Over one third of games paid for and downloaded annually by UK mobile phone users fail to work due to problems with compatibility, according to research carried out by GetJar, the mobile application distribution and developer community.
The UK gaming market is currently worth £83m, with over £29m spent on downloaded games that never get played.
GetJar claims that insufficient compatibility testing is to blame for the high failure rate of mobile games and with the variety of handsets continuing to grow year-on-year, the problem will continue to grow unless developers start to place greater emphasis on compatibility.
Ilja Laurs, founder and chief executive officer of GetJar, said: "This is an important challenge for the mobile entertainment industry, for developers and for the operators who supply the vast majority of games in the UK.
"But by bringing more detailed testing into the development process, using resources such as the beta test community, developers and carriers can iron out many of the compatibility issues during the development phase without negative impact on the development process or costs."
