Interview: Has Mobile Gaming Finally Turned The Corner? Gameloft’s de Vallois Makes His Case

imageOver the past few years, the mobile games industry has been been hampered by high royalty costs, distribution difficulties and the costs of supporting a wide number of handsets. But now, there’s a renewed sense of optimism. New platforms, such as Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Nokia’s N-Gage, are providing new opportunities, even though they are just starting to come out. Already, EA Mobile, Glu Mobile (NSDQ: GLUU), THQ (NSDQ: THQI), and Gameloft (EPA: GFT) are showing some positive signs. For example, in the third quarter, Glu admitted it failed to anticipate the power of the iPhone and didn’t put enough resources toward it, while Gameloft declared 2008 as “a turning point in the mobile gaming industry.”

Gameloft was by far the most bullish, and even went as far as to attribute its 18 percent jump in North American sales partly to the success of the iPhone. To find out how this will impact the industry going forward, I talked to Gonzague de Vallois, Gameloft’s SVP of Worldwide Publishing.

Excerpts from the interview after the jump…

Why does Gameloft believe mobile games hit a turning point this year? “What we think Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has brought in recent months is innovation on two dimensions. The first is innovation in the gaming experience. The iPhone’a touch platform, the accelerometer and its powerful OS, are really enhancing the gaming experience. It

Comments have been disabled for this post