment level
of playing games on the mobile phone did not really depend on the screen size, rather to
adapt more simple (platform, arcade etc.) games to the mobile platform.
”For a mobile game to be successful it is first of all about choosing the right games.
The majority that will choose something like this are nerds from the beginning. They do not
want cute children running around or small cute characters that shoot at each other. They
want to have more action. It cannot be boring. More action means that it has to be more
live related with more reactions. When something explodes, it should show that it explode”
Female participant in Late Teen focus group
These teens know exactly what games they like and why they play on certain gaming
platforms. For them it is as much about identity as the game play itself. The general
impression is therefore that the mobile phone does not reinforce the gamer identity
in a satisfying way and that these teens simply do not see it as a “cool” gaming
device.
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9. Results
The late teens’ most stereotype immediate associations to Social Gaming can be
found in Table 18.
PRO
CON
o It is fun
o It is prohibited to talk on the phone in the
metro.
o Good pastime
o The noise from a lot of children playing
o You’re active
o Many that hear you
o You can play the kind of Snake
that is played by everyone in
the computer room at school
o It is disturbing as you have a important test
and you sit and study while on your way
home
o The possibility to play different o It is disagreeable towards others in the
metro wagons against each
metro to play games, especially as a lot of
other
people can not play games in a calm
manner
o Dependence – you loose your social life
o It is not hard to find bad games
o There is nothing playable yet, else it could
be fun in a later stage.
o If it is cramped with people you do not
want to be next to another person that is
bumping into you as he is playing a game.
Table 18: The late teens’ instant “PROs and CONs” (result from argumentation activity during the focus
group session)
9.4.6 The Partner Relationship: Reactions and Opinions
The couples had been identified as an interesting target group as it was assumed that
the communication would be very frequent and intense, as well as there are
indications showing on that female gamers usually have been introduced to the world
of games by either their boyfriend or brother. This group was however the one that
showed the least interest in playing Social Games against each other. When having 5
minutes to kill, at the most, and when not having access to their console or computer,
that is when they would consider playing a game. Even though their communication
pattern may be very intense at some points, the time communicating is very short –
i.e. information is transferred in a way that will not interfere with other activities.
One of the couples did show interest in playing Social Games together, but they
specifically requested turn based games where they did not have to be available for
play at the same time and where they would have the possibility to make the moves
after unlimited period of time. This way of game play resembles highly their current
communication patterns and consequently brings familiarity to the service.
To use the spare time to play when being together was neither anything that they
would consider. Three reasons were mentioned:
1. Their time together is already rather limited
2. There are other, better things to do when being together
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3. Difference in game preferences only. Short, easy games such as card and puzzle
games were the only categories that they believed to suit both. For them graphics
is already on an acceptable level and it is instead the game itself that is of
importance.
This specifically regards playing games with only the two in the couple involved since
they in fact showed a slightly more positive attitude towards playing against friends.
The couples themselves did however think that the concept would work when being
together on vacation or as a way for couples in long distance relationship to share things or
simply to interact in another way than just through text and voice communication.
MSN and their gaming offer had been used in this way by one of the participants.
Their price sensitivity is furthermore clearly reflected on Social Gaming. Games are
not found as a necessity, and when there are costs involved they would be much more
willing to pay for mobile services such as TV or news.
Another interesting insight is what one of the male participants in the Partner
Relationship focus group emphasized - the importance of being in the same room as the
other game opponents. This would enable him to see and really interact with them in
the same way as when meeting up with a couple of friends to play games in front of
the TV-screen. This could also be done with a Social Game on the mobile he meant,
for example with the friends on a buss trip. Lack of this kind of interaction would
definitely make him spend less time playing.
This was one of the two focus groups for which an IMS based Social Game was
demonstrated. The couples did also get some minutes to try the game. The overall
conclusions are as follows:
graphics were found very good
screen (240x320 pixel) satisfying
sending invitations was seen as a good way to initiate a game session
the couples enjoyed the turn-based game play as well as the push-to-talk feature
that they used quite a lot
o real time is not necessary – the feeling of almost playing in real time still makes
the game more personal
o
o
o
o
There was however one concern raised concerning the use of the push-to-talk feature in
public. One of the male participants would for example not use it in the metro due to
the way in which it would make him look like. The high frequency with which it was
used has to some extent an additional explanation to the one of entertainment. At
the time for the focus group session, this solution including the game was in a demo
phase. The interface included several flaws in design which lead to that a large part of
the times when the push-to-talk feature was used, it was to inform the other player
that it was his or her turn.
The results obtained from this focus group are to a great deal influenced by the fact
that all three couples live very busy and hectic lives with school, work and sometimes
both. The result would probably look a bit different if it were couples in less hectic
life situations.
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The couples’ most stereotype immediate associations to Social Gaming can be found
in Table 19.
PRO
CON
o You meet new people – others than
the ones in your town
o It can make your dream come true you can live another life
o Possibility to win prizes
o Eliminates real social interaction
o Risk of getting addicted to TV and
therefore it is better to play
o It adds no knowledge
o You will have to pay for it, both with
time and money
o It hurts your eyes
o You should do other activities, like
exercise
Table 19: The partner relationships’ instant “PROs and CONs” (result from argumentation activity during
the focus group session)
9.4.7 Children & Parents: Reactions and Opinions
The argumentation activity was not conducted with this group which excludes a “PROs and
CON’s” conclusion table for the Children & Parents focus group.
The parents’ very first reaction on Social Gaming was rather negative. They became
somewhat more positive after having had the possibility to try playing the IMS game
Othello. The Push-to-Talk feature did also lead to some laughter. Depending on
whether the parents were involved in any work-related traveling, this demonstration
made them confirm that there is a potential for Social Games becoming a way for
them to keep in touch with their children when being away from home on business travels
e.g. A chat feature would then become very important, and one of the parents
pointed out that the most probable scenario would be during flights as time
otherwise is very limited.
Due to the resistance to their children using their mobile phone too much, a
suspicion was that the parents would be even more hesitant to the mobile phone as a
gaming device than the portable consoles. When asked, they did however say that
there is no difference. For them it was more important that the gaming itself would be
regulated. When discussing this question it also became clear that the children are
already playing on the mobile handsets of their parents. The way they see the mobile
phone does in addition eliminates the possibility of it not being “cool” enough for them
to play on. The fact that children often play together with their parents and siblings
supports Social Games even more.
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9.5 Sub-question 4: What kind of pricing
strategies should be used?
Based on the focus group a short summary will be presented of what pricing models
could be suited.
What can be said in general is that flat rate for data traffic is a requirement and that
the concept of Game Share was received very well. Game Share is also supported by
the results from the preparatory survey that shows that a free game invitation
increases the chances for game play288.
MALES. Pay per game or subscription for pushed content. For the majority of men
the price was less an issue than quality and content discovery.
FEMALES. Pay per game and upgrades to the very requested management games. In
the case of "social toys" captive product pricing could become a working strategy.
Captive product pricing is used with products that are used along with a main
product (blaze and razor, film and camera, or as in this case, extra
accessories/features and social toy). The main product is usually sold to a favorable
price and the additional products are the ones generating the actual revenue.
LATE TEENS. Subscription that give them access to a large amount of games. Due to
the large price sensitivity, bundling with basic mobile phone services or related
content will lower the bar.
PARTNER RELATIONSHIPS. Promotional test-periods or ad-financed games that will
entice this negative target group to trial and purchase.
CHILDREN & PARENTS. As the parents are the ones paying, a well-suited model is
either the pay per game or dual delivery - buy one get one for free.
9.6 Summary
The results obtained from the focus groups showed that there is a consumer interest
in Social Games that however differ somewhat between the different focus groups
and between the two genders. Regarding current communication habits, it has
become clear that phone calls come with a social barrier, whereas SMS can be sent to
almost whoever, whenever. SMS is not loaded with the same value and does not
require any prior commitment before actual use. Mobile phone calls are however
seen as the most effective means of communication as it together with Instant
Messaging is the communication tool that gives instant feedback. It is moreover a
way in which to spend time together. Instant Messaging on the other hand is both
seen as a stress factor and a great support at work. The stress factor is caused among
others by the disrespect of the status symbols. Instant Messaging is inevitably one of
the most popular communication tools as it enables people to keep in touch with
both friends and other not so close acquaintances. Instant Messaging clients are also
a popular tool for content sharing both by sending the actual file and by sending
links to content online.
288
Appendix VII: Question 16. They would start playing a game on their mobile…
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Price sensitivity is the largest barrier to more widespread mobile service adoption
today – especially among younger individuals still studying. Except for this, other
identified problems with using the mobile phone as a gaming device are too high
levels of difficulty, long loading times, difficult content discovery, loyalty to other
superior gaming platforms and simply the lack of fun quality games.
For the focus group participants the most important requirement was to actually
have somebody to play against - in other words, the availability of opponents. Social
Gaming on the mobile handset would very much be a pastime outside the home
when not having access to a console or computer. Another very popular scenario of
use is when being together, traveling or on vacation. The game itself has to be fun
and it is the familiar and easy games that are the ones requested in multiplayer mode.
In-game communication and the possibility to listen to music in the background are
features that will enhance game play as well. There was however some concerns
raised with Push-to-Talk. Despite it being entertaining, the focus group participants
were unsure if it would cause disorderly conduct when used in public. Males are
somewhat more open than females to play against strangers, and this concerns the
use of voice communication with strangers as well. Game Share was a welcomed
concept that was identified as a good way in which to invite, recommend and share
games. The participants were very open to send and accepting game invitations,
however it is important to be sure that the game itself will be appreciated by the
recipient.
Requirements for purchase on the other hand, include affordable prices, quality
assurance through demos and recommendations, possibility to choose free adfinanced content, fixed fee, access to a large range of games and finally, more suitable
mobile handsets for gaming. Whether more will be spent on games is also very
dependent on other mobile services and alternative costs.
