Apple continues to hire game industry executives. It started with Nick Grange, a former Activision, EA, and Xbox PR executive, then it was Nintendo PR boss Robert Saunders, and now it’s Robin Burrowes, a former Microsoft employee who was in charge of Xbox Live at the company.
That’s three fairly large talent acquisitions from the gaming industry over the last year. Not too shabby for a company that didn’t seem to have an interest in getting into the video game market when the iPhone first launched, and instead fell backwards into it with the creation of iOS.
According to a report from Flurry back in November 2011, iOS and Android now account for 58 percent of portable gaming revenue in the U.S. That’s huge considering Apple and Google have only really been in the gaming market for a couple of years compared to the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.
It gets worse for Nintendo:
The most striking trend is that iOS and Android games have tripled their market share from roughly 20% in 2009 to nearly 60% in just two years. Simultaneously, Nintendo, the once dominant player, has been crushed down to owning about one-third of market in 2011, from having controlled more than two-thirds in 2009. Combined, iOS and Android game revenue delivered $500 million, $800 million and $1.9 billion over 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Apple may have inadvertently stumbled into the gaming market, but you can be sure that the company is now doing its best to maintain dominance in the market.
Source: MCV
