Feature: 'With A Cherry On Top: Namco Networks On Mobile Strategies'

In today's main feature, Namco Networks Vice President of Sales and Marketing Scott Rubin talks to Gamasutra about Namco's new U.S. mobile game division, discussing its products, sales trends, and future, from Pac-Man's Arcade Corner to mobile Time Crisis. In this extract, Rubin comments on the evolution of the mobile gaming audience: ""We just attended and exhibited at Digital Life in New York a couple months ago, and it was really interesting to watch something like 22,000 people in two days pick up our phones and play the games. People would be like, 'Wait, I can get a game like this on my phone?' That goes with a statistic I've read, somewhere between 7 and 10 percent of people in America know they can download a game to their phones." And not only is consumer awareness growing, says Rubin, but so has appendage usage. "So many people [at Digital Life] were playing Pac-Man with their index finger, and not their thumb! When I told the guys this in Japan, they said, 'That's funny, because we remember at Tokyo Game Show one year, everyone was playing games with their index finger, and a year later everyone just knew to play with their thumbs. So another point I think, is that next year people will play with thumbs." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject, including more insight into Namco's mobile gaming plans (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).