Mobile Gaming

Rafat Ali has a rant today on the current VC love affair with mobile games. I read the WSJ piece today on all the VC investments in mobile gaming and had exactly the same reaction as Rafat.

I think this is going to end badly for a lot of these investments. For one, its too much money in the individual companies. For another, there are too many "me too" investments. Overfunding and me too investing are the two most rampant diseases in the venture business today.

It looks like mobile gaming is the latest industry to catch that disease. And its too bad. Because its a nice niche market that could have produced decent returns for a few VCs. But not for the whole industry.

Comments

[Bernard Moon]

I agree. For the vast majority of gamers, the PC and game systems occupy their attention and will continue to do so. If you could play Halo or Madden Football on a big screen or handheld, which one would you choose? Mobile gaming is definitely a niche market.

I recently moved back from Korea where broadband and mobile business models are ahead of the U.S. by a couple years. The mobile gaming market in Korea was developing about three years ago, but it still hasn't taken off besides a few novel time killers on subway rides and a couple gambling games. People aren't flocking towards mobile gaming even if majority of Korean lives are attached to their phones. People still want to play their online fantasy or casual games in front of a bigger screen.