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10. Analysis & Recommendations
10. Analysis &
Recommendations
This chapter is a distillation of the most important findings that emerged
throughout the study. Having looked at the possibilities and the directions in
which trends in the industry are pointing, the chapter also includes
recommendations that may be used to support the consumer requirements
identified in the study.
10.1 The Meaning of Social Gaming
When a service becomes so convenient and easy to use, that it does not require any
prior commitments, that is when the consumer will start using it whenever, with
whoever, and just for fun. This became very clear in the focus groups. When
comparing SMS and phone calls as means of communication SMS is perceived
possible to be sent to almost whomever. Being associated with less priority and
credibility, and giving the communicator the possibility to be simple and very straight
in his/hers communication, SMS is found as very easy to use. Phone calls on the
other hand come with a social barrier, despite being seen as an effective means of
communication and a way of spending time together.
The popularity of text-based communication tools such as SMS and Instant
Messaging, is very much due to the possibility that it brings to communicate with
more people that do not belong to the closest circle of friends. The mobility that is
brought by the mobile phone is not even mentioned in the discussion which shows
on how big of a commodity it has become
The question is therefore: Where will Social Gaming position itself in relation to phone calls
and messaging? How easy will it be to just not except a game invitation? Will the consumer feel
forced to give an explanation or a notification of some sort when not accepting? The more rules,
the more demanding it will become. At the same time, if sending game invitations
will hold a too low status, then the meaning of it will loose its value. The answers to
these questions will be completely decisive for how comfortable consumer will be
with the service and whether Social Gaming will become a way to socialize with the
circle of closest friends or with many others.
10.2 The Importance of Introduction
But becoming comfortable with the service is also a questions of introduction, to get
used to the multiplayer game mode. It is for example known, that especially female
PC and console gamers start playing games after that a male friend or their boyfriend
have introduced them to gaming.
So, even though the biggest advantage with Social Gaming is that it can be played
with someone at another location than oneself, playing when together has its point.
In addition playing when together, especially when traveling or on vacation, is one of
the most popular scenarios for when the participants would like to play Social
Games.
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10. Analysis & Recommendations
Of course Social Games work perfectly well being played with someone in the same
room as oneself. Implications do however occur when going abroad, as making
phone calls abroad using the own SIM-card, concludes as known in a huge minute
fee.
Before this in some way is taken care of, one should consider a complementary way
to connect. Bluetooth which already is being used to connect gamers could be one
solution. The risk for it to decrease data traffic even in the home country and on the
operator’s own network is seen as minimal, especially with flat rate on data traffic
and with IMS providing other added value such as support for interoperability issues.
10.3 Playing at home or just when commuting?
It became very clear during the focus groups that playing on the mobile handset
when being at home was not that probable. A big majority of the focus group
participants clearly expressed the preference to the PC or console, or just that there
were other things that they could do at home. This opposes other research that has
shown that people play mobile games at home to a greater extent (for an example see
Table 13, page 38). On the other hand it is also believed that people underestimate
the amount that they actually play at home. At the same time more and more are
abandoning the fixed phone to the advantage of mobile handsets, and the US
operator Sprint Nextel recognized that 50 per cent of their customers actually
consume content when being at home. All these aspects have to be taken into
account, but these trends may very well be the first signs of a change.
10.4 The Presence Enabled Phonebook
Availability of opponents is one of the main issues that will be facilitated as gaming
sessions will be made accessible through the Presence Enabled Phonebook. Presence
information revealing moods of others such as “I’m bored” will support consumers
to identify potential opponents.
Results from the preparatory survey also shows that the second favorite way in which
the consumers would like to start a game against a friend, is through the phone book
on their mobile phone where they would first choose the opponent and thereafter
the game to play.
Furthermore, due to its similarity to the appearance and functionalities of an Instant
Messaging client, the Presence Enabled Phonebook is believed to come across as a
very familiar way of accessing content. This is something that is supported by one of
the recommendations for service creation – i.e. to bring new services in line with
already existing behavioral patterns289. It does not force the consumer to adapt to a
specific service, instead it blends right into the consumer’s everyday life, making it
easier for him or her to recognize the added value that the service brings.
The Presence Enabled Phonebook will however not become a common address
book in which personal contacts will be mixed with contacts from e.g. online activity.
Whether it was different mail or Instant messaging accounts serving different
289
C. Andersson et al., Mobile Media and Applications, From Concept to Cash: Successful Service Creation and
Launch (Chicester: John Wiley & Sons, 2006)
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10. Analysis & Recommendations
activities, or simply the use of both and office phone and a private phone, the focus
group participants clearly showed a wish to separate accounts.
10.5 Extended Turn-based Game Play
There is nevertheless another issue concerning time and availability. Arriving at your
bus stop or having to check the soup cooking on the stove, are all moments of
interruption. The possibility to pause and resume game sessions is therefore a very
important feature that gives the consumers maximum freedom and control. Maybe
the gamers will be able to resume the game already after 10 minutes, but they should
also have the possibility to resume the game after a month or simply when they feel
as playing again.
The Partner Relationship focus group, which all were in very stressful life situations
actually proposed this kind of more asynchronous game play, where they could send
moves to one and other but also play more ”intensively” when having time. This way
of playing is supported by how they use to communicate with Instant Messenger.
They may send messages intensively for a limited period of time until one of them
has to return to work or for some other activity. The other may continue
communicating, but is prepared on receiving a response at a later time.
One general advantage with turn based game play is that the speed at which the
player plans, perceives, reacts, and manipulates has no influence whatsoever on the
game. There is therefore no risk to be interrupted by the opponent while planning
the next move, which makes the game play less stressful.
10.6 Several Ways of Access
The top favorite way in which to start a game against a friend, is however by first
choosing the specific game and secondly the opponent from a player list. This shows
on the necessity of providing several ways of access for the consumer. It is also
supported by the results obtained from question 19290 in the preparatory
questionnaire, where accessing games through a game catalogue is the option that
gained most votes. There can be several reasons for why the “game catalogue”
became the most popular and not similar options such as a direct button in the main
menu to preinstalled games. What it indicates though is that the actual games
themselves are of big importance. A prerequisite that was common for all the five
focus groups was that they themselves had to find it fun. Therefore, it could actually
become more important for the consumers to play a specific game than to play
against a specific contact from their telephone book. This would consequently justify
the choice of the “game catalogue”.
At the same time, it does not even have to be a specific game but games overall that
is the important factor. Having access to a wide variety of game titles would enable
the consumers to find and play games of their taste, or just be able to switch games
depending the mood, thereby increasing the chances of finding it an enjoyable
pastime. The game catalogue may have brought up associations to a large range of
game titles, thus becoming a popular choice.
290
Appendix VII - Results from the Preparatory Questionnaire Results
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10. Analysis & Recommendations
10.7 When the Gamer Base Is the Most Important
And when the game itself is the only thing important, the necessity to actually know
the person playing on the other side becomes less significant. What instead becomes
more significant is a large gamer base assuring that there at any time will be
opponents available.
Due to the fact that there are those that are less inclined to play against unknown and
even less to have voice communication with strangers, it is important to provide the
consumers with the possibility to set the options themselves whether they want to
use in-game voice communication or not, and simultaneously the options deciding in
which way they may be reached by other gamers. To provide the consumers with the
possibility to block specific gamers is yet another important security option. Adding
community features such as member profiles and member spaces to gaming portals
will increase the possibility of voice communication between opponents as the extra
information obtained in this way will work not only as a security assurance but also
as a conversation opener.
When intending to create gaming solutions for existing virtual communities, what has
to be kept in mind is that community members in existing virtual communities are
there primarily to socialize. This can lead to the risk of both an insufficient gamer
base and a gamer base that in fact is not that interested in playing games, which in
turn could create a negative experience for those with the first intention to play.
10.8 Game Share – Lowering the Bar
Relevance to the recipient is one prerequisite for the sender to at all share content
with others.
When knowing somebody very well, it becomes more probable that one knows what
kind of content or information he or she would appreciate. However in other
situations, it can be a bit more difficult.
Game share lowers that bar a bit. The recipient will have the possibility to play the
game session to which he has been invited, without any costs involved, and the
sender knows that. The game invitation itself, will therefore in many cases make up
for any ”bad game”. Receiving a sincere game invitation or recommendation makes
you feel exclusive, as one participant in the Female focus group said. What is more,
Game share will increase the chances for Social Gaming to be tried out by people
that normally would not play and even less likely would have thought of buying a
game.
And the consumers will send game invitations. They understand the concept and feel
as they leave as winners. Sharing content is in addition already an existing consumer
behavior and the mobile service that gained most interest in the preparatory
questionnaire is file sharing between mobile handsets. By sharing content and
sending invitations to content or services, consumers themselves will in addition
become the facilitator of content discovery.
However, there is one risk involved with game share and recommendations. To take
advantage of game share in campaigns or for promotional use may sound tempting
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10. Analysis & Recommendations
but it has to be done very careful as it could affect the value of the invitation in a
negative way and in worst case be perceived as spam. The recipient wants to receive a
sincere invitation and not an invitation or recommendation that the sender has sent
just because he can win something by doing so.
10.9 The Superior Computer
Playing on the mobile phone against the superior computer and at the same time
having the ambition to win is not the dream situation gamers would like to find them
selves in.
The question that then comes to light is on which level of complexity the games
playable both on a PC, mobile handset and in front of the TV screen would be able
to meet. What games would still be fun on a computer or console, but not becoming
to difficult to master on the mobile platform? Would older and simpler games, added
with multiplayer functionality and features that enable communication, become an
accepted complement to the more advanced console and computer games?
From the information gained from the desktop research and stakeholder interviews,
it is clear that playing casual games when at home in front of the TV and PC is
coming big. Specific game categories such as arcade, puzzle and board games, will
furthermore be more convincing and preferred for cross platform gaming.
10.10 Does the Requirement for Voice
Communication Equal With Push-to-Talk?
Phone calls are seen as a way to socialize and a way in which to spend time with
friends and close ones. Therefore it is not that big of a surprise that the majority of
the focus group participants required voice communication as an integral part of
Social Gaming when playing against friends.
