The number of paying mobile players in 2013 will exceed the number of paying gamers using portable consoles, analysts at IDC believe. But the ARPU of the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PlayStation Vita will remain higher.
By 2017, the share of paying users will grow rapidly, and sales of portable consoles will fall. “Android will remain a fragmented system, but it is on its way to becoming a very popular gaming platform, especially in Asia and the Pacific,” says Lews Ward, acting as “Captain Obvious.”
“And if Nintendo and Sony want their portable consoles to continue to overtake smartphones and tablets in key metrics (including ARPU), they need to redouble their efforts,” adds Ward.
IDC believes that the profit from mobile and portable console games in 2017 will amount to $ 23 billion. The full IDC report can be purchased and read here.
Photo: Anchel