Mobile Games Briefing: Everything you need to know about mobile games in 2012

Operating in one of the most disruptive areas of technology and gaming is undoubtedly exciting – you can almost see the various industry boundaries being redrawn.

The mobile games space has some drawbacks, however.

For a start, the portability of mobile phones means it's all too easy to become distracted by Angry Birds Space when you should be interviewing leading industry players or whatever you do for a day job.

More importantly, it's hard to retain a sense of perspective about the evolution of the industry, such is the relentless newsflow concerning deals, content, platforms and business models.

Top trends

And this is where our Q1 2012 Trends briefing steps into the breach.

Compiled by renowned industry analyst Stuart Dredge and edited by our team, this easy-to-digest update covers the following topics:

• Competing platforms – The lowdown on the titanic iOS vs Android battle, and the squabble between Microsoft and RIM for third place in the platform race.

• Freemium wins – Why the freemium model isn’t a disruptive, upstart new business model any more.

• Market consolidation – How independent studios with big hits can find themselves at the centre of an acquisition frenzy.

• HTML5 and Facebook – The crucial role online giants such as Facebook could play in establishing HTML5 as a viable mobile gaming platform.

• Angry Birds: The outlier? – How rival studios are quickly learning the lessons from Rovio’s success story.

• The Discovery Problem – Highlighting some of the key approaches to the issue of game discovery within ever-crowded app stores.

• East goes West – Evaluating the rise and rise of Asian mobile publishers and the likely resulting impact on the wider market.

• Advertising innovation – An overview of the opportunities (and hurdles) to be found within the evolving mobile advertising landscape.

• The Clone Wars – The issues surrounding the increasing emergence of blatant copies of popular gaming experiences across the market’s app stores.

The Q1 2012 Briefing has a list price of $99, but you can currently get it for $79 if you head over to our PG Reports centre.