Voice communication does however not necessarily equal with Push-to-Talk. During
the focus group different concerns were raised about the appropriate nature of game
conversations and how the use of Push-to-Talk would make you look in public. The
use of headset and duplex voice communication (VoIP) will therefore most likely be
a more natural and comfortable way for in-game communication.
10.11 Focus on Developing Multiplayer Features
for Familiar Games and Well-known Game
Concepts
When asked about games that the focus group participants would like to see in
multiplayer mode, the majority was keen advocates of the genres they already were
enjoying. Even very simple games were considered to become fun when transformed
to Social Games. The recommendation is therefore to focus on familiar games when
creating multiplayer offerings. In the initial phase the innovation itself will be these
games with well- integrated multiplayer features. More innovative game concepts
should be included not until a later stage
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10. Analysis & Recommendations
10.12 Content convergence
One of the most popular game features among the focus group participants is to be
able to listen to their own choice of music or radio while playing games on the
mobile phone. The late teens did also express annoyance with the looped
background music of mobile games. Consumers should not have to exclude one or
another, especially due to alternative costs and with other services constituting a
threat to mobile games as a pastime. The trend to combine content can already been
seen in different forms – both mobile operators bundling content and Xbox
converging games with music videos in the background as well as enabling gamers to
share music within games. Content drives content and finding new combinations will
create a complete experience for consumers.
10.13 The Basic Barrier of Content Discovery
The general focus group opinion regarding mobile games today is that they do not
reach the requested standard. But is it really so, is the answer straight and plain that
mobile games are bad and boring? An important underlying issue illustrated by the
Male and Female focus groups, was the bad experience of past attempts to download
mobile games. To discover that a game does not meet up to the own taste and
expectations after having committed a lot of time finding and deciding which game
to download, is enough to create a generalizing opinion that all mobile games are
bad. This situation does not become any brighter, with the experience of “shopping
for” mobile games not being that compelling itself.291 Then it is not something the
consumer will do again soon. To download a new game to your mobile phone,
requires that you know where to navigate and download. This is something that the
Male focus group perceived as difficult. Without the right information on where to
go, too much activity and time investment is required. It is an effort that they very
seldom feel is worth it. What this all comes down to is that there is a demand for a
more natural way in which to search and find games with.
The difficulty in content discovery creates misconception of the general quality and
range of games, or do at least reinforce the opinion of mobile games being bad both
regarding game play and graphics. The experience of “shopping for” mobile games
has to become more compelling itself.
10.14 Increasing the Awareness Among People
that the Games Actually are THAT Good
There were some clear signs that the participants in the focus groups were not aware
of the range and quality of today’s mobile games. This became very evident as some
of the existing multiplayer games that Ericsson had let develop were tested with
focus group participants. The two focus groups getting the opportunity to try the
games both enjoyed the games and found the graphics satisfying.
People are not that picky when it comes to mobile games – they just do not know
that they exist and then they have trouble finding them. As Sprint Nextel so
successfully pulled of - make it impossible to miss.
- 106 -
10. Analysis & Recommendations
10.15 Implementing “Experience” in Shopping
and Content Discovery
Demos, testing before purchase, recommendations, reviews, trailers and information.
By enhancing the shopping experience it will become a place where people go to
spend time when being bored or communities. To increase sales, one should aim at
attracting consumers to the actual shopping arena, in preference to trying to
convince them to choose gaming before other options such as reading the newspaper
when commuting. To create an experience in the content discovery is very important
to make game acquisition less cumbersome - if the consumers are to spend time to
browse through immense game catalogues it has to be fun.
10.16 Creating the Notion of ”Local”
Having people to wap somewhere to find games and content related to games is one
of the great user barriers. Even though operators are trying to communicate that
navigating on the operator portal is free, they do not succeed in getting through to all
their customers. Even when knowing about it, the customers will still be on their
guard not to go over the portal border. Loading time, when accessing the game
folder on the mobile, will therefore have more acceptance than when accessing
options as ”More Games”. Consumers know that accessing folders on their mobile
handset is free, and letting them access folders that are dynamically updated with
information and links to game downloads will consequently make them more on
ease. The American operator Sprint Nextel has for example managed to create a very
intuitive interface by the use of game folders that in fact are JAVA applications. This
enables them to provide the consumer with information and content that is
constantly updated without forcing him or her to know what is actually happening in
the background.
Consumers should believe having everything on their mobile phone.
10.17 Other Findings
10.17.1 The Social Toy - Create and Share as a Game
Pottery is also seen as a game and when looking to trends in the traditional gaming
industry, social toys as the famous Tamagotchi are coming strong. The gamers create
and they share their creation with others, who in turn have the possibility to modify
and once again pass the creation to somebody else. This is a behavior supported by
the sharing of user generated content on the Internet today that industry
stakeholders believe is coming their way now.
The moves in the game are in this case no longer what creates the multiplayer mode,
but instead it the social nature around.
10.17.2 The Role to Extend
One great vision, if asking industry stakeholders, but whether Microsoft will succeed
with its Xbox Live Anywhere is on the other hand another story. Stakeholders do
however agree upon that the mobile handset constitutes an own channel that most
probably also will serve as an extension to more advanced gaming experiences. The
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10. Analysis & Recommendations
mobile handset will then take the role as a macro management tool that will enable
gamers to always be connected to their gamer network.
10.17.3 Flash Games
Flash content is one of the most popular types of content shared on the Internet
today. When it comes to the mobile game development, it is believed that most of
today’s 2D Java games could be created in Flash. More and more phones will
support Flash in the future and industry stakeholders are already today looking into
the possibility with Flash games. Easier, faster and cheaper game development are
the major benefits that are awaiting the industry. For the consumers on the other
hand it facilitates consumption as there is no need to keep track of specific handset
models to know what games one is able to download.
Flash games also supports the concept of “Create and Share” concept as the
consumers would have the possibility to become the creators of what they play. This
could in fact kick-start the user generated track and the independent productions,
providing the market with both niche content and games that do not always have to
be that “politically correct”. Anyone without EUR 200 000 would be able to develop a
game that others could play on the mobile handset.
With time we will maybe see a meeting platform for game developers emerge similar
to what MySpace is for aspiring musicians today.
- 108 -
11. Conclusions
11. Conclusions
Next is a short recapitulation of the main conclusions drawn from this study.
The main conclusion is that there is an interest in Social Gaming on the mobile
phone. As the preferred opponents are the own friends, voice communication is a
prerequisite. Games that are wished to see in multiplayer mode is the already existing
ones and it was proven that even easier games with lower graphic quality are to be
regarded as fun in multiplayer mode. Only the female group asked for more
innovative games.
Two of the main user barriers are time and availability - both gamers have to have
time at the same occasion and wanting to play the same game. Price sensitivity and
alternative costs are two other barriers to overcome. These barriers are believed to be
well supported by Game Share, the Presence-Enabled-Phonebook, Game Lobbies
and Flat Rate on data traffic during game play. Turn-based game play and the ability
to pause game sessions are other features that will support the gamers in using the
mobile phone as a gaming device.
Females are hesitant to play against unknown due to achievement anxiety whereas
majority of the male participants do not experience any problem in playing and
communicating with strangers. Females require a shared interest to play with
strangers.
Late teens do not find the mobile device as a cool gaming device whereas children on
the other hand find having their own mobile phone very cool. As it looks today the
only real difference between the mobile phone and their portable gaming devices are
that the games on the latter are experienced as more fun. There are therefore big
potentials with this target group.
What is more, the basic barrier of content discovery remains. To make people to
actively search for mobile games the shopping experience itself has to be improved.
There is a big need in creating a notion that content is locally stored on the device as
people still are afraid of hidden costs when waping and acquiring content with and to
the mobile phone.
Games for the mobile handsets have improved drastically in quality during the latest
years. People are just not aware of it and difficulty in content discovery and the
purchase process reinforce this conception.
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12. Source of Errors
12. Source of Errors
12.1 Interview
The majority of the interviews were conducted in person, and only four interviews
had to be performed by mail or telephone. Face-to-face interviews were preferred as
both the interviewee and the interviewer could see the reactions of the other. This in
turn created a more relaxed situation and enabled more in-depth interviews. With
every new interview more knowledge on the subject was obtained and consequently
the interview questions had to be modified or new ones had to be added. Some
topics were therefore dealt with in some interviews, and in others not. Furthermore
the interview technique improved which also reflects on the information obtained in
the later interviews. This has all together affected the overall result of the study, as
the interviewer after all has a great influence on the topics discussed during the
interviews. Some topics may therefore have received a larger focus, at the expense of
others.
12.2 Preparatory Questionnaire
Regarding the preparatory questionnaire there were some occurrences that
influenced the way in which it was carried out. First of all, due to some specific
characteristics of two focus groups, the questionnaire had to be somewhat modified:
1. Due to the English speaking participants in the Couple focus group the
questionnaire was translated from Swedish to English for that specific focus group.
2. To facilitate comprehension of the questionnaire that the children were to answer,
pictures were added and some difficult questions were removed.
Furthermore, due to lack of time prior to three of the focus group sessions, the webbased questionnaire was instead handed out in the form of printed copies in the
beginning of the sessions. The Children & Parents focus group, the Late Teen focus
group and one participant in the Couple focus group were the once that answered
the questionnaire in this very way. Unlike the others that answered the questionnaire
on the computer before coming to the sessions, this situation enabled them to
comment and ask questions. Even though this could have altered the results
somewhat, it is not believed that it caused that much of a change in the results.
12.3 Focus Groups
A decision was made to conduct focus groups of different constellations which in
one way or another had proven to be potential target groups for Social Gaming.
Even though it allowed the identification of similarities and differences between
different potential target groups, it did however not enable the comparison between
separate focus groups of the same constellation. This has prevented us to control the
results against a reference group, and consequently to detect whether the obtained
results correspond.
