Brighton Develop 2013: Gaming's mobile future

The traditional idea of the video game player is a man playing in his bedroom, alone - but that is fast changing.

As mobile phone ownership has shot up, so too has the number of people playing video games on their mobile phones.

There will be more than 72m smartphones and tablets in use in the UK by the end of 2013, up from around 22m in 2010, according to research analysts IHS Electronics and Media.

While in 2010 smartphone and tablet games accounted for 5% of the total spend on video games in the UK, by 2013 this has gone up to 19%. And this is a trend that can also be seen in Europe and North America.

Thanks to this phenomenon - as well as the rise in gaming on social networks like Facebook - a new breed of 'casual gamer' has been created. Many of these new gamers are women.

The issue of mobile gaming was one of the hot issues at the Develop in Brighton conference this week - an event which draws hundreds of the world's video game developers to the seaside, for a week-long talking shop and networking event.

BBC News caught up with a selection of delegates to hear their views about the rise of mobile gaming: Berni Good, a psychologist who advises the gaming industry; Will Freeman, editor of industry paper Develop; Martin Frain, founder of Digit Game Studios; James Binns, former journalist and now publisher of Network N; and Michael Levall, a developer who has set up a small firm called Dead Shark TriplePunch.

Video Journalist: Dougal Shaw