Over the past few years, the mobile games industry has been been hampered by high royalty costs, distribution difficulties and the costs of supporting a wide number of handsets. But now, there’s a renewed sense of optimism. New platforms, such as Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Nokia’s N-Gage, are providing new opportunities, even though they are just starting to come out. Already, EA Mobile, Glu Mobile (NSDQ: GLUU), THQ (NSDQ: THQI), and Gameloft (EPA: GFT) are showing some positive signs. For example, in the third quarter, Glu admitted it failed to anticipate the power of the iPhone and didn’t put enough resources toward it, while Gameloft declared 2008 as “a turning point in the mobile gaming industry.”

Gameloft was by far the most bullish, and even went as far as to attribute its 18 percent jump in North American sales partly to the success of the iPhone. To find out how this will impact the industry going forward, I talked to Gonzague de Vallois, Gameloft’s SVP of Worldwide Publishing.

Excerpts from the interview after the jump…

Why does Gameloft believe mobile games hit a turning point this year? “What we think Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has brought in recent months is innovation on two dimensions. The first is innovation in the gaming experience. The iPhone’a touch platform, the accelerometer and its powerful OS, are really enhancing the gaming experience. It’s as powerful as a [Sony] PSP or [Nintendo] DS, so it’s a step forward compared to what we’ve had to work with.” For example, he said in 2002, mobile games were limited to 300 kilobytes in size, and today that’s only mildly increased to 600 kilobytes, but an iPhone game is between 62 and 80 megabits. “It’s 100 times better to make it simple. In terms of richness and depth, you really jump from the early 80s to 2008. The other is on the distribution side. The App Store is an open platform. They have editorial choice, and Apple features games and applications that they think demonstrate the power of the platform, and there’s a user rating system, which allows users to highlight games they played and liked or disliked, so it’s a good ecosystem with a fair business model. It allows us to invest in the innovation of the games. It’s one device, one platform, and one store worldwide. When we launched Guitar Rock Tour Guitar Hero 2, it launched in one day in all the countries where the App Store is. It’s one single game, and one single piece of software. That’s much different than the 1,200 handsets we typically have to support across hundreds of carriers.”

Will the new platforms put pressure on the carriers to change the way they do business?: “I’m optimistic….I’m not sure they are willing to give us more revenue. We haven’t been able to renegotiate any of our contracts with carriers. But the strong sign that Apple has sent is sending us in the right direction.”

Does the iPhone and the other new platforms represent a limited customer base? “It’s true. When the App Store launched in July, there was an install base of like 7 to 8 million users. It’s been growing fast in the last several months. It’s one platform, so it’s a first step. What we see is that Apple has got some competitors who are following them and want to compete. There’s Nokia (NYSE: NOK) with Ovi and there’s RIM (NSDQ: RIMM), which has announced an application storefront, and there’s rumors of one from Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), and there’s Android with the marketplace. Today it’s only Apple, it’s only 50 million today, and so we hope the competitors will follow successfully.”

During Glu’s Q3 conference call, the company mentioned that the adoption of smartphones is actually negatively impacting mobile game sales because they aren’t typically tied to a carrier’s deck, where games are sold. Are you seeing that, too?: “Yes, it depends on the carriers. With both AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile, you can download Blackberry games, but they [the carriers] were taken by surprise by the strong take-off of the smartphone content business—first the smartphone sales and then the content business. They are all taking care of that now, and will all be live by the end of the year. There are lost opportunities now, but all of this will be taken care of by the end of the year.”

• Earnings: Gameloft Calls 2008 A Turning Point For Mobile Games; iPhone Lifts Q3 Revenues
• Earnings Call: Glu Says New Platforms Have Hurt Traditional Carrier Business; Cash Balance Sinks
• Earnings: Mobile Gaming A Bright Spot For THQ