Are wireless gamers cheapskates?

More cell phone users are playing games on their handsets, but only one-third of those people actually want to buy games, according to a report from the NPD Group.

The majority are satisfied with free or preloaded games, according to the report, which was released Tuesday. The findings were based on a survey of more than 6,700 teenage and adult wireless subscribers.

The report also notes that, among survey respondents, the average gaming session is 11 minutes long.

About half the cell phones in use in the United States are capable of downloading games, the report said. And 27 percent of people with those phones use them to play games, up from 20 percent last year. Teens are three times as likely as adults to play games, according to NPD.

The report adds that there's plenty of room for growth, noting that 6 percent of non-gamers surveyed said they're interested in using their phones to play games during the next year. The reason most often cited for the increasing interest, the study said, is the desire to "kill time or alleviate boredom."

NPD also said that people who buy mobile games prefer paying for single-game downloads and don't seem to be clamoring for monthly subscription plans.

Still, though they don't seem eager to pay for games, mobile gamers do tend to spend more money on handsets--an average of 57 percent more, according to the study.

Moreover, gamers use 48 percent more wireless minutes than non-gamers, ending up with monthly wireless bills that are 22 percent higher than that of the average subscriber, NPD said.

[jacomo]

Cell Phones are not Game Platforms

They will never pay for any game that can be played on Cell Phones small screens and limited CPU power and narrowband links. When the industry finally starts mass producing the PDA like Personal Communicator with a great screen (size is key), WiFi and Blue Tooth and plenty of processing the game makers like EA will publish games that a provider can charge for.
The new Wireless Mesh Networks being deployed or specified in metro markets today will finally open up this market and allow 5-10Mbps P2P and Multiplayer Gaming. They will also allow full VoiceIP comm and Interactive low latency gaming on line.

Jacomo

[Christopher Hall]

An interesting question

I've been playing games on various media for well over twenty years, so what's on my cell phone?

Gradius.

When all else fails, I can boot up Gradius, play for a few minutes, and be done with it. Of course, I have the currently available handheld devices, but not all situations warrant booting up Metal Gear AC!D or Meteos. However, it's worth mentioning that I haven't played my phone in months.

Cell phone gamers are not gamers. They merely boot up the program to pass the time. People who spend that much time on their cell phone tend to be extremely fickle, fidgety, and require high amounts of stimulation to keep boredom at bay. Me? I'm quite content listening to the sounds in my head.

[duerra]

My Reason is Retalliation

The reason I don't purchase games on my cell phone is because I'm tired of being raped from every single direction by cell phone companies. It used to be that when you bought a phone you would get a couple free games (even if they were just basic games), a few free backgrounds, and a nice assortment of ring tones.

With my new phone, I got *zero* complete games - everything installed on the phone was a 2-minute demo version that requires you pay for the full game. My ringtone selection is miserably small, and forget about backgrounds.

It seems that Sprint has every intention of giving me absolutely nothing on my new phone and instead forcing me to pay for every last penny I'm worth? The icing? I paid $350 for my phone. My last phone came with 3 games, and a great selection of ring tones, and cost me nothing - I got it free with my service. Once cell phones got the ability to connect to the internet, however, apparently that all went down the drain.

Cell phone companies have done a mighty good job of pissing me off lately. I can't even stand to read this article's suggestion that it's the consumers who are at fault here.

[markdoiron]

A Cell Phone Is . . .

. . . a telephone without wires. start with that basic concept and maybe one can understand that most folks (but obviously not all) have better things to do with their money than send it to the cell phone company for anything other than to talk to someone else.

mark d.

How about this alternate title?

"Are Cell Phone Companies' Revenue Projections Hilariously Naive?"