- 110 -
12. Source of Errors
Even though focus groups are not a method for generalization, the use of reference
groups would have increased the reliability of the study. To investigate different
potential target groups was however seen as more important.
An incident did also occur that most certainly affected the obtained result; one of the
five participants in the Female focus group could not attend during the whole focus
group session and left after the collage activity. Even though the other participants
did not hesitate to share their opinions, this participant was one of the more
outspoken ones and there were probably some very important insights that was lost
due to this.
12.4 Interpretation of the Author
Even though it is important to be objective as a researcher, it is inevitable that the
own opinions and ideas will have an influence on the result, especially when
interpreting the material. This could potentially have been a big source of error.
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13. Further Research
13. Further Research
1. Additional focus groups with the same constellations should be carried out to
verify the obtained results from the study and control that no other essential
information has been overlooked.
2. To be able to generalize the results obtained in the study it would be desirable to
conduct an extensive questionnaire or another type of quantitative study.
3. It would be of interest to perform a more extensive user testing of some Social
Games and then conduct focus groups with the participants to hear their
opinions and ideas. This would give them something more concrete to discuss
and it would probably provide the development team with valuable feedback in
how to improve the service.
4. The pricing models should be evaluated more extensively as some models were
discussed in some groups and in others not.
5. One interesting behavior identified among the late teens, was the logging of
conversation to in a later stage search for quotes to be shared with other friends.
It would be very interesting to examine whether a game related service could be
created with this kind of user generated content.
6. An emerging online trend which was not
considered in the study or the report due
to time restrictions is the one of
networking. Online networks such as
LinkedIn and OpenBC connect people
from around the world by letting them
invite trusted contacts to join the network
or connect to their connections’
connections. It would be interesting to
investigate the potentials in applying this
concept to create safety and trust in the
otherwise very anonymous game lobbies
(see Figure 5 for illustration).
- 112 -
I
My friends
My friends’
friends
MY GAME LOBBY
Figure 5: The concept of networking
applied on game lobbies?
Appendix
Appendix
Appendix I: IMS
The purpose with this chapter is to provide the reader with an overview of the
IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) area both from a business and consumer point
of view as well as to see what offerings and what arguments are connected to
multiplayer gaming. This chapter is based on analysis and reports from the
Ericsson internal web as well as an interview in which Daniel Glifberg at
Ericsson explained the implications of IMS.
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)
In a perfect telecom world all services would be available globally, independent of
network vendor, operator or device brand. Today however, operators and service
providers are struggling with providing their entire customer base with this kind of
available, reliable, convenient and secure quality services. Adding aspects as fast timeto-market regarding service creation and viable development costs make the situation
even more cumbersome and an all-in-one solution seems even more distant.
A new platform for multimedia services, known by the name IP Multimedia
Subsystem (IMS) and defined by the standards body 3GPP/3GPP2 292 and
ETSI/TISPAN is however prophesized to get us closer to this vision by leaps and
bounds. Using IP and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)293 it will enable operators to
deliver such services over the packet domain.294
IMS is an upcoming standard for mobile network service layer architecture. It does
not offer new applications in itself, but is rather a framework that presents a new way
for developing and bundling applications for mobile and fixed networks. As it is
designed to work end-to-end, from caller to receiver or caller to content/ application
server, IMS will imply changes both in the core network and the handsets.
In a time in which the mobile operator role is changing with the opening-up of their
walled gardens295 and decreasing price tariffs are making both fixed and mobile
operators to loose revenue, operators are trying to evolve existing business models to
keep and protect their role as service providers. IMS becomes therefore equally
important for fixed-line and mobile operators as they both are looking for new
revenue-generating services.
Next, the major benefits and values of IMS will be presented.
292
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2
(3GPP2): Two collaboration agreements constituting of a number of telecommunications standards
bodies. In their capacity of standardization groups their scope is to make a globally applicable third
generation (3G) mobile phone system specification. 3GPP and 3GPP2 specifications are based on the
3G technology W-CDMA and CDMA200 respectively. Source: http://www.3gpp.org
293
The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP): A signalling protocol that is for creating session-oriented
connections between two or more endpoints in an IP network. These endpoints could be IP telephones,
instant messaging clients or collaborative multimedia conference application. Source:
www.sipforum.org
294
Ericsson, Solution Overview – Ericsson Integrated Site in IMS, March 14, 2006.
295
Walled garden: Any environment that controls the user's access to Web content and services. In this
case it refers to the operator driven portals.
- 113 -
Appendix
MOVING FROM A VERTICAL TO HORIZONTAL SERVICE LAYER. Today service
creation is mainly vertical due to the existence of several technologies, standards,
protocols etc. This fact creates interoperability problems and when an application is
to be developed combining several services, i.e. a game with in-game messaging, the
development has to start from scratch. IMS will enable a more homogenous
structure, or in other words, a more horizontal service network consisting of a solid
base for service creation (see Figure 6 for illustration).
Today
Introduction of IMS
Horizontalization
Cost-efficient
Fast service launch
B2B interfaces
Separate content
and communication
services
ƒ Several standards
ƒ New IMS enablers
ƒ Richer
communication
services
ƒ Interworking with
existing services
ƒ Standardized
ƒ Enhanced B2B
interfaces
(Web Services)
Yesterday
ƒ Vertical stovepipes
ƒ Slow & expensive
service launch
ƒ Walled garden
ƒ Non-standardized
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
All-IP Vision
ƒ All-IP with IMS as a
cornerstone
ƒ Converged content
and communication
services
ƒ Phase-out of legacy
ƒ More cost-efficient
ƒ Interoperability
ƒ Multi-access,
multi-device (FMC)
Figure 6: Evolution to All-IP and a horizontal service network. (Source: Mobile Core Evolution)
FASTER TIME-TO-MARKET WITH NEW SERVICES is key to bring new customers and
reduce churn.296 IMS will help operators in the service-creation so that they can
develop and launch IMS services faster and easier.297 By having access to a welldefined toolbox with well-known APIs and ready-to-use building blocks, developers
will be able to shorten development time considerably. They will simply not be
required to develop everything themselves.298
”We made a poker game by providing the IMS APIs to a person that could develop games
but did not know anything about IMS. With the help from the APIs he could do a poker
game integrated with Push-to-Talk in two and a half weeks. The only thing he needed to
know about IMS was some function calls.”
Daniel Glifberg, IMS, Ericsson
FLEXIBLE CHARGING MODELS. IMS will give support for flexible charging models
that will bring operators up in the value chain299. The possibility to keep better track
of what the consumers are doing on the network and also interact back to the
consumers with notifications, provides the operators with a wide variety of options
when choosing charging models. In practice this will mean a shift from volume based
charging to service based charging where the consumer pays according to the actual
experience or delivered value.300 However, to which extent this will support
transparent pricing and thereby the situation for the consumer, is highly dependent of
296
Ericsson, Solution Overview – Ericsson Integrated Site in IMS, March 14, 2006.
Ericsson, Mobile Core Evolution, June 19, 2006.
Daniel Glifberg, interview by author, Stockholm, October 20, 2006.
299
Ericsson, IMS Questions and Answers, March 2, 2006.
300
Ericsson, Mobile Core Evolution, June 19, 2006.
297
298
- 114 -
Appendix
how the operators will choose to configure and set up their installations, their
networks and their systems.301
SECURITY. IMS ensures a safe service environment with secure connectivity and
payment security.
NEW MULTIMEDIA SERVICES. By cutting down the time-to-market and
development costs of new services, IMS will be the key in generating increased
revenue from non-voice communication. Furthermore, IMS will make it possible to
combine applications or enrich an ongoing communication session by adding media
components such as video or music. Messages will for example contain text, picture,
video or attached files.
All the above mentioned values are feasible and are in fact already handled in
different ways today. What makes these solutions different from IMS, is that IMS
does this in a standardized way, creating the foundation for access agnosticism and
interoperability. In other words, with IMS it becomes possible to offer the same
application over different access networks and towards different devices (TV,
mobile, PC etc). This is the big difference between existing proprietary solutions and
the one proposed by IMS.
SUPPORTING INTEROPERABILITY. With IMS the basal services such as messaging,
presence, capability exchange etc. will be standardized, and thereby not adding any
weight to the JAVA-terminal problem.
”An IMS-presence-enabled device used with the operator Telia should not
have the problem to talk with an IMS-presence-enabled device on the Vodafone net. This
kind of communication over the borders is something that is intended to become solved.”
Daniel Glifberg, Ericsson
Porting the games will however still concern the graphical interface to a great
concern.
ACCESS AGNOSTIC. IMS being access agnostic implies that a consumer may use
the services independent of connection – whether it is WCDMA, GSM/EDGE,
broadband, WiMAX or Wifi, it does not matter. The consumer can easily gain access
independent of whether it is a wireline, mobile or enterprise network.
Support for access specific features/characteristics is together with interoperability
two of the big differences between IMS-based services and the unmanaged Internet.
POLICY BASED QoS302 - TELECOM GRADE. However, different access types give
different characteristics and consequently impacts the perceived consumer
experience. To select the best available access for a specific purpose is therefore very
important, as well as making the application aware of existing limitations to make it
possible to adjust for example the rate of a specific function.
301
Daniel Glifberg, interview by author, Stockholm, October 20, 2006
QoS (Quality of Service): Refers to providing consumers with a predictable service experience
regardless of access and location.
302
- 115 -
Appendix
IMS enables operators to offer their subscribers rich multimedia services with
telecom grade quality - in other words with the same Quality of Service (QoS) that
they always have offered voice services with. This is something that the Internet is
lacking due to the open nature of the net303.
Even though that the bandwidth is increasing with the introduction of evolved
cellular bearers (HSPA, S3G etc), it is still a limited resource compared to wireline
broadband. Offering QoS is therefore important so that right priority and
throughput to the different services is given. This operator control of network traffic
protects the available bandwidth from misuse and influences at the same time how to
charge for the service. Consumers will consequently access services while being
ensured predictable service behavior.
