Cell Adictus

EA and Glu Report Mobile Game Sales Results

Two of the biggest mobile game developers in the world, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU) announced quarterly results this week.

While EA’s overall business continues to struggle, mobile was a bright spot with the company reporting that their mobile revenues were up 24% year-over-year to $189 million. For the fiscal fourth quarter, EA Mobile recorded $48 million in revenues, up 14% year-over-year.

Glu reported revenues of $20.8 million, compared to $20.6 million in the first quarter of 2008 which represents less than a 1% increase year over year.

If I was a Glu shareholder I’d be pretty disappointed with Glu’s results. Although EA is a bigger company , the mobile games business is growing fairly rapidly (see post coming soon) and Glu should be growing at a similar pace to EA.

If you read Glu’s full release and if you’ve been following the company over the last year, a lot of their lack of growth is due to the fact that Glu was very late to the iPhone party. They’ve started to ramp up lately with a number of high quality releases on that platform including the very fun Glyder title, but it’s clear that they’ve still got a lot of work to do to get their business to take off further.

EA, on the other hand, was early to the iPhone an their games have done very well. Just in the past couple weeks, EA announced five new iPhone titles and executives said they expect to introduce 30 games for the iPhone this year.

iPhone Game Review – Glyder

Glu Mobile Inc. (Nasdaq:GLUU), today announced the launch of Glyder on the Apple App Store. Glyder is an original Glu title for iPhone and iPod touch where players take control of a hang glider as a pilot named Eryn, as she soars through beautiful 3D environments, unlocking new lands and finding her way home.

I downloaded the game to my iPhone and spent a solid 30 minutes playing the game tonight (after watching the mildly interesting NCAA Basketball Championship game).

The game is very simple – you glide Eryn through the sky, trying to collect various crystals along the way in order to unlock new worlds. There are two main things you need to worry about – your speed and your altitude. The game is built on the accelerometer so you tilt your device up or down to maneuver Eryn through the sky.

The graphics are really well done and as some other reviewers have noted, the game is low stress. No guns, or shooting or bad guys trying to attack you. You simply need to avoid crashing into the mountains and water while looking for crystals.

The controls take very little time to get used to which is nice. (As a comparison, I had a tough time getting used to the controls on the very popular Cro-Mag Rally).

Other features of the game include:

• Perform fun gliding maneuvers like power dives and dolphining
• Harness thermals to soar high into the sky
• Collect over 200 crystals to unlock new magical lands
• Over 30 achievements to discover and master
• 15+ trips to discover and complete
• Seamless travel through six imaginative lands

If you like flying games, I highly recommend downloading this title. Glyder is now available worldwide for an introductory price of $1.99 from Apple’s App Store.

Recent Twitter

admin tweets