Taneli Armanto created “the world’s most popular game”, Snake. “Most popular” = “on the most handsets” (350 million mobile phones), but I think it’s reasonable to say that Snake took off in a way that nobody expected, popularized