Chinese mobile games market worth $46.9m in Q3

How lucrative is China for mobile game sales? Not very, according to a new report from Analysis International, as reported by TMCnet.

The report claims that the Chinese market for Java and BREW games generated 320 million Yuan of revenues in the third quarter of 2008 - about $46.9 million.

Java accounted for 218 million Yuan of that (about 68.1 per cent). However, Java revenues apparently slipped a bit in September, after China Mobile started limiting the number of games launched on-deck.

China has long been seen as a potentially large market for mobile gaming due to its sheer size. However, barriers include the rollout of capable phones, the usual challenges for Western firms of doing business in the region, and piracy.

In its analyst conference call yesterday, Glu Mobile's boss Greg Ballard referred to a softening in the Chinese mobile game market, too.