The planet's two largest mobile games publishers have announced their financial results for the fourth quarter of 2007, thus giving us a chance to see how they fared over the whole year.
With EA Mobile and Gameloft headquartered in the US and France respectively, we've had to do some converting from Euros to dollars to make a direct comparison, but the scores on the doors show that
EA Mobile is still the top mobile games publisher, generating $144 million of revenues in the whole of 2007. However, check how close Gameloft was: it generated 96.1 million, which at today's exchange rate comes in at $143 million.
In the fourth quarter, Gameloft actually out-earned EA Mobile, generating $38.4 million (25.8 million) of revenues to EA's $38 million although note, EA rounds its figures to the nearest million, so it's possible it could have been a dead heat.
Fundamentally then, these results show that the two publishers are neck and neck, which is good news for us gamers, since it'll act as a spur (hopefully) for better games and more innovation from both companies in 2008.
What do they tell us about the mobile games industry though?
Well, taking the full-year figures first, in 2006 EA Mobile generated $118 million of revenues from mobile games, meaning it saw growth in 2007 of 22 per cent. Meanwhile, in 2006 Gameloft trousered $102 million, meaning its growth in 2007 was a staggering 40 per cent.
And, looking at the fourth quarter alone, EA's growth year-on-year from 2006 to 2007 was 8.5 per cent, while Gameloft enjoyed a healthier spurt of 19 per cent.
In short, EA Mobile is only just hanging onto its top dog status, while Gameloft has been growing much faster raising the prospect it will overtake its fierce rival in 2008.
If you'd like to root through both companies' financial results for yourself, go here (EA) and here (Gameloft).
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
Feature
Apr 24th, 2024
48 top mobile games in soft launch: Squad Busters, CSR 3, Plants vs. Zombies 3, LEGO Hill Climb Adventures, and more
Feature
Apr 24th, 2024
Mobile Mavens: Analysts share insights on Embracer Group's "rapid dissolution", "mature" split and nervy future
Events
App Promotion Summit London | Europe | Apr 25th |
Esports Future Summit | Middle East | Apr 27th |
Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024 | Middle East | May 1st |
The MENA Games Industry Awards 2024 | Middle East | May 2nd |
GameDev Atlantic 2024 | May 4th | |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
Popular Stories
News
Apr 23rd, 2024
Supercell’s Squad Busters soft launches today with over 100,000 Google Play downloads
Feature
Apr 24th, 2024