Two days of talking mobile, games, carriers, publishers and users, and the general consensus seems to be that quality matters immensely and people within this industry want and need to connect.
We are in an era of social computing and social applications are the new models for connecting and growing networks in mobile gaming. People don't want to game, they want to connect. Whether that be accomplished through dating mobile games or sports on the mobile, it has to be the direction the mobile community willingly moves towards for growth.
The business as a whole has been very strong this year. The quality of brands is improving. This year has seen technology moving forward, content becoming more sophisticated and improvements on the overall quality. The web will be a huge function in making the mobile download a success story and interaction with web versions of the games and the mobile is inevitable.
PC's and Mobile: allies? Translating a great user experience that's designed for the larger screen, keyboard, broadband to mobile is a mistake, but there has to be a synergy between the two.
Quality and Content: The mobile gaming lifestyle is one that is like an addiction in small doses. The applications and games that are created have to keep the players, the users, happy and keep them coming back for more. The publisher needs to grow the industry overall and more of an emphasis and importance of mobile gaming should be reflected within the corporate structure. The overall process is everybody's responsibility, from the carriers to the publishers.
Creating an internal buzz initially within the mobile games community is essential. The more people that communicate and the more users are enabled to connect, the better off we will all be, the richer our networks, and the more this industry will evolve to its' potential.
It was great to reconnect with Ken Bautista from Hotrocket, Patricia Elliott from Canadian Heritage, and Sang Mah with ComVu. Thank-you to Dennis and New Media BC for including us in the conference, representin' from the Great Green North. We met some new gaming and developing gurus: Mark Pierce from Super Happy Fun Fun, Inc., Willy Reese and Steve Mair, recruiters with EA, the Big Bucks guys, Tim Lloyd and Andrew Ohara, Marc Wachmann and Stephen Nykolyn from Knowlegde Where, and developer and presenter, Justin Hall.
One day in the not-too-distant future, all of our telecommunications and electronic equipment, our games, music, camera, contacts, phone, yellow pages, computers, tv's will all be wrapped up in one tiny, convenient perfectly produced package: The Mobile.
But I'll still be watching hockey on the 90-inch high def!