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Part 2 - I-play CEO David Gosen

In part one of our interview, I-play CEO David Gosen revealed why he thinks there's a bright future ahead for mobile as the gaming audience changes.

Here, he talks about the problems the industry has yet to overcome, the importance of 3G technology, and I-play's plans for the future.

MobileIndustry.biz You mentioned earlier that there's still seems to be a lot of confusion amongst consumers with regard to how you download mobile games, which games work on which handsets, costs and so on... How can the mobile industry solve this problem?
David Gosen

We know, from research we've done, that 30 per cent of people who own a phone aren't aware that they can play games on the phone. Clearly there's a high degree of education that needs to unfold, a great degree of awareness that needs to be generated.

What we're seeing is that the carriers are getting much more mobilised in terms of starting to do this for their end users. They own the contacts with their customers, and what we're doing is working closely with them to try and educate people.

MobileIndustry.biz What else needs to improve if the market is to reach its full potential?
David Gosen

We're going to continue to see the market grow as more licenses come in, better content comes in, phones improve, the interface improves, carriers market more, as we as content providers market more - because when we launch games we go out and advertise them now. There's much more proactive communication about mobile gaming.

The other think that will obviously help in the future over the next 12 to 24 months is the penetration of next-generation devices, so 3G technology. We know that when technology improves, it speeds up the adoption of new content, broadband being the biggest example of this.

MobileIndustry.biz You recently announced a deal with Fish Labs for five 3G titles. Does that mean your focus at I-play is shifting more towards 3D gaming and away from 2D, more casual titles?
David Gosen

No. It's always about having a balance. With 5 per cent of the market penetrated, with women being such an important part of the market, with other consumers who aren't necessarily console gamers playing games... You need to maintain good 2D games which are simple, intuitive, easy to play but difficult to master.

For those that want that next level of richness, then 3D has to be the answer. So we're working with partners to bring 3D content to mobile - we see there's a need for balance accross 2D and 3D.

2D is still critically important, because again, it's about the penetration of 3D-enabled devices that will grow over the next 12 to 18 months. We need to make sure we cover all the devices in the market.

MobileIndustry.biz Looking forward to next year, are you going to follow a similar business model, or have you got any big changes planned?
David Gosen

We made an announcement 6 to 8 weeks ago that we've moved into mobile video. Now that we've driven the business successfully on the mobile gaming side we continue to grow that business, but it's provided a great platform for us to broaden the proposition into mobile entertainment.

We're bringing out streaming video content; we have an exclusive deal with Universal to bring the best of the movies and tv clips to mobile. Again what we're saying is these are one to two minute clips of the best bits of your favourite movies, bite-sized chunks of entertainment.

I don't believe that people will watch full-length movies on their mobile phones. I don't think that live tv is the answer. I think the way people consume mobile media, and the environment in which they consume mobile media, is about bite-sized chunks of entertainment.

MobileIndustry.biz Do you think there's more money to be made in video clips than there is in mobile gaming at the moment?
David Gosen

I think mobile video has got tremendous potential. If you look at what I call 'clip culture' today - look at YouTube, Google Video, iPod Video... A hundred million clips being downloaded every day. It shows that that's what the end user wants.

What is important is that we see an opportunity to take mobile gaming, and mobile video, and almost merge the two together. For example, we could launch a 2D or 3D game with video clips from a movie, if it was a licensed property.

We create the concept of mobile entertainment bundles. What you can do then is create WAP portals or web portals and drive consumers to destination sites. It's about creating a richer, more complete brand and value experience for the consumer.

David Gosen is CEO for I-play. Interview by Ellie Gibson. To read the first part of this interview, click here.

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