1.
Ambient Insight 2013
Mobile Edugame Market Innovations
Key Findings from Recent Ambient Insight Research
Tyson Greer, Chief Executive Officer
Ambient Insight LLC
Serious Play Conference 2013
August 22, 2013

2.
Ambient Insight 2013
Partial List of Ambient Insight’s Clients
 Adobe
 Amazon
 Amplify
 Apple
 BlackBerry
 Blackboard
 British Council
 Chungdahm Learning
 Dell
 Deutsche Telekom
 Disney
 Hasbro
 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
 IBM
 John Wiley & Sons
 McGraw-Hill
 Macmillan
 Microsoft
 Oxford University Press
 Pearson
 Qualcomm
 Rosetta Stone
Ambient Insight is an integrity-based market research firm that uses predictive analytics
to identify revenue opportunities for suppliers.

3.
Ambient Insight 2013
Agenda
 Introductions & Ambient Insight’s Research Taxonomy
 Key Findings from Ambient Insight Research
 Innovations in Packaged and Custom Content
Products & Services
 Everybody’s Got Game
 Innovative Revenue & Distribution Models

4.
Ambient Insight 2013
Ambient Insight’s Learning Technology Research Taxonomy
Have Eight Buyer Segments
From Six Types of Suppliers
That Buy Eight Types of Digital Learning Products
Packaged
Content
Consumer PreK-12
Corporations
- Businesses
Higher
Education
Federal
Government
State - Local
Government
Associations
& Non-Profits
Healthcare
Custom
Content
Cloud-based
Tools & Platforms
Value Added
Services (VAS)
Installed Tools
& Technology
Learning
Devices
Digital Video,
Text, & Audio
Reference
Self-paced
eLearning
Courseware
Collaboration-
based
Learning
Simulation-
based
Learning
Cognitive
Learning
Mobile
Learning
Social
Learning
Game-based
Learning
These six supplier types map directly to the six
subcategories of learning technology products
Seven International Regions
North
America
Latin
America
Eastern
Europe
Western
Europe
Asia Africa
The Middle
East
Pilot Fish Media Inc

5.
Ambient Insight 2013
Six Types of Mobile Edugame Learning Products
 Knowledge-based games
 Skills-based games
 Brain trainers and cognitive
fitness games
 Language learning games
 Location-based learning
games (emerged in 2009)
 Mobile augmented reality
games (emerged in 2010)
Ambient Insight forecasts
revenues for six types of Mobile
Edugames:
Ambient Insight’s 2013 Learning Technology Research Taxonomy
Kid Genius All in 1

6.
Ambient Insight 2013
Key Findings from
Ambient Insight
Research

7.
Ambient Insight 2013
Key Findings from Ambient Insight Research - The Market
 The growth rate for the global Game-based Learning market is 8.3%
 In North America: growth rate for all Game-based Learning is 10.1%
but for mobile edugames is 15.3% - and from 2012 to 2017 mobile
edugames revenues will more than double
 Mobile edugame investors were bullish in 2011, showed a spike of
interest in 2012, but have held back in first half of 2013
 Brands partner with edugame suppliers to increase interaction with
the brand via gaining attention on the small screen
 Telecoms, device-makers, & NGOs provide Mobile Learning value
added services (VAS), except rarely in North America, so far
 New suppliers continue to flood the market, and product visibility
becomes more difficult. Accelerators continue to proliferate
 Although augmented reality (AR) browsers are not yet standard on
new mobile devices, AR edugames growth rate is high
 Cross-platform products (web & app on device) are increasing.

8.
Ambient Insight 2013
Key Findings from Ambient Insight Research - The Buyers
 Consumers are the top buyers worldwide of edugame packaged
content
 Top “selling” (or downloaded) apps are for young children;
edugames that offer parental involvement are on the rise
 There is a plethora of personal learning devices (PLDs)
 Cultural institutions continue to invest heavily in edugames, with a
mix of in-house and custom content services
 Emergence of easy-to-use mobile game-building tools supports
cultural shift towards using game-creation as an educational
experience
 Suppliers capitalize on consumers’ interests:
early childhood
education, tourism, health, fitness and
wellness, cognitive fitness, nature, and
sustainability
 Consumer expectations for Mo-So are now a
given; Mo-Lo-So continues to grow

9.
Ambient Insight 2013
Innovations in Packaged
and Custom Content
“I’ve found that my students are most
engaged when they are fighting monsters.”

