The few cell phone gamers out there are mostly playing "casual" games such as Tetris and Bejeweled, according to new numbers from research firm M:Metrics. In fact, if you combine variants of Tetris, Bewjeweled, poker and Pac-Man, you end up with 25% of the games downloaded in May of 2006, M:Metrics says.

M:Metrics goes into a lot more detail about why only 2.7% of US mobile subscribers downloaded games in March 2006, but I find this Washington Post story to be on the money. The game browsing and buying experience on phones is vile. Games are typically buried in a nest of confusing menus, with only three or four words to describe each one. Yes, games could be better, but quality doesn't matter if nobody can find a game they like, or get an idea of the range of games out there, and right now they can't.

I lay this problem at the feet of the carriers, who've designed the unenticing, nearly unusable menu systems cell phone owners must slog through to try to find games. I've previously met with Mpowerplayer at New York City's Games and Mobile Forum, and they have an interesting way for you to preview mobile games on your PC. But I don't think we're going to see serious movement in the mobile gaming space until carriers find radically new, and more attractive ways to let people see the games on their phones.

(Photo from Wikipedia)