Mobile Gaming is good for Console Gaming
To keep something popular for the long haul, you need to keep brining in new blood. Boxing was extremely popular in the US, but the switch first to cable then pay per view culled out a lot of the audience. Now, younger fight fans probably watch MMA.
Instead of always being seen as a threat, mobile gaming may be precisely the gateway into PC and console gaming benefit from. The Entertainment Software Association have released some new numbers.
http://www.theesa.com/newsroom/release_detail.asp?releaseID=236
The results from a 'representative sample' of about 3200 people ages 13 and older.
Take them with a heavy grain of salt considering the source but here you go:
* About 1/3 of teens and adults play mobile games
* of these, 2/3rds say it did not reduce time spent playing other video games
* of these, 1/5th say they had never played video games until playing mobile games
* of these, 1/2 say they were not regular gamers before playing mobile games
* of these, 2/5th also bought a console/PC/portable video game due to mobile gaming
* of these, the most popular place to play mobile games is at home
* of these, the most popular genres are puzzle/card/word games
An argument can be made that mobile gaming is not cannibalizing portable/PC/console gaming, as much as providing the gateway from puzzle/card/word games into more action and arcade games of portables/PC/consoles. Alternatively, mobile gaming is a parallel course for more relaxed gaming with some overlap, that again, does not cannibalize other gaming venues. Either way, it brings gaming into the mainstream culture, gets parents gaming with kids, and gets both younger and older people into gaming in one form or another. All good things for console/PC/portable gaming.