On the off chance that you need further evidence of mobile gaming’s rapidly changing landscape, IDC and App Annie recently released the results of a study demonstrating that revenues for iOS and Google Play gaming rose sharply in 2013′s first quarter. Revenues for the handheld gaming devices made by Nintendo fell during the same period. Google’s still behind Sony and Nintendo’s overall revenue for the time being, but with the rate of growth they reported during their recent I/O, it’s expected that Google Play, too, will overtake traditional handheld gaming devices sometime during the next quarter.
Keep in mind that the study isn’t skewed by non-gaming apps. Games account for nearly 40 percent of all downloads for both the App Store and Google Play, according to the study. The study also reveals that games account for almost 70 percent of consumer spending on the App Store and over 80 percent for Google Play. In some ways, as IDC and App Annie point out, such numbers might seem unfair to Nintendo and Sony. Both companies tend to experience explosive growth during the holiday season, which occurs directly before the first quarter.
But the study reveals that such seasonal cycles mean little to nothing in the world of mobile games for the iPhone and Android systems, particularly when you factor in cost and the availability of almost every game whenever and (depending on connection) wherever you want it. AllThingsD also reported that Nintendo and Sony are also simply against a staggering wall of numbers. The global install base for devices like Nintendo’s 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation Vita amounted to a “mere” 200 million, whereas research firm Gartner reports that more than 2 billion phones and tablets will ship out in 2013 alone.
There’s still time for Nintendo and Vita to reverse their fortunes. One of the most touted features of Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 4 is its ability to support gameplay through its Vita device, and in a more dubious move, Nintendo’s been working with developers of phone games to create versions for its Wii U. Both companies also have a substantial list of releases planned for the coming months.
But such measures may only delay the inevitable. At least there’s a silver lining–if this keeps up, maybe we’ll finally see Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda on the iPhone after all.