RealNetworks’ game division GameHouse today announced it’s partnering with microtransaction service Live Gamer to provide the virtual economy backend for GameHouse’s new Fusion cross-platform social gaming service (which Neil wrote about last May.) This means Live Gamer will handle virtual currency and item transactions for Fusion’s massive game library, and the move will also bolster its position as a major player in gaming’s next generation.
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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews. 
THQ, a longtime maker of mobile and console games, is promoting their upcoming DS title Beat City by porting a demo version for Facebook. The Nintendo DS userbase is probably quite similar to the casual Facebook gaming demographic, and this seems like a smart idea. By getting the game out there in front of the Facebook gaming audience, perhaps they can drum up anticipation for Beat City.
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EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and THQ Wireless, otherwise known as the Big 4 of the mobile game industry, have seen their piece of the market grow significantly over the past year. The Big 4 accounted for 22% of the market at the end of last year, up from 11% at the end of 2006, according to a new report from Screen Digest.
Here’s a surprise (or not): Screen Digest expects that the iPhone will drive the growth of the North American market, raising it to the leading global market by revenue next year.
Overall, the mobile games market will grow by $1.56 billion over the next five years to become a $3.6 billion market by 2012, the report forecasts. Although Asia has historically been the largest market – it had a 37% share in 2007 – Screen Digest predicts that starting in ’09, North America will take the lead.
Even without the iPhone App Store and its hundreds of games, the North American market has seen considerable growth every year for the past four years. Now, with the iPhone 3G on the scene, Screen Digest sees this growth continuing – and escalating – enough that the North American mobile games market will be worth some $1.7 billion by 2012.