10.
Ambient Insight 2013
Knowledge & Skills: Math and Literacy Games Dominate
PreK-2 on Smartphones, Tablets, & Game Consoles
22Learn Abby Sight Words
WeWantToKnow
PopCap Book Worm
Go Go Kiddo
KidsZone Studios GuruCool PlaySchool
12 Fingers Studio

11.
Ambient Insight 2013
“The 2012 Content Trench” – Percent of Total Paid Mobile
Learning Apps by Target Demographic
31%
9%
3%
6%
5%
8%
12%
26%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
What’s on the Store Shelves?
Consumer-facing Paid Mobile Learning Content
Across All Major Application Stores, Platforms, and Devices
The vast majority
of PreK-2 Mobile
Learning content is
game-based

12.
Ambient Insight 2013
Knowledge & Skills: Edugames Engage Middle School
and High School Students in Class and Anywhere
Filament Games
GoCivics Mobile Congress
Benesse America
StraightAce
Hakitzu: Code
of the Warriors
teaches kids to
code with
JavaScript by
customizing
their robots via
an adaptive
learning “Smart
Tutor” platform

13.
Ambient Insight 2013
Knowledge & Skills: Health & Wellness for Consumers
CME Edugames for Healthcare Students & Professionals
For healthcare professionals
and nursing, dental, and medical
students, suppliers create
custom reference content, exam
prep, skill development
content, and packaged content
For
consumers, health &
wellness topics cover
alcohol
consumption, allergies,
anatomy, asthma, brai
n
fitness, cardiovascular
health, cognition, dent
al
health, diabetes, eme
rgency
response, environment
al risk, exercise and
fitness, eye
health, food and
nutrition, pet
care, obesity and
weight
loss, pain, smoking
ACLS Wiz flash cards
Mango Health

14.
Ambient Insight 2013
Language Learning: Edugames Teach Languages on
Smartphones, Tablets, and Game Consoles
KunCha Globetrotter
(Happy Neuron)
Play & Learn Chinese (Selectsoft)
Babbel entered US market by
acquiring PlaySay March 2013
“Education is going Mobile.”
Babbel CEO Markus Witte

15.
Ambient Insight 2013
Language Learning: Two Global Market Trends
Converge and Boost Edugame Sales
• Learning Edge (US): For $7.95/month, TDS subscribers receive
access to content from iknowthat, BTP (Boston Test Prep), Nick
Jr, Hoopa, Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Spelling Mobile (Brazil): Based on a TV game, for $2.99/week
users practiced then competed for £ 3000 to £ 15,000 in prizes
from Global Brands and Vivo. One month: 230,000 users.
• Fun Park (China): The Smartfun Digital joint venture between
Chungwa Telecom (75%) and United Daily News Group (35%)
offers edugame content
Telecoms, nonprofits, and
third party suppliers are
delivering Value Added
Services (VAS) directly to
consumers.
Market is expanding rapidly
for digital Language
Learning
products, particularly
English fluency and literacy.

16.
Ambient Insight 2013
Language Learning: Converging Product Types Boost
Engagement (and Sales)
Sesame Workshop added augmented
reality using Qualcomm’s Vuforia
platform to power Big Bird’s Words
text recognition game.
Mindsnacks
gained $6.5
million from
Sequoia to
create
personalized
learning
experiences for
kids
(DreamIt Ventures
accelerator grad)
Top selling apps across the planet are: Edugames for young
children & language learning apps. Add in AR!
Elmo’s AR
Alphabet
Challenge

17.
Ambient Insight 2013
Language Learning: Using Music and Rhythm
Learn to read Japanese characters
by learning patterns in time to a
chip-tunes soundtrack with
Hiragana Pixel Party
Microsoft Research’s Tip Tap teaches
tonal subtlety and proves viability of
mobile micro-training of Mandarin

18.
Ambient Insight 2013
Location & AR: Museums Create Digital Media
Departments and Also Buy Content Services
Visitors to these 29
Canadian museums play
an interactive quest
mobile game
Asian Civilizations
Museum, Singapore, claims to
be the 1st to combine
AR, location-based game, and
interactive features in this
iPad app about the Terracotta
Warriors: First Emperor and
His Legacy exhibit.

19.
Ambient Insight 2013
Location & AR: Museums Create Digital Media
Departments and Also Buy Content Services
Asian Civilizations
Museum in
Singapore claims to
be 1st to combine
AR, location-based
game, and
interactive features
in this iPad app for
the Terracotta
Warriors exhibit

20.
Ambient Insight 2013
Brain Trainers and Cognitive Fitness Apps:
Typically Target Older Adults, But Not Always
Devilish Brain Training, the latest version of Brain
Age, addresses digital distraction with a game to
improve concentration on Nintendo 3DS
• Vivity Labs’ adaptive FitBrain app
launched in iOS store December
2012 – 1 million copies in first 60
days (free or subscription)
• Sparky’s Adventures, by Vivity
Labs, released 2013. Subscription
per child 3, 6, or 12 mos, or lifetime
Sparky’s Adventures

21.
Ambient Insight 2013
Everybody’s Got Game
User-generated content and the
“Creator Economy”

22.
Ambient Insight 2013
Tools: Trend Towards the Creator Economy
User Generated Content and User Generated Games
• ARTLAB+ Game Design – at a four-day camp at the Hirshhorn
Museum in Washington, DC, teens made location-based mobile
games and learned art interpretation and game design
• Global Kids - a New York City in-school and after-school
program, where kids learn game design skills and global issues;
and built location-based history edugame with New York City
Library
“When students become
producers, they engage in
active, critical and committed
learning, experience visual and
textual literacy and understand
semiotics”
James Paul Gee, 2006

