Interface[s] Montréal

Mobility and Ubiquity

Patrick Minotti

Head of studio, EA Mobile

The Big “Small Media”

View the presentation [In French]

This year, Electronic Arts concluded one of the most important transaction in the history of the video game industry with the 700 million dollar purchase of Jamdat Mobile, the world leader in mobile gaming. Experts and pundits wondered if EA had gone crazy: How could the undisputed giant of the video game industry place so much value on the mobile gaming sector? This session offers an explanation by presenting certain factors that have made mobile phone technology a force to be reckoned with throughout the entertainment business.

Mobile phone technology is:

- Global : There are 2.5 billion mobile phone users in the world, representing 38% of the global population. More than 50% of all countries have access to this technology. These figures will increase by 50% or more in the next 10 years. Mobile phones are already a world-wide phenomenon, and the technology continues to improve, becoming more efficient and user-friendly while remaining affordable for many.

- Personal : Even without multimedia, mobile phones are already woven into our modern lifestyle. Almost everyone owns (at least) one mobile phone that’s almost always left turned on and carried everywhere. As an object, the mobile phone is a personalized reflection of the individual, yet it is entirely social in use.

- Pervasive : Self-identity (the idea about ourselves that we create) is constructed through social interactions and the selection and consumption of media. These interactions are traditionally fragmented in time and space. We can still only vaguely imagine the incredible power of persistent and pervasive interactions made possible through this small media.

Thanks to these characteristics, this small media represents an exceptional opportunity for entertainment companies such as Electronic Arts to create a larger place for themselves in the world of their clients.

Patrick Minotti is the Director of EA Mobile in Montreal, a video game studio for mobile games.

Involved in the new media sector since the early 1990s, Mr. Minotti has been a consultant for high-tech start-ups, Director General of Bell-Sympatico and Director of Strategic Development at Nurun Italia before helping found a multi-platform video game production company called Hexacto as Vice-President of Production in 2001. Hexacto earned a glowing reputation thanks to numerous positive reviews for the quality of its mobile games, notably Lemonade Tycoon and The Emperor’s Mahjong, which both sold millions of copies across all platforms combined. After being acquired by Jamdat Mobile in 2003, this Montreal-based studio of 130 employees has become part of Electronic Arts, the most important video game company in the world and a 3 billion dollar business with more than 7000 employees.