Posted by Fox on June 11, 2007 at 2:04 PM

I'm really liking the emerging Free Mobile Games Networks. Up until now, nearly all free mobile games sites have been on a subscription basis, where you sign up to get a free game and then find yourself billed weekly or monthly for access to another "free mobile game". Hmm, not really free is it?

It was a natural progression for some smart arse to get the idea of offering free mobile games to mobile gamers, that contained a small advertisement. You get the mobile game free in return for looking at a advertisement that's built in to the mobile game.

There are 4 parties involved in the arrangement.
1st: The Provider. The web/WAP site from which you download the free mobile games.
2nd: The Mobile Game Developer. The company that created and coded the mobile game.
3rd: The Advertiser. The company that pays to have the ad placed in the game, in the hope of having you buy or use their product or service.
4th: You, the mobile gamer. Arguably the most important of the four.

Normally, whenever you buy a mobile game the provider passes a fee to the mobile game developer. This can be as high as 75% of the purchase price. The provider simply scrapes a small commission for each mobile game sold.

With the Advertising Supported Free Mobile Games, the provider still pays the mobile game developer a fee for each game you download, but instead of YOU paying for it, the provider has sold ad space in the game. The provider uses this money to pay the developer.

So the developer still gets their fee for creating the game, the provider still gets to scrape off a small commission for each free mobile game downloaded, and you get to play the game.

Advertisers Getting a Bum Deal?
Of all those involved I think the advertiser is one that gets the bum deal. The ads in the free mobile games are usually nothing more that an image/splash screen that shows up at the beginning and at the end of the game.

Due to current technical restrictions, these ads offer no engagement to you the mobile gamer. There's no button or link to click if you're interested in what they have to offer. It's just a line of text that says "go to www.blah.com".

Worse still is that there is little feedback for the advertiser. Sure they know how many people downloaded the free mobile game containing their ad, but there's currently no acceptable way for the advertiser to measure the success of the ad.

Understand that the mobile game developer usually has a back catalog of mobile games they have developed and simply hands these over to the provider on a disk. It's the provider that inserts the ad in to the mobile game code, and it's not rocket science to add a splash screen at the beginning and the end of a mobile game.

For this to continue to grow and succeed, the ads need to offer a return on investment to the advertiser. The only way this will be achieved is with more interactivity for the mobile gamer and more measurement for the advertiser.

So, where's it heading?

Well at the very least I think we'll see more ads appearing through out the mobile game, at the end of each level for example. We'll see an option to visit the advertisers WAP site in the game options.

There are plenty of ways in which you the mobile gamer can be engaged. Prizes from the advertiser for top score tournaments. Unlock codes for new levels that you can only get from the advertisers web site. All of these are possible right now, it's just a matter of time.

One thing is for sure, the mobile game developers are going to to start building these features in to their games.

to be continued...