The Entertainment Software Association of Canada’s (ESAC) annual “Essential Facts” document indicates mobile games now account for 31 percent of the Canadian video game industry’s revenue, which edges closely to the 35 percent mark console gaming holds. In terms of other marketshare related statistics, PC and Mac revenue holds steady at 25 percent, a slight increase over last year.
This statistic is indicative of the overall mobile-centric direction the gaming industry has been headed over the last few years. Like it or not, casual gaming is on the rise and while it will likely never kill traditional, hardcore focused video games, titles like Candy Crush Saga and Angry Birds 2 are becoming an increasingly relevant part of the video game landscape, particularly in Canada.
This is why major publisher/developers like Square Enix Montreal, with its recently released Lara Croft Go, and last year’s Hitman Go, are placing an emphasis on mobile titles. Other notable examples of the industry shifting towards mobile include Ireland-based King, the developer of Candy Crush Saga, being acquired by Activision Blizzard for an astounding US$5.9 billion. To put this in perspective, that’s more money than the $US 4-billion Disney paid for Star Wars.
Among the flurry of information revealed in the report, the average age of Canadian gamers is now 31 years of age and the average full-time salary of someone working in the video game industry is $66,200.
Furthermore, the average budget for a mobile project is $500,000 and teams spend an average of 190 days building their titles. Development teams also typically consist of just 10 people. In comparison, on the console side of the industry, the average budget amounts to $17 million and takes 485 days to complete. Teams on average are considerably larger than their mobile counterparts, coming in at a number between 45 and 65 individuals.
143 new studios have opened in Canada since 2013, bringing the country’s total to 472. Direct employee growth amounts to an impressive 24 percent or 20,400 individuals.
To view the full report, check here.
[source]ESAC[/source]
[via]Alphabeatic[/via]