INTERWORKING WITH LEGACY APPLICATIONS. To protect existing investments
and to ensure that consumers can interact with users that do not yet have an IMSenabled terminal, IMS will ensure interworking with legacy technology and terminals.
IMS messaging will therefore for example interwork with SMS and MMS.
Interworking is also important for making new IMS-based applications more useful
and will accelerate the uptake of new IMS-based services by allowing communication
between IMS and non-IMS-based devices.
The thought is however that more and more terminals, and eventually all, sooner or
later will include IMS enablers such as presence.304
Towards All IP – The Fixed-Mobile Convergence
As has been seen IMS is closely linked to consumer service convergence. However,
by supporting both fixed and mobile networks, it also has a great importance for
network convergence which in long-term is expected to decrease operating
expenditures and create new business opportunities. IMS is the cornerstone in the
evolution towards all-IP; i.e. the convergence of mobile and fixed networks. This
simply means that more and more traffic and services over time will build on IP and
run over data networks. 305
Telenor is one of the operators that see it as a great opportunity to create a
transparency between themselves and their two other companies, the broadband
provider Bredbandsbolaget and premium Pay-TV provider Canal Plus.
“I believe in finding this transparency between computer,
mobile and TV. We have all the possibilities when it comes to Telenor in Sweden. I
believe strongly in IMS.”
Sonia Kavs, Telenor
Ericsson & IMS
Ericsson is the industry leader when it comes to IMS and provides everything
telecom operators and third party developers need for a successful business using
IMS – both for the core network and the service layer. Ericsson contributes in the
creation of the IMS ecosystem by supporting developers and operators, and ensuring
303
Ericsson, Mobile Core Evolution, June 19, 2006.
Daniel Glifberg, interview by author, Stockholm, October 20, 2006
305
Ericsson, Mobile Core Evolution, June 19, 2006.
304
- 116 -
Appendix
that there is a wide variety of devices from different device vendors that support
IMS.
Ericsson believes in open standards to drive the evolution.
”You will never be able to create a large system or community
around an isolated island. So if we at Ericsson would produce a system that is ours only,
without any of the suppliers developing and using the systems, or that all other suppliers
would agree on one thing and we would be thinking something else, then it is very probable
that the big mass would bet on their own horses”.
Daniel Glifberg, IMS, Ericsson
The establishment of user-to-network and network-to-network interoperability
clearly requires coordination and openness. However, it does not only apply on
companies such as Ericsson, but operators as well. An effort is needed from today’s
fixed and mobile operators as they cannot win by themselves due to the necessity of
interoperability and access independent communities.
The Impact on the Consumer
NEW WAYS OF COMMUNICATION – THE PRESENCE ENABLED PHONEBOOK
For the consumers IMS will create a new way of communicating as it will enable
them to switch between different applications and communication modes while
communicating (Table 20). With a Presence-Enabled-Phonebook consumers will be
able to communicate with others by their set preferences. They will have
communication options that seamlessly combine ongoing voice sessions with
multimedia elements, (sharing content such as pictures and media files while talking)
or enrich shared applications with voice communication (talking while playing a
multiplayer game)306.
COMMUNICATING TODAY
c Today the consumers first select the
service that they want to use,…
COMMUNICATING TOMORROW
(IMS-based)
c The consumers will first choose with
whom they want to communicate...
d …then with whom they want to
d …then the best suited IMS service.
communicate. Changing communication
mode once the session has started is not
possible.
e During the session they will be able to
dynamically choose or change
communication modes – both with
whom to communicate and which medias
to use.
Table 20: The way IMS will change the way we communicate (Source: Ericsson, Commercial Solution
Description, July 25, 2006.)
306
Ericsson, Mobile Core Evolution, June 19, 2006.
- 117 -
Appendix
CAPABILITY EXCHANGE – FACILITATING COMMUNICATION. Except for the
presence information, which makes it possible for the consumers themselves to
choose how they want to be contacted, another important feature enabled by IMS is
the capability exchange. Capability exchange makes it possible to obtain information
about each other’s available device capabilities. This facilitates communication as the
consumers do not need to actively control by themselves what options are available
for a communication session between specific parties. In other words it secures that
the consumer will only be offered the service if the other terminal is supporting the
same service307. To be more specific, this could for example prevent situations such
as the sending of a file to another device just to realize, when the transmission is
completed, that the file has been sent unnecessarily as it is not supported by the other
device. Furthermore, if one in the group lacks a video camera on his mobile or that
the network capacity is too low for the service to be used at that specific location,
then that option will get automatically deactivated. The capability exchange is an
important feature when two persons want to play a game together. First of all, it
would enable them to see what games that they own and have in common, as well as
when deciding upon to acquiring a new game, they would be able to purchase a game
and both their capabilities would be taken into account when the different game titles
would be presented to them.
SHARING WILL SUPPORT CONTENT DISCOVERY. With faster service creation
enabled by IMS, the gates are also opened up for a wider range of services and
content. Content discovery is already seen as a big problem for consumers today and
with an increasing amount of content, tools for content discovery have to be
improved.
By sharing content and sending invitations to content or services, consumers
themselves will become the facilitator of content discovery. When having received an
invitation the receiver will be only some few clicks away to get going with the service
or the content.
CONVERGENCE FULFILL CONSUMER DEMANDS. The convergence is not only
supported by the industry, but also by the will of consumers due to the fact that it
will fulfill the common consumer demands:
Convenience and Ease of Use
Always Best Connected
Security and Reliability
307
=>
=>
=>
User services convergence
Device convergence
Network convergence
Ericsson, Mobile Core Evolution, June 19, 2006.
- 118 -
Appendix
Appendix II – Scenarios: Males and Their Friends
- 119 -
Appendix
Appendix III – Scenarios: Females and Their
Friends
- 120 -
Appendix
Appendix IV – Scenarios: Late Teens and Their
Peers
- 121 -
Appendix
Appendix V – Scenarios: The Couple
Relationship
- 122 -
Appendix
Appendix VI – Scenarios: Children & Parents
- 123 -
Appendix
Appendix VII – Results from the Preparatory
Questionnaire Results
(The results have not been normalized which disables direct comparison between the five focus groups because
of different participant numbers. The number after the “}” in the diagrams represent the total number of
respondents per alternative.) 1 EUR = 9,3 SEK.
Communication Habits
1. Preferred way to communicate with family and friends
} 30
With mobile phone calls
} 26
} 23
} 19
} 18
We meet face to face
With SMS
With fixed line calls
With e-mail
Through Instant Messaging
(MSN/ICQ/YahooMessenger etc)
} 10
Through VoIP (Skype etc)
} 16
}2
}2
}1
In communities
With webcam
Through my blog
}0
In forums
0
Number of
respondents
2
4
6
8
12
10
2. Preferred thing to do while talking with someone on the phone
} 20
} 20
Walk around
Be on the way somewhere
PARTNER
LATE TEENS
} 18
} 11
Nothing else
Cook
MALES
FEMALES
}9
}8
}6
Surf the Internet
Listen to music
Play a game against the
person I talk to
CHILDREN & PARENTS
}4
Watch TV
}1
}1
Play games such as Tetris
Other: a rest*
*Suggested answer from
respondent
}0
Play poker online
0
1
Number of
respondents
2
3
4
- 124 -
5
6
7
8
9
Appendix
3. Year of birth
7
Number of respondents
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1959 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97
Year
4. Gender
Number of respondents
10
9
PARTNER
LATE TEENS
8
MALES
7
FEMALES
6
CHILDREN & PARENTS
5
4
3
2
1
0
Male
- 125 -
Female
Appendix
5. Mobile services found most interesting
} 21
} 20
File sharing between mobile phones
E-mail
} 18
Instant Messaging on the mobile
Mobile phone music downloads
} 17
TV on the mobile phone
} 17
Multiplayer games
} 13
Share a common mobile photo album with
friends and family members
} 13
} 10
Crossword/Soduko/Alfapet
} 10
Videos/movies on the mobile*
Video calling
}7
Shopping service
}4
}4
}3
Music videos on the mobile phone
Mobile games that you can play at the
same time as talking with someone on the
phone
PARTNER
}3
Poker on the mobile phone
LATE TEENS
}3
None, I'm not interested in
the services above
Communities (i.e. as MySpace or
Lunarstorm)
MALES
}3
}2
}1
Chat (i.e. as Aftonbladet's or Passagen's
chat)
Odds on the mobile phone
0
1
2
FEMALES
CHILDREN & PARENTS
Number of
respondents
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
*This option was not available to the Couple focus group
- 126 -
Appendix
6. Access of the operator portal and other mobile sites
}9
No, I'm not interested
}6
No, I find it too expensive
Only other sites
}6
Both
}5
No, my mobile phone is too old to be
able to surf with it
}4
No, I lack the right settings for my
mobile phone to be able to surf with it
}3
Other: Do not own a mobile phone
}2
I've only tried to do it once
}1
Only my operator's portal
}1
0
1
2
3
Number of
respondents
4
PARTNER
LATE TEENS
MALES
FEMALES
CHILDREN & PARENTS
7. Reason for having visited the mobile sites
Sites that have corresponding
Internet Sites
By mere accident
The operator portal that has been preset on the mobile
Sites that are known to be adapted for
the mobile
Advertisement on TV/in newspaper/
on the Internet
Menu button that takes them to that page
Other: Eniro in the mobile. Genius!
