A new study says 27 percent of US mobile users play games on their handsets. That doesn’t seem too high, though it’s up 7 points from last year. One part of the problem is that apparently just half of US users have a phone capable of downloading games, but more significant for carriers and developers is that just a third of those game players pay for downloads, with the others sticking to free or pre-loaded games. What’s more, just 6% of non-gamers said they had an interest in starting to play over the next year.

So what’s the way forward? Casual gaming, for one thing. The study says the top motivation for mobile gaming is to kill time, and the average session is 11 minutes. This dictates games that people can start up and play easily with a quick learning curve rather than involved, deep games that drag on and on, like on consoles. Mobile is still different from console in that there really isn’t a need to always be pushing for better graphics and sound — when you’ve got a weak processor and tiny screen, quality of gameplay becomes paramount. Look at casual games on the desktop, like Windows’ Solitaire or Minesweeper. Flashy, complex graphics and sounds? No. Still popular? Yes.

Building up casual gaming will also expand the demographic reach of mobile gaming, which is heavily skewed towards kids 13 to 17. Obviously these kids are going to have different interests than their parents when it comes to games. And while a puzzle game might not give a developer the street cred of some first-person shooter, there’s a market there to be addressed.

Both of these also mean the exclusive franchises that publishers are so fond of might not mean much. Young gamers aren’t going to buy in if your Lord of the Rings game is weak, and older gamers probably won’t buy in period.

And like so many other things in mobile, people aren’t fans of predatory pricing. In this case, it’s pricing games like services — giving them a per-month cost, with access to the game blocked if you don’t pay up. People aren’t stupid, and realize they’re buying a product, not a service. Paying a $5 one-off charge is much more realistic than $3 per month. Make a service element if you want to charge that way: build in some interactivity, let people play against others on the network, something that generates a real recurring revenue stream rather than just inventing one.

Perhaps the success of ringtone downloads has bloated the mobile games industry, leading many to believe that people will willingly and blindly pay for anything shoved down their throat. But people are getting wiser, as evidenced by the backlash against the greedier ringtone sellers. In a market with reasonable, rather than torrid, growth, land-grab techniques won’t work. People want good games at good prices.