Venture capital finance floods into the mobile games industry as €183m of funding was raised in 2004
London April 11th: According to new research by media researchers, Screen Digest, the mobile games market has attracted €327m worth of funding since September 1999, 56% of which was raised during 2004. A significant part of this investment has been driven by private equity houses as the mobile games market begins to realise its potential.
Between 2002 and 2004 mobile game company fund-raising increased from €23m to €184m, as investors have scrambled to secure an interest in the market. UK companies attracting investment included Digital Bridges, and Atatio, whilst in the US Jamdat and MFORMA lead the way.
In 2003 worldwide spending on mobile games downloading was €380m, by 2004 this figure had increased to €778m as the mobile games industry started to realise some of its potential as the hottest games investment market.
Merger and acquisition activity has shown a dramatic increase over the past 12 months. Screen Digest's research highlights this trend - indicating 19 mobile game developer transactions were made in 2004 - compared to just four in 2003 and two in 2002.
According to Screen Digest's Chief Analyst, Ben Keen, "Once the top developers have been acquired, there is likely to be a trend towards consolidation at the publishing/aggregation level to achieve greater 'scale' in the marketplace. We believe that once again it will be the private equity houses that will emerge as the driving force behind any sector 'roll-ups'"
Evidence of the mobile games market's strength is not only highlighted by the activity in the financial community, but also by the increased involvement of the traditional games publishers. The recent development of a dedicated mobile publishing division by a number of computer and video games companies, most notably Electronic Arts, is evidence that the mobile games market has finally come of age.
Editors' Notes
The data, forecasts and analysis contained in this press release are taken from the March edition of the Screen Digest Newsletter. To find out more about this please contact sales@screendigest.com or call +44 20 7424 2820
Screen Digest is the pre-eminent source of business intelligence, research, and analysis on global audiovisual media. Screen Digest the journal has been published for more than 30 years and is read in over 40 countries. Screen Digest is primarily a research company and publishes a rapidly growing number of major business reports on media markets. The company also offers continuous online research services providing searchable access to a vast database of global audiovisual market research information. Screen Digest also provides single client consultancy services and has undertaken a wide variety of bespoke projects on behalf of numerous national and international organisations.
For further information on this report or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Dan Stevenson
dan.stevenson@screendigest.com
Tel: +44 20 7424 2820
Fay Hamilton
Tel: +44 20 7424 2820