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Nokia releases results of mobile gaming survey

Feel proud of yourself for lasting 28 minutes on average…

Nokia releases results of mobile gaming survey
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Nokia's next-generation N-Gage platform is launching next year, but the company has already been conducting research into mobile gamers' habits and desires.

In a study of 1,800 gamers across China, Germany, India, Spain, Thailand and the US, Nokia found that 80% play at least once a week, with 34% playing every day. The average session length is a respectable 28 minutes, too, while 61% of gamers play on the move, and 62% play at home.

When choosing what mobile games to buy, the key factors are good gameplay (83% - Heaven knows what games the other 17% like…), replayability (79%) and the game's genre (78%).

Meanwhile, did you know that 56% of Indian mobile gamers are playing multiplayer games at least once a week, with 25% playing every day? If only we could say the same in the UK. And globally, 62% would like to be able to share game demos with their friends, while 79% would try a game demo if it was sent by a friend.

All of this research will go into making the next-gen N-Gage platform as good as possible. Nokia did ask its respondants whether they preferred "the richer experience of Nokia's next generation mobile games offering over existing Java 2D and Java 3D games offerings", and 63% said yes.

Although Nokia's announcement mentions game trials, it's unclear whether every respondant got to try the new platform. If so, the 27% who said they didn't prefer the next-gen games implies that Nokia still has some work to do. Still, the company seems happy with its findings.

"These research results further validate that consumers are looking to the next generation of mobile gaming to meet their gaming needs," says Jaakko Kaidesoja, director, games, multimedia at Nokia.

"Consumers are demanding great graphics, great content and great gameplay and we have listened. Next year, we intend to deliver superior mobile gaming experiences which will include great looking, involved and connected games that are easy to find, manage and play."

Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)