UK 3G Subscribers Favor Puzzle, Strategy Games

According to new research released by Telephia in its Q2 2006 U.K. 3G Subscriber Report, puzzle/strategy and retro/arcade mobile games are the top game genres among 3G cellphone game players in the United Kingdom. The report echoes another recent report by Telephia, which found that puzzle and strategy-based games were responsible for one-third of the revenue generated by the U.S. mobile game market. The new report showed that 61 percent (nearly two-thirds) of U.K. 3G mobile game players have downloaded a puzzle/strategy mobile game, while retro/arcade games have been downloaded by 45 percent of 3G mobile players in the UK. Action/adventure and card/casino games secured 42 and 39 percent of downloads, respectively, followed by trivia/word (32 percent) and sports/racing (30 percent) games. Telephia also found that 7 out of 10 U.K. 3G subscribers who play mobile games prefer to download games to their mobile devices to be played offline, rather than play the games while connected to an online service. Only 5-7 percent preferring any type of online mobile games. This trend follows another recent report by Telephia that found that a majority of North American mobile subscribers download games to play offline, while only a fraction play games online on the mobile web. “Offline mobile gaming is the most prevalent choice among 3G game players, suggesting that mobile games continue to be a time-to-kill application as opposed to an activity destination,” noted Telephia's Bernard Brenner, Director of New Products. “Casual games dominate the mobile game market both in the U.S. and in the U.K.,” noted Brenner. “Their popularity reflects increased work and social time pressures on mobile users, as casual games do not require a substantial investment of time on the part of the user.”