February 25, 2008 at 3:55 am · Authored by Julia · Filed under Mobile Applications

It seems that while there’s no let up in people’s enthusiasm for mobile gaming, the amount of individuals downloading a new game has plateaued, according to new research from M:Metrics, with people preferring to play the software that comes with their device.

M:Metrics says that 98.4 million people in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States played a game found natively on their phone - that’s three quarters of all game players - while nine percent of all users in those countries, or 38.5 million people, played a downloaded game.

The researchers note that while greater smartphone usage opens up more potential for media consumption, users just aren’t spending on it, preferring instead to stick with free or pirated content. Perhaps handset manufacturers need to wean buyers off the idea of getting their games for free, by encouraging them to download the free games that come with the device to get them familiar with the practice. Either that, or there’s lots of room for ad-funded content here.