Other: balance*
Other: mail server pages*
Friends that have recommended
0
1
2
3
Number of
respondents
*Suggested answer from respondent
- 127 -
Appendix
8. Frequency of visiting the operator portal/other mobile sites
Never
}2
}2
}4
}2
}2
Have tested once
Seldom
A couple of times a year
About once a month
About once a week
}8
1-2 day a week
}3
}4
Almost every day a week
Every day
0
1
2
Number of
respondents
3
4
5
PARTNER
LATE TEENS
Games
MALES
9. Frequency of playing games
FEMALES
Every day
Almost every day a week
1-2 days a week
}1
About once a week
}6
}6
}2
Seldom
}0
I have tested once
Never
0
}3
}4
About once a month
A couple of times a year
CHILDREN & PARENTS
}6
}3
1
Number of
respondents
2
- 128 -
3
4
Appendix
10. They play games…
} 22
} 18
} 17
} 16
when they are by themselves
on the computer at home
when they are together
with others on the
Playstation/Xbox/Nintendo
} 12
a longer while each time playing
on gaming sites on the Internet
to beat their high-score
on the computer at school
to beat somebody's high-score
several times after each other
on the mobile phone when they
are not home
as they lazily watch TV
on MSN while they are chatting
on the mobile phone when they
are home
}0
}0
in a community
on the computer at work
0
}1
}5
}4
}4
} 10
}9
}7
}7
}6
PARTNER
LATE TEENS
MALES
Number of
respondents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
11. The meaning of “Games”
} 26
Entertainment
} 17
} 17
} 10
Relaxation
Pastime
A way to spend time
with family and friends
}7
A part of my life
}4
}4
}4
}2
}1
Pottery
Waste of time
A way to get to know
new people
Other: Something fun*
Other: reward,
challenge, fantasy*
Chance to win money
A disc in a cover
}0
}0
0
2
4
6
8
10
Number of
respondents
*Suggested answer from respondent
- 129 -
8
FEMALES
CHILDREN & PARENTS
Appendix
12. Preferred games
} 16
Adventure
} 16
} 14
} 14
Consol games (X-box, Sony)
Action
Multiplayer games
} 13
} 11
Tactic/strategy
Classics such as Sonic The
Hedgehog
Pottery and board games
} 10
}9
}9
}9
}8
}7
Sport
Card games
Tetris
Suduko
Racing
}6
Karaoke
Crossword
}5
}5
}4
Football
TV/movie
Poker
}6
PARTNER
LATE TEENS
MALES
FEMALES
}3
Bejewelled
CHILDREN & PARENTS
}0
}0
}0
Cheap games
Casino
Odds
0
1
Number of
respondents
2
3
4
5
- 130 -
6
7
Appendix
13. Preferred opponents
} 23
Friends
Boyfriend/
Girlfriend
} 12
} 11
Siblings
Nobody, I rather
play alone
}7
}6
}6
Anonymously on
the Internet
Does not matter
}5
}4
}1
Parents
Children
Wife/husband
0
2
Number of
respondents
4
6
8
Mobile Games
14. Frequency of playing mobile games
}
Every day
0
Almost every day a week
}
1-2 days a week
}
About once a week
About once a month
}
3
2
0
}
A couple of times a year
PARTNER
1
}
3
LATE TEENS
}
Seldom
}
I have tried once
10
1
}
Never
0
1
2
3
4
MALES
10
5
FEMALES
Number of
respondents
CHILDREN & PARENTS
15. Longest time played on the mobile phone per occasion
}
More than 2 hours
0
}1
}1
46 minutes - 2 hours
21-45 minutes
}
11-20 minutes
6
} 13
}9
0-10 minutes
I do not play
0
1
2
- 131 -
3
4
Number of
respondents
5
Appendix
16. They would start playing a game on their mobile...
..if they simply would like to play
} 16
..if they could play against my
friends.
} 12
..if someone had sent them an
invitation to play a game together but just if getting the game for free.
} 11
They are not interested in playing
games on their mobile phones.
}9
..if they received an offer to test
the game for free for one month
}4
..if they knew that one of their
friends had beaten their high-score
}4
..to spend time with their friends.
}3
..if they could save their scores
and see their friends' high-scores
on a online gaming site
}3
..if somebody had sent them an
invitation to play a game together even though it would cost them
}2
.
PARTNER
}2
Other: if it was 100% free*
Other: if it was not a game that
was either sport, racing or action*
LATE TEENS
}1
..to spend time with their children
}0
..to spend time with their partner.
}0
.
0
1
MALES
FEMALES
CHILDREN & PARENTS
Number of
respondents
2
3
4
5
6
*Suggested answer from respondent
- 132 -
Appendix
17. Preferred way to start playing a mobile game against a friend
By choosing a game on the
mobile phone and then choose the
person from a player list
}2
} 10
Through the contact list on the
mobile phone*
By sending an invitation by SMS
}7
Through IM on the mobile phone
}7
By surfing to a game
community's mobile site and login
}4
}0
Through a personal mobile site
Number of
respondents
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
18. Reason for sending a game invitation to a friend
} 17
When I'm bored
} 11
} 10
When I see/know that the specific
person would like to play
When I would like to play
When I believe that the person
would like the game
To cheer up the person in question
}8
To joke with the person in question
I would never do it
When I want to beat that person's
high-score
LATE TEENS
}6
MALES
}5
To ""say hi""
PARTNER
}3
}2
}1
FEMALES
CHILDREN & PARENTS
Number of
respondents
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- 133 -
Appendix
19. Preferred way to access games on the mobile phone
} 12
Through a game catalogue on the
mobile phone
By downloading from the Internet and
then transfer the games from the
computer to the mobile phone
Through a direct button in the main
menu to my preinstalled games
1
}8
}7
}3
}3
By downloading with for example MMS
Through a direct button in the main
menu being able to login on a game
community's mobile site
}1
}1
By surfing to a game community's
mobile site
Through my operators portal
0
2
Number of
respondents
4
6
8
10
20. Number of participants having wanted to download a game to their mobile
phone and therefore visited a download site for mobile games
} 16
No
PARTNER
LATE TEENS
MALES
}8
Yes
Number of
respondents
0
2
4
6
21. They visited the download site…
1
1
..when I was on the metro/buss/train
..on the computer
0
..on the mobile
..to try some of the free games
1
..but failed downloading a game
1
..but found it too complicated to
pay the games
..but did not find any game that I
wanted
..but discovered that the games cost
too much
..to download a game
1
..by mere curiosity
1
1
}3
}2
0
1
2
3
Number of
respondents
- 134 -
FEMALES
CHILDREN & PARENTS
Appendix
22. Maximum price that they could consider paying
PARTNER
Nothing
LATE TEENS
Less than 5 SEK
Less than 10 SEK
MALES
Less than 50 SEK
FEMALES
Less than100 SEK
CHILDREN & PARENTS
More than 100 SEK
Number of
respondents
0
1
2
3
- 135 -
4
Appendix
Appendix VIII: Case Studies
During the research five specific initiatives were found of special interest – Xbox
Live Anywhere, The Sprint Game Lobby, Mobile Multiplayer Gaming at
Lunarstorm, ad-financed games from Gratismobilspel, Sony Ericsson and using
content to increase the value of handsets, and Telenor and the unblocking of the
walled garden . These initiatives are good examples on what is happening in the
industry today and give at the same time great insight in issues such as
convergence of gaming platforms, community driven activities, integration of
gaming with existing communities, add-financed games, the value of content for
handsets and the unblocking of the walled garden.
The Sprint Game Lobby - Learning from a Success Story308
Sprint Nextel is the third
largest operator in the US,
bringing mobility to
consumer, business and
government customers by
offering a complete range of
communications services.
The company runs two
wireless networks and offer
instant national and
international walkie-talkie
(push-to-talk). Furthermore Image 9: Sprint Nextel Experience Centre
it has an impressive research
and development focus. Image 9 shows the Sprint Nextel Experience Centre where
demonstrations take place and the different multimedia services are presented.
The real competitive advantage comes however by running a nationwide high- speed,
fiber-optic Tier 1 IP backbone that also has been expanded to global key markets.
This makes Sprint Nextel owners of their entire network – including the backbone
all the way out to the base stations309. On August 9th 2006 an IMS core with the basic
functions was implemented in the network, making Sprint Nextel one of the
companies in the frontier when it comes to IMS. The competitive advantages that
come with running an own T1 backbone is given by the data capacity and network
expansion.
First of all, network congestion is not longer a real issue and this enables Sprint
Nextel to provide their customers with a flatrate when it comes to data traffic. This is
something that is not that evident for other smaller operators that are leasing capacity
on other’s networks. Second of all, by owning the entire network, future expansion
costs in the weakest part of the network – between the T1 pipe and the base stations
– will be relatively small for Sprint Nextel compared to what other smaller operators
will have to invest.
308
This case is mainly based on the visit at Sprint head quarters on October the 30 2006 and interviews and
discussions with Jeffrey Danley, Barbara Teicher, Randy Ulvenes, Joe Ariganello and Lyle Paczkowski at
Sprint.
309
Tier 1 network: Does not purchase IP transit from any other network to reach any other portion of
the Internet. Therefore, in order to be a Tier 1, a network must peer with every other Tier 1 network.
- 136 -
Appendix
The Sprint Game Lobby is the world’s first operator-based mobile game community
and one of the most successful of today’s game initiatives. It has generated more
than 36 million score postings and 170 000 member-generated game ratings since the
service was launched in 2004.310 The service is free to Sprint Nextel customers who
purchase a Game Lobby-enabled game and gives them the possibility to:
access 250-300 game titles including a handful multiplayer games311
keep a single username across games and publishers
follow high scores of others and in that way know who to beat
manage and personalize their identity and store information such as images
manage their own private buddy list
challenge their buddies
meet and chat with other players
rate and review games
read consumer game reviews
collect status points for community-related activities (i.e. for posting scores,
updating profiles and recommending games to buddies)
o receive new game alerts
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Seeing these features, one understands that Sprint Nextel uses the Game Lobby as a
tool to determine which games are to be promoted more, i.e. be given higher
placement on the operator deck which often is the largest reason to a game's success.
The consumer rankings of games, enables Sprint Nextel to receive consumer
feedback of what they really think of the games that they have purchased. Mobile
gamers often make their purchases based on the title of the game. Appealing titles
drive more downloads and this do not mirror the consumer satisfaction of the game.
As disappointed subscribers are less likely to make another game purchase, the
community driven Game Lobby is an important tool in identifying games that do not
keep satisfactory quality level.312 And of course, this approach provides value for the
consumer as their feedback actually is used to improve the range of games and the
service itself. The consumers feel that they can influence which in turn leads to
community loyalty – something that benefits the operator financially.
