Two articles that were published this morning on our sister site Pocket Gamer provide food for thought on the question of what makes an effective annual roadmap of iPhone games for a publisher.
On the one hand, Digital Chocolate's Trip Hawkins says his firm plans to release 100 iPhone games in a year. On the other, Gameloft's Michel Guillemot says his firm is spacing its releases carefully: "We're not in the volume business, we're in the experience business."
Contradictory strategies? It sounds like it, although that's not to suggest that Digital Chocolate will be rush-releasing dozens of poor-quality games as a result of its roadmap ramp-up.
We suspect that the 100 games may include Lite versions, which would bring the actual number of new games down to 50. Even so, DChoc's well-deserved reputation for quality will be tested by such a rollout.
The reason this is an interesting debate, though, is because publishers are breaking loose from accepted thinking about how many mobile games they should release in a year.
It used to be defined almost entirely by the mobile operators, certainly for the larger publishers, who would release as many games a year as the operators would accept. It's not so long since this meant 10-12 titles a year.
You can see the logic in both DChoc and Gameloft's approaches to iPhone, though.
Spreading your release net more widely, particularly if you're making casual games, gives you more shots at having big hits, and making enough money to cover the misses.
However, with evidence in recent weeks suggesting that more premium-priced iPhone games are making it into the upper reaches of the App Store charts, there's equal appeal in publishers spending more time and resources on a fewer number of games.
The fascinating thing about the App Store, of course, is that publishers can try these different strategies and see which works. Naturally, we'll be keeping a close eye on DChoc, Gameloft and their rivals' success in the coming months.
News
Contributing Editor
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)
Top Stories
News
2 hours, 32 minutes ago
Nintendo releases first official statement on "the successor to Nintendo Switch"
News
3 hours, 1 minute ago
Microsoft closes Mighty Doom dev Alpha Dog, Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks and more
Feature
3 hours, 55 minutes ago
Mobile Mavens: The industry has its say on Squad Busters ability to draw in “untapped audiences” with its “influence from a range of genres”
Feature
6 hours, 42 minutes ago
Hot Five: Supercell’s Squad Busters supremacy, Brawl Stars bounces back, and a games industry journey at King
Feature
7 hours, 2 minutes ago
April 2024 mobile game charts: Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile loses launch momentum and Brawl Stars’ astronomical rise
Events
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Develop: Brighton 2024 | Europe | Jul 9th |
Mobidictum Meetup Barcelona September 2024 | Europe | Sep 1st |