(X Marks the Spot.) So Y Are Games Targeted at Men?

As the traditional games console business is fueled by testosterone-charged game titles that appeal to young men, it may not be surprising that M:Metrics found males to be twice as likely to download a mobile game than women. In fact, out of all of the respondents to our most recent monthly survey who reported having downloaded a game in the previous month, 67% were men.

But here's the wrinkle: We also found that men and women equally engage in game play on their wireless handsets, with our most recent data showing a negligible 47/53% split between women and men. This data, as well as other consumption trends we have observed, indicate that women represent a significant opportunity for growth in mobile entertainment, as they have been wholly underserved.

While an untapped market is excellent news for game publishers and carriers alike, it begs the question: Why aren't women downloading games? They are absolutely downloading their fair share of everything else. In fact, our data shows that women are downloading 46% of all mobile content, and they are downloading about half of the ringtones being consumed in the U.S.

Ringtones are universally appealing because marrying music to the mobile phone creates synergy. It's not just playing music on your mobile phone at poorer quality than you could on your MP3 player, it's transforming music into something new and unique to a phone. This is not true of mobile games, however. Our findings suggest that if carriers and publishers were to view gaming more holistically by focusing on creating new entertainment experiences that are uniquely mobile and not predicated by gender or age, this market could increase substantially.

The mobile gaming sector is small, but growing, with nearly 6 million subscribers reporting they downloaded a game in March, compared with 4.3 million who did so last November. To their collective detriment, carriers and publishers are living by the paradigm set by hand-held games consoles like Game Boys and PSPs. Nearly half (48%) of the titles offered are in the sports or action/adventure categories, which have been hugely successful in the games console market. But what works on the console does not translate to mobile. In terms of actual consumption, more subscribers downloaded arcade puzzle games like Tetris than they did action adventure and sports titles combined. But only 10% of titles offered are of the universally popular and easy-to-play arcade puzzle and card games genres, which are also the most common genres downloaded by women. So not only does this catalog misalignment compromise the consumption of downloadable entertainment overall, but even worse, it completely alienates content-hungry women by depriving them of appealing games to download.

The mobile phone can transcend the traditional console gaming experience because of its inherent qualities: ubiquity, connectivity and utility. When paired with the intrinsic human desire to seek both diversion and social interaction, the mobile platform presents a vast canvas for publishers and carriers to create fun, simple ways for people to connect with others. Location-based services and multiplayer capabilities exponentially increase options for contextual entertainment and venues to interact via the mobile phone. As we see with the consumption of ringtones and the simple games that reside on the handset, people are looking to their handsets for fun. When the mobile industry starts looking in the same place, the mobile entertainment sector will thrive.

Seamus McAteer is chief product architect and senior analyst for M:Metrics.