The Sprint Game Lobby has made Sprint Nextel to one of the leaders and
innovators in mobile gaming and downloadable content. The company has with this
launch been very successful in encouraging and increasing mobile game adoption.
Most operators are however offering compelling game portfolios today, which leads
to the question of what Sprint Nextel’s key to success really is?
310
Source: Motricity, “Case Studies, Sprint Game Lobby,” Motricity Company Web site,
http://www.motricity.com/insight/case_studies/sprint.php?PHPSESSID=78dc5aca713c7e2a684502eb95c27eb1,
accessed October 2006.
311
Joe Ariganello, ”The Sprint Game Lobby,” to Susanna Leidegrant, January 21, 2007.
312
Sue Marek, “Gaming under the Scope,” Wireless Week, March 20, 2006,
http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA6317303.html?spacedesc=Features, accessed Nov 2006.
- 137 -
Appendix
The success of the Game Lobby could be
explained with the following characteristics:
INTUITIVITY. The interface is very intuitive
and how the information is structured
facilitates content discovery to a major
degree. A menu consisting of options such
as Lobby, Demo, Buy, Info and Most
Loaded creates a very interesting and
appealing service offering that invites the
consumers to really explore the whole
service package (Image 10). The game folder
is in fact a JAVA application that provides
the consumer with information and content
that is constantly updated without forcing
the consumer to know what is actually
happening in the background. Unlike the
preloaded web browser on the mobile, a
JAVA application gives more space
regarding design which Sprint Nextel has
taken advantage of very well.
Image 10: Sprint Game Lobby Lounge
(Source: Matt Bertz, ”Best in Show - E3's top
tech highlights,” LAPTOP, May 18, 2006,
http://laptopmag.com/Features/The-HottestNew-Games.htm?Page=7, accessed November
2006.)
TRANSPARENT PRICING. Since the consumers know that they are only charged for
acquired content, they are not afraid to explore the offered features and services.
TOP POSITION IN THE MENU HIERARCHY. The first menu option is the Game
Lobby, in other words, the consumers do not have to search for the service on the
operator’s portal or within a game. It cannot get any simpler than that. By this
strategic positioning, Sprint Nextel ensures an increased number of consumers
exploring the service.
EASILY ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION. Clicking on the Game Lobby option, the
consumer finds the option to read about the included features through the lobby and
which games are included (47 games in total at the time of writing) and of course the
option to create an account. This actually gives the consumer the possibility to obtain
information prior to creating the account.
One of the current projects that Sprint Nextel is working on is to bring all their
content services into one single entertainment centre. They believe in what many advocate
– that content should not be treated separately. Their bundled services as well as
giveaways (such as their popular themes for mobile phones) are evidence that
content drives other content. Adding more demos, looking into the field of adfinanced content and working with strategies such as “test and buy” and “create and
share”, are other areas of focus that Sprint currently is engaged in313.
313
Joe Ariganello, ”The Sprint Game Lobby,” to Susanna Leidegrant, January 21, 2007.
- 138 -
Appendix
Multiplayer Games for the Community Lunarstorm – A Lesson
For service creators in the telecom industry the potential partner list spans from
media companies and device manufacturers all the way to communities and other
online phenomena. Finding the right companies to partner with may therefore not
always be that easy.
Lunarworks is the company running Sweden’s largest virtual teen community
commonly known as Lunarstorm. The community has been extended to the mobile
as well and about 60-70 per cent of the members access the community in this very
way314. During 2005, Lunarworks initiated a charged-for interactive mobile game
service for the members of Lunarstorm. The community had at that time 1,2 million
members which consequently generated a lot of traffic to the web site and made the
opportunity rather evident. The idea was to let members play mobile games against
each other. They would also be able to test the games before purchase, send their
favorite games to their friends, post high-scores as well as download hit lists. The
service was accessible on the web and through the mobile by Wap. The game
portfolio included famous titles such as Tetris, Monopoly, Tony Hawks underground
and Bejeweled, with a price range between SEK 15 to 50 (EUR 1,6 - 5) depending on
the game315.
But it never did reach expectations. Low user numbers and low activity on the site
affected consequently the content on the site in a negative way316. After having been
marketed and up and running for a while, the game service was cancelled. It did not
even survive more than a year.
In an interview with Klas Karlsson, who was at that time responsible for consumer
services at Lunarworks, the reasons behind the failure were explained:
“It is a known behavior and we believed that in the right form would suit
our environment as well. […] There are different reasons to why people seek to
Lunarstorm. To play games is not one of them.”
The Lunarstorm case is just one example on a service that fails as it does not succeed
in bringing any added value to the consumers. Lunastorm's members want to
communicate and socialize317. These needs and existing communication patterns were
apparently not fulfilled by multiplayer gaming in a satisfactory way.
Another explanation could be the price. There would have certainly been a distinct
difference if the games had been available for free, Klas Karlsson confirmed in an
interview, and any research into the possibilities how to subsidize with advertisement
was never made.
What can be learned from this is also that a successful extension to the mobile
platform, does not have to translate directly to full acceptance of the mobile channel.
This becomes clearer when understanding how the mobile channel is used by the
consumers.
314
Klas Karlsson, interview by author, Stockholm, October 5, 2006
Maria Nilsson, ”Lunarstorm drar igång interaktivt mobilspel,” IDG, June 23, 2005,
http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.72585, accessed October 2006.
316
Klas Karlsson, interview by author, Stockholm, October 5, 2006
317
Ibid
315
- 139 -
Appendix
“I use Lunarstorm at the mobile phone only when I am at places
that I know I will not be able to access a computer today or for several days. Otherwise I
could as well wait a couple of hours until I get home since it is faster at home and the mobile
version is really only a text based version of Lunarstorm. And I want to have the graphical
one with all the functions. [ ] I usually only check my guest book and mail.”
Martin Björling, avid Counterstrike gamer and community user
Xbox Live Anywhere – A Vision
On E3 in 2006, Microsoft presented their latest vision – Xbox Live Anywhere. Xbox
Live Anywhere is extending Microsoft’s concept Xbox Live to the other online
platforms, including the PC, Windows Mobile and also the Java-enabled mobile
phones.318
One should however not expect seeing Halo or Counterstrike on the mobile phone.
The kind of games that can be made cross platform is very limited by the mobile
platform. The thought with the concept is instead that gamers will be able to make
the small unnecessary things such as creating their own game characters or upgrading
their games. A complete home entertainment solution is in this way created that not
only permit the gamers to play games, but to watch music videos and movies.319
Stakeholders in the online gaming industry agree upon the mobile handset being a
completely own channel which will live its own life. With initiatives such as Xbox
Live Anywhere there is however an attempt to find the connection to the console
and PC games by creating an extension in the mobile handset. 320 For the consumer
this means that he or she has a single gamer tag independent of which game
platform. The same person can play on his mobile, PC or on his console, always
having the same gamer tag and now always being connected to the gaming
community. He or she can meet other gamers cross-platform, message friends,
purchase content or use for example the mobile as a management tool and download
content to another device. The concept also enables the gamer to transfer content
between the three platforms. 321
Following, the most important characteristics of Xbox Live Anywhere will be
introduced:
LARGE GAMER BASE. By connecting the different gaming platforms, Microsoft
expects to create the very large and necessary gamer base. That is why mobile
content has not really had a breakthrough according to Stefan Lampinen.
CUSTOMIZATION. The gamers have the possibility to access Xbox.com and make
changes to their Xbox Live anywhere - anything from having their own music and
318
Paul Miller, “Microsoft blends platform lines with Live Anywhere,” Engadget, May 10, 2006,
http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/10/microsoft-blends-platform-lines-with-live-anywhere, accessed January
2007
319
Marcus Legler, interview by author, Stockholm, September 7, 2006.
320
Ibid
321
Paul Miller, “Microsoft blends platform lines with Live Anywhere,” Engadget, May 10, 2006,
http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/10/microsoft-blends-platform-lines-with-live-anywhere, accessed January
2007
- 140 -
Appendix
themes, to playing their favorite games. And all this is to be transferable between the
different platforms.322
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION. Xbox Live Anywhere is predicted to take advantage of
digital distribution to a great deal and consequently contribute to a changed
consumer behavior where gamers download and upgrade from the net.
COMMUNITY. The social aspects of Xbox live anywhere are very important. People
watch TV to be able to talk about it in the coffee room, Johan Kristiansson at
Starbreeze explained, and by enabling friends to play against friends and recommend
games etc. the same effect is attained. There is a large slowness in changing an
already opened account with already created characters and gained scores or
achievement points. Microsoft itself has a lot to win from this. The fact of having
consumers playing against each other, recommend and communicate enables
Microsoft to tie up the gamers in the system – in the 360 system.323
In games where team play is important, playing against unknown gamers is something
that is avoided as it often turn up people that disturbs in the game. With a system
based on accounts it could have been counteracted as badly behaving could be
banned. This kind of behavior happens all too often according to Martin Björling
that has seen a lot of gamers behaving badly when playing, swearing as well as
disobeying and breaking stated rules. He does however state that this matter usually is
handled much more seriously on the game servers than in real life to ensure that
everyone get on well on the server.
DECREASED ANONYMITY. One of reasons why some gamers are resistant towards
playing games against unknown is first and foremost because the anonymity and
consequently the uncertainty of the game capacity oneself posses. Not knowing how
good the gamer is can very well be a strong reason why not to play games against
unknown. With accounts gamers can create their identity and decrease the anonymity
in the gamer community.
Gratismobilspel – Taking the First Steps
Due to the necessity to keep in-game advertising on a very sensible level, industry
stakeholders have adopted a wait-and-see policy.324 An interesting example on how
in-game advertisement can be deployed is Gratismobilspel.
