More Mobile Game Acquisitions To Come

In a short note on analysts at Robert W Baird reducing their “outperform” rating on Jamdat Mobile to $27, the analyst adds: “The deal would prompt other traditional gaming developers to make similar acquisitions in the mobile content market in the near future”.
On the topic of Jamdat NYT has a piece with some expert opinion…

Evan Wilson, a video game industry analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said Jamdat, which makes simple games like bowling, Tetris and poker for handsets – games that typically sell for $5.99 – fit the Electronic Arts mold of making general-interest titles.

Electronic Arts “has become successful making games that don’t necessarily serve the hard-core gamer, and the mobile phone is the latest platform to serve that market,” Mr. Wilson said.

The BBC described Jamdat as a “mobile minnow”, which is an odd thing to call the company with the largest share of the US mobile game market.
The Consumer Electronics Stock Blog has some reactions to the news, my personal favorite being from Glu Mobile CEO Greg Ballard: “[This acquisition] may be a signal to everyone watching that even the world’s largest games company couldn’t do this on their own.”
Joseph Laszlo at JupiterResearch thought the move was an obvious exit strategy for Jamdat, adding “It’ll be interesting to see how EA experiments with using a cellphone port of a title as a complement to, or perhaps even a preview of, a title about to be released on another platform.”

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