23.
Ambient Insight 2013
Tools: Easy-to-use Tools Are Available for Students to
Create Their Own Games, and Learn from Doing It
 Gaming the classroom:
 Scratch - free game-building tool from MIT enables students to
create and share games.
 ARLearn Toolkit – Cloud-based suite for learners and educators that
combines field trips, RPG, and classroom response systems
 Games MOOC III: MOOC teaches educators about resources needed
to create a game or game project using apps, AR, and ARGs
 Putting yourself into the picture:
 Disney Infinity Toolbox
create video with Disney
characters
 Digital Infinity Action! –
engages players in creating
a virtual world and adding
real-life people to the videos
they create
 Players customize Appa Apps’ photo-based language and
numeracy learning edugames with their own photos, video, and
voice; then share

24.
Ambient Insight 2013
Changing the “Learning-game-as-babysitter”
Model, Before It Backfires
• AppyZoo (Stickery) apps collect usage data to create progress
reports for parents. October 2011, Google Ventures and 500
Startups awarded the company $350K in seed funding
• KidZone Studios’s GuruCool PlaySchool provides a centralized view
of a child’s progress and suggests “strategies and activities” to
parents
• PBS brand released free PBS Play & Learn math & literacy skills
edugame “specifically for parents,” to play with toddlers and
reported 162,000 downloads in the first month
Fingerprint Digital’s in-app
Mom-Comm system, provides a
built-in sharing platform and daily
news feeds for parents. Raised
$7.7 million in September 2012
from Corus Entertainment

25.
Ambient Insight 2013
Explosion of Medical Sensors Creates Opportunities for
Knowledge & Skills Game-based Mobile Learning
Irish startup Galvanic
created the Relax & Race
app that use a Bluetooth-
enabled galvanic skin
response sensor as a game
controller to teach stress
reduction.
Humana Innovation Center
collaborated with Tellart to build
web-connected interactive
objects and environments such
as Dancetown, Humana
Fishtank, and Yoga Game
Ball, which transforms a yoga
ball into a game controller “that
takes the classic fun of arcade
games and gives it a twist.”

26.
Ambient Insight 2013
Personal Learning Devices Proliferate Across the Globe
Telecoms partner with 3rd party content
providers and NGOs to deliver learning
directly to consumers and to institutions
with Mobile Learning Value Added
Services (VAS). SK Telecom has gone
further with an educational robot, Atti
Atti demo at GSMA Connected
Living Summit 2013, Shanghai
OLPC XO3
Tablet
FuHu’s Nabi

27.
Ambient Insight 2013
Innovative Revenue and
Distribution Models
New Opportunities
New Challenges

28.
Ambient Insight 2013
Incubators and Accelerators are Proliferating Providing
Financial Support and Connections to Experts & Capital
May 2013, Zynga.org commits $1
million for “Edtech Game Accelerator”
to focus on learning games in
partnership with NewSchools Venture
Fund.
Motion Math is one of three startups
in Zynga.org’s 2013 cohort.
Kaplan EdTech Incubator, powered by TechStars, offers $20K
investment, June – September co-location in New York City, market
insights, mentorships, access to Kaplan’s Learning Science group…
Rock Health opens in 2013 and claims to be “The first seed
accelerator for digital health startups”
Motion Math

29.
Ambient Insight 2013
Innovative Revenue and Distribution Options
Revenue Models:
 In-app purchases - virtual
goods
 Sponsorships nonprofits &
commercial
 Partner with telecoms and
device-makers
 Ads
 Subscription services
 Micropayments - virtual items
 Free, lite, and premium
 Real-world goods
Distribution Channels:
 Amazon Appstore added in-app
purchasing (2012) and HTML5
apps (2013)
 Digitization trend
 Submit products to commercial
digital libraries adding mobile
content, e.g. OverDrive
 Partner with home school
suppliers, device
makers, publishers, and
telecoms
 Proliferation of specialty app
stores
 Personal Learning Devices
The price of mobile apps is dropping.
The revenues are rising.

30.
Ambient Insight 2013
Playsourcing and Business Models
Duolingo: “no fees, no
ads, no gimmicks” –
supplies players “free”
translations to paying
clients
XEOPlay: uses “playsourcing” in a
virtual world game to plant trees in
the real world via NGO WeForest.org

31.
Ambient Insight 2013
End of the Day Thoughts:
Where Is Mobile Edugaming Going?
S.M.T.H. a “sport”
game for measuring
distance

32.
Ambient Insight 2013
Q & A
Ambient Insight’s Free Resource Library at:
http://www.ambientinsight.com/News/PublishedContent.aspx
This presentation, the “Mobile Edugame Market
Innovations 2013,” past presentations, and our Learning
Technology Research Taxonomy can be downloaded from