Serious Games: Mobile Boom Boosts Growth

Mobile Learning & Serious Games Continue to Grow

Technology reporting website VentureBeat’s Gamesbeat division published a story recently we just couldn’t help but blog about – the advance of serious games – which they like to call “educational games” – due to the boom in mobile applications and mobile usage. This of course makes complete sense to us – teenagers and young adults have had a love affair with the telephone since the 1950s and conspicuous consumption began. Combine that passionate pursuit with smart phones, the Internet and wireless technology, and the gaming world and you’ve got a match made in heaven.

Reporting on a research article Gamesbeat came across from Ambient Insight – a market research firm for global learning technology suppliers – the reporting from Gamesbeat features some fascinating and exciting statistics for educators, players and even companies & corporations who are interested in empowering their workers with the latest and most effective training and education strategies.

Some of the facts disclosed in the article include:

Game-based learning will grow from $1.5 billion in 2012 to $2.3 billion in 2017
The simulation-based learning market, including corporate training games , is expected to grow even more - from $2.3 billion in 2012 to $6.6 billion in 2017.
Of the 31 game-based learning companies that raised funding in 2012 and were part of the reporting, 23 were mobile - and 21 targeted consumers.

According to Sam Adkins, chief research officer at Ambient Insight, much of this “revolution” in mobile-based game learning or serious games is due to Nintendo’s introduction of their game-based learning game in 2005, Brain Age:Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. The rest, as they say, is history, or will be. As Adkins explains it, “Nintendo re-energized this market with products for older adults and now that trend has moved into mobile games and apps…. Mobile educational games are now outselling PC educational games,” he said. “And the entrepreneurs are incredibly passionate about what they are doing. What we find interesting is the interest among investors in mobile.”

With the ease of access with mobile applications on smart phones and the convenience of using these applications “in the field” as well as in the classroom, we can certainly understand why investors are turning to mobile. Designing Digitally, Inc. is charting a similar course, pursuing mobile learning development and serious games development full-force for education and training initiatives for the future workforce. It’s always nice when you find your peers moving in the same direction as you are, don’t you think?

To read the entire article on mobile learning and serious games from VentureBeat, please follow this link.