Wireless Gaming Set For Growth Spurt

Much of the new revenue will be derived from Java and BREW downloadable games which will have attracted almost 150 million users in four years time. Service providers will also benefit from the additional traffic that the networked and multiplayer games generate on the mobile data networks.

“The wireless gaming market is being formed at the cross-roads of three of the most exciting and fastest growing markets from the last five years – gaming, the internet and wireless services,” said Tim Sheedy, managing director of The Research Room.

“The recent history of the IT industry is dominated by the growth of services generated by the amalgamation of two previously separate services – messaging and the internet gave us email, messaging and wireless services gave us SMS, gaming and the internet is in the process of creating a huge opportunity for online gaming, and wireless, gaming and the internet will create a new market for interactive and multiplayer wireless gaming services,” he added.

Global Wireless Gaming Users By Game Platform (m)
	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
mBrowser	23.1	29.5	44.7	56.3	54.4	51.3
SMS/MMS	41.7	55.4	64.8	70.1	73.3	76.1
Java/BREW	3.8	20.6	43.3	76.8	110.8	146.8
Gaming Deck	0	0.2	2.8	6.2	17.6	32.8
Source: The Research Room, July 2003

Global Wireless Gaming Revenue ($ billion)
	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Game Purchase	0.1	0.4	1.8	4.5	9.8	16.6
Traffic	0.5	1.2	2.9	5.5	12.1	24.7
Total	0.6	1.5	4.7	10.1	21.9	41.3
Source: The Research Room, July 2003