Apple’s iOS App Store and Google Play experienced huge game sales growth during the third quarter of 2013. This surge in App spending has vaulted these platforms above the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita for the first time ever. Analytic firm App Annie reports that the App Store and Google Play spending on games combined was three times the amount of that on dedicated handhelds in the third quarter of 2013.
“Smartphones’ ease of use, low price point (due to subsidies), and multi-functional use as gaming and primary communications device have given them a ubiquity across a broad demographic that portable consoles will never have.”
“Add apps that are fun and engaging, and that deeper penetration can equate to big dollars for game app developers.”
– Marcos Sanchez, VP of corporate communications at App Annie
CANDY CRUSH! jk
Fire Emblem Awakening > Candy Crush though
This the end… this is the end my only friend.
all these crappy free games people waste their time with and spend real money on -_- it disgusts me
Indeed. Oh my friend we are lucky you and I we dont accept mediocrity. We are informed and play the greatest games on real gaming devices
You mean we don’t accept abysmality…
I agree with all of you.
Mobile games may be part of the future, but so far I’ve seen nothing there I actually want…
It’s quite sad actually. I tried some Angry Birds because it was so popular, I figured it must be the best the mobile market had to offer – I literally got bored of it before I finished the free demos.
Let me say that again, a different way – I literally WOULDN’T PLAY THAT GAME FOR FREE.
No offense to those that like/play the game, but…I just find it sad that games like that are all that a lot of people know/experience of gaming.
and by spending we mean free games
‘free’
“particulary free game you need to invest money on eventually”
dammit, forgot that
In today’s news more people have phones than dedicated handhelds. After the break we’ll talk about how people with said phones spend $1 on microtransactions for a Bejeweled ripoff instead of $40 for a game not available on their phones.
Exactly, gaming through smart phones is more accessible for people. hence why more hours have been invested gaming on them. still, micro transactions for shitty low quality games are vile, whether the game is free or not. I don’t want to pay money for power ups to achieve the highest score possible in a level. i dont want stupid micro transaction adverts popping up every other evels. all of this should be available in the game
easy to hack
supported by many
devs love it
you can make calls with it
FREE APPS
again, easy to hack
no wonder the sales are that high
Devs hate mobile, they cant make any fucking money XD
And the big boys at top’s piece of the pie is getting smaller too, now why they make more merchandise and sell 129$ go karts in angry birds
anyone who works for Rovio needs a punch in the face
im being a bit sarcastic
but you can make some easy money with apps
just add goddamn ads on it and you get at least $5 week
BUY THIS POWERUP PLS £5.99
buy this cheat
$10
worst thing ever seen, and for some reason, from the EA mobile dep
An ZERO dollars were spent by me on game apps in 2013, but I’ve easily spent thousands on games (retro and new).
in my defense, i say i spend $-10(robbed) as someone asked me to give him a “free” app to him
apk are easy to rip
Well, of course, most app games are a dollar and everyone has a tablet or smartphone at this point, so they’re more widely available. It’s such an unfair comparison.
Nintendo will probablly never compare to smartphones or tablets. And that’s fine, I guess, but this does show that Nintendo needs to work on their eShop more. There’s not much for $1 in the eShop. Most stuff is about $5 on average, even old NES games. It’s time to lower some prices. NES games should be about $3. SNES about $5. Lower the prices for the various other eShops games as well.
They also need to work on getting those app games onto their systems for about the same price. Where’s Angry Birds for the 3DS and Wii U? Oh, that’s right, they tried to sell it for $30. Like, it should have been a dollar, maybe $2. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be pushing to get those kinds of games when the Wii U Gamepad exist.
I agree with you.
NES games should be 1 dollar all day.
GameBoy to GBColor games should be 1 to 3 because some of the later games are worth it. Snes 3 to 7 … GBA 3 to 7. N64 anywhere from 5 to 10..Game Cube starting at 10 to 20.. And NDS games on Wii U… no more than 25 dollars.
I was going to rant about how much I hated this but it seems the fellows above did it for me, thanks guys!
SO NINTENDO DON’T GO FUCKING MOBILE ON US OKAY?
Well yeah. That’s like saying “more people bought chicken than bottles of jack daniels” (No, there’s no metaphor for those).
In other news, half those companies that made money on mobile are now fucking dead. Moving on.
You make a good point there.
But might the children’s market decline because of mobile? I got into handhelds as a kid (with a good old game boy color), but I see a lot of parents these days who just leave their kids to play with their phones. They might not feel like giving them a 3DS or other modern Gameboy equivalent anymore.
This is coming from App Annie, which is an unreliable source. VGchartz has more reliable numbers when it comes to purchases of hardware and software.
I probably hate these Apples and Androids just as much as Xbots…
And Nintendo still do not want to put games on mobile?JOKE!!
The Wii U is dead!!
YES! BUT THEY ARE FREE AND BAD! AND CHEAP! AND THEN YOU BUY DIGITAL COINDS OR SWORDS FOR FUCKING $100! WHILE I BUY FIRE EMBLEM: AWAKENING AND I HAVE ONE OF THE BEST GAMES EVER COMPLETE AND NO HALF-ASSED MADE!
ALSO HE SAID “DEEPER PENETRATION”, I KNOW HE LIKES IT!
NINTENDO SHALL NOT PUT GAMES ON MOBILES JUST ‘CAUSE EVERYONE HAS A PHONE, SO WE DON’T GET SHITTY FREE NINTENDO GAMES WITH OVERPRICED PURCHASES! IT SUCKS!
An user up there is correct, this is like saying MAC DONALDS SOLD MORE THAN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES! HEALTHIER AND BETTER DOESN’T MEAN WE NEED TO GET RID OF THEM!
AMEN
NINTENDO ISNT BEING BUTT FUCKED BY ADS LIKE PSBONE4… PARTIAL GAMES FTP MICROAPPLE SAMSUNG SPYWARE MALWARE.. DRM NSA COCK BLOWERS Google Android Surface … who all use the exact same tech to all run the same BS games and then theres nintendo… No Ads.No NSA. NO BS. And that is why They are being singled out.
BEcause stupid causual gamers want to pay for cheats and not earn their leaderboard scores.
Sony’s credit rating cut to “Junk”: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-01-27-sonys-credit-rating-cut-to-junk
NO ONE REPORTS THIS ‘CAUSE OF THE NINTENDO HATE BIAS!
Whilst this may well be true, the truth is that the money in the smartphone pie is spread very thin indeed because of the low prices and the massive amount of choice. Nintendo will have made significantly more revenue from handheld software sales than anyone made off smartphone app sales.
People who wish Nintendo to go third party should be careful what they wish for, because the platform might go for would more probably be Ios and/or Android
nah they’d want buttons
The key word for me is: “Combined”. Do I understand that google + Apple = 3 x time DS or vita? OK if we split up google and Apple what do we have? I am sure it would be higher but how much higher.
hello!,I like your writing very a lot! proportion we keep in touch more about your article on AOL? I require an expert on this area to unravel my problem. May be that’s you! Having a look ahead to see you.
real beats by dr dre studio http://www.religionandnature.com/beats/real-beats-by-dr-dre-studio.html