I was in the Motorola booth (I think) at WMC where a number of developers were showing off their applications. I was interested in the company escapist games.

The founder was there showing off his Starchart application, which he built with his young son in mind. The app (which I need to buy) allows you to point your phone’s camera at the sky and it gives you information on the star cluster you are looking at. Ingenious.

Somehow he mentioned that he lived in Vancouver years ago, worked for EA and left to start his own company. In his case, he started the company with the low cost game in mind. From his point of view, the $50 console game requires big companies and significant investment to make reality with a high chance of failure. As he put it, many gamers have spent the big dollars on a game and been disappointed. However, the low cost gaming model that is overwhelming the smartphone market provides a unique opportunity – if you buy a $3 game and you don’t like it – it doesn’t matter as much. You move on to the next game and that means a booming industry.

He then mentioned two key facts:

• They are a company of 10
• They have sold 2M copies at $3 each

Do the math. Low cost of production, significant rewards, an industry that will continue to flourish.