Through the service Gratismobilspel consumers have the possibility to play premium
mobile games for free. As the service is delivered as an application that has to be
updated by download for each day that the consumers wants to play a game, that
makes it possible to offer consumers a new game each day. As the day comes to an
end, the game is no longer accessible. Instead a new version of the application
containing a new game becomes automatically available for download. The consumer
may then decide to purchase the game he had played the day before or download the
new “game of they day” and play it until it expires. The service is partly add-financed
and before starting the actual game the consumer is exposed to an advertisement.
The consumers are only charged for the data traffic when downloading the
322
Stefan Lampinen, interview by author, Stockholm, September 23, 2006.
Johan Kristiansson, interview by author, Stockholm, September 8, 2006.
324
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
323
- 141 -
Appendix
application and making the daily update downloads. A feature has also been added to
the service which makes it possible for consumers to recommend the service to their
friends.325
The company behind the service is NewGamesEveryday AB which in cooperation
with partners such as Splash and Eurovip Group provides the service through
operator portals such as Telia SurfPort and Tele2 Go Live as well as their own Wap
page.326
Even though it is the service Gratismobilspel that has received all of the attention, it
is the platform itself that is the innovation according to Johan Brunius, co-founder of
NewGamesEveryday. Gratismobilspel is one example of how the platform could be
used, but it could also be used for a renting service or to automatically create trial
versions of games.
”It is hard for some game developers to reach a large crowd of
people despite having a very good game. This becomes a new sales channel. [ ] What we believe
is that we will be able to reach those that are interested in mobile games but that have not made
an active choice to look around, go to a site and purchase a game.”
Johan Brunius, NewGamesEveryday
Sony Ericsson – Increasing the Value of the Handset with Content
The primary business of the handset device manufacturer Sony Ericsson is to
develop mobile handsets and assure quality voice communication – everything above
that is less important327.
To extend the value of handsets for the own consumers, after the actual purchase, is
however a way in which to maximize handset sales. This makes it important to
provide many channels to the consumer, especially as the lifecycle of handsets is
much shorter than the lifecycle of portable consoles and home consoles328. These
channels are also ways in which to promote the use of the phone and mobile gaming:
PRELOADED ON SONY ERICSSON PHONES. According to Peter Ahnegård at Sony
Ericsson it is important to have content ready on the consumers’ devices to engage
customers on purchase of content. It is used to create awareness among consumers,
capture interest329 as well as creating an integrated value proposition that characterize
each mobile handset model. The content to be embedded is very carefully chosen by
Sony Ericsson and it is usually game developers and publishers with which Sony
Ericsson has collaborated with for a longer time which supply the games and other
content.
FUN & DOWNLOADS WEB AND WAP PORTAL for download of Java-based games
and other content. The most popular way to download games is by accessing the
Wap portal through the “globe” in the mobile handset’s game catalogue.
325
Johan Brunius, interview by author, Stockholm, September 28, 2006
Ibid
Peter Ahnegård, interview by author, Stockholm, October 3, 2006.
328
Ibid
329
Ibid
326
327
- 142 -
Appendix
PLAYNOW™ is a pre-defined download list easily accessible directly from the phone
menu on most Sony Ericsson. This is the channel that Sony Ericsson above all wants
to develop further and is trying to direct their consumers to330.
NON-SONY ERICSSON CHANNELS such as operator and publisher portals are of
very big importance for Sony Ericsson to collaborate with. Making the own portal
the most popular one, is not the scope of Sony Ericsson, but instead to increase the
use of mobile content on their mobile handsets, and ensure consumer satisfaction
and an increased value of the devices. By providing an attractive game portfolio
through as many channels as possible, is therefore more important than promoting
the own one.331
The majority (90%) of Sony Ericsson’s consumers access content through the Wap
service rather than the Web site. This traffic going through the Web and Wap portal
is all monitored and is later used to refine the content offering over time.
Telenor – Unblocking the Walled Garden
Merely one year ago, in November 2005 Vodafone’s Swedish business was bought by
Telenor. This would come to lead to some rather big changes for the former
Vodafone subscribers. The agreement about the portal Vodafone Live! was recently
denounced and in an interview with Sonia Kavs at Telenor she stated that it was to
be exchanged with a new offer where the packaging itself would not be what differed,
but instead the larger customer base. To have access before to the former Vodafone
Live! the customers had to own specific mobile phones preconfigured with a Live!
Portal access. With the change of strategy the new Telenor portal will be accessible
by their whole customer stock and other operators’ customers as well.332
Even though Telenor is aiming at becoming content providers and to build their own
services, Sonia Kavs states that they will always be trying to tie together as many
other stakeholders as possible to their market place. Sonia Kavs at Telenor believes
that proper business models will make it possible for them to offer an openness that
will not lock in the customers to the own portal only, without loosing any revenue
themselves. 333
“From those that you link to, you take for the data traffic
or alternatively, you sell the data traffic to the one that wants to be linked. But it is obvious
that both the ways will co-exist.”
Sonia Kavs, Telenor
Being able to offer a wide variety of different services including TV, music,
accessories, images, games and ring tones, is important for Telenor. Opening up their
portal to other content provider and aggregator sites is therefore rather explicable.334
Summary
These case studies were chosen of different reasons. The Sprint Nextel Game Lobby
demonstrates how being consumer focused when creating a gaming service may hold
330
Peter Ahnegård, interview by author, Stockholm, October 3, 2006.
Frost & Sullivan, European Mobile Gaming Markets, June 19, 2006.
Sonia Kavs, interview by author, Stockholm, October 25, 2006.
333
Ibid
334
Ibid
331
332
- 143 -
Appendix
great advantages. The Lunarstorm case does on the other hand witness about the
misinterpretation of consumer needs despite the attempt of being consumer
orientated. Xbox Live Anywhere is a vision of which the outcome still is left to the
future to decide. Once again, the consumers are put in the centre, enabling them to
always bring along their gamer identity. The forth of the cases, Gratismobilspel, is an
interesting example on how in-game advertisement can be deployed in a very sensible
way. The service lets consumers to play premium mobile games for free and realizes
in this way the sought after feature “test and buy”. In the Sony Ericsson case the
focus is on the importance of content when aiming at extending the value of the
handsets. Even though the primary business of the handset device manufacturers is
to develop mobile handsets and assure quality voice communication, to maximize
handset sales one has to provide many channels to the consumers – i.e. making it as
easy for the consumers as possible. Finally, the last one in the series of cases regards
the new open attitude that operators are applying and what that implies for their
customers. The consumers should no longer be locked in the operator’s portal only.
With the proper business models Telenor believes that they will be able to offer this
kind of openness without loosing any revenue themselves.
- 144 -
Appendix
Appendix IX: Script of the Focus Group Session
The disposition of the focus group sessions were based on 6 main questions for the
focus groups to discuss. These questions had been designed with the four subquestions in mind and consequently the study’s main question as well:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How do the participants keep in touch?
What are the participants’ reactions to and opinions of Social Gaming?
Why do they not play mobile games today to a greater extent?
What would make them pay for a game?
Which new user scenarios could turn up?
Would a distribution model based on the concept Super Distribution work?
Five activities were created to deal with each and every of the above questions:
o 5 warm up questions regarding communication habits (question 1)
o Collage (question 2, 3, 4, 5)
With pictures, drawings and text the participants answered to when, why, with/against
who, how, what type of games and presupposed what they would play Social Games. Trying
to find the answer to this was fundamental to this thesis, as it enabled us to identify
several of the consumer requirements. With the how question we could for example
identify how the integration of the game itself and other functions should be
designed so that the user would find it intuitive and entertaining.
o Argumentation (question 2)
The focus group was split into two parts - one the positive side and the other the
negative side. They were then to convince the each other about the positive and
negative aspects of mobile games. The aim was to produce the participants’ first
reactions to Social Gaming. Due to the short time limit of this exercise, the
participants’ only choice is to use whatever comes to mind – i.e. the most stereotype
immediate associations. Even though some of the arguments may unavoidably
become of an ironical nature, they will probably be the most common thoughts
among this target group at an early stage. This activity was not performed with the
Children & Parents group.
o Discussion (question 2, 3, 4, 6)
During the discussion questions were discussed regarding issues such as why the
participants were not playing mobile games more often. The aim was to understand
what people do not want and through this identify barriers of use. The importance of
prices was another important topic. What would drive a user to buy and how much
would he or she be ready to pay? With this question we were trying to understand
where the limit was and what could be the trigger. To develop innovative pricing
models and strategies this kind of information is essential.
o Continuing phrases (question 2, 4, 6)
Extra activity if time did allow.
- 145 -
Appendix
Appendix X: Example Questions for Stakeholder
Interviews
1. The first question is regarding your position in the value network. Where do you
see yourself?
2. How do you choose the games that are included in your offerings?
3. Which functions do you offer the consumers when it comes to games?
4. Are you looking at implementing other features?
5. Do you believe that the consumers want this?
6. How does your quality control look like?
7. Who are the people buying mobile games?
8. According to you what do consumers want when it comes to mobile gaming?
What are they lacking today?
9. What do you believe the consumer needs to experience content discovery as
easier?
10. Today many say that there is no real complete store for mobile games, what do
you think about that statement?
11. Who are the consumers that download from your portal?
12. Are you focusing on this target group or are you looking into to widening it?
13. Do you provide multiplayer games today?
14. What do you believe will be the successful game concepts regarding these
multiplayer games?
15. How do you work with increasing the consumer awareness about that this
content exists?
16. In general about the different services: MSN on the mobile, how do you see on
this kind of communication services in the mobile?
17. Have you looked into add-financed content?
18. How do you look at “test and buy” and the Game Share concept?
19. Have you looked at flash games?
20. Which partners in the future?
21. The biggest barriers for why people don’t play?
- 146 -
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Contribution to Debate
MILLER, PAUL. “Microsoft blends platform lines with Live Anywhere.” Engadget,
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E-mail
ARIGANELLO, JOE. ”The Sprint Game Lobby.” to Susanna Leidegrant,
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TRITA-CSC-E 2007: 092
ISRN-KTH/CSC/E--07/092--SE
ISSN-1653-5715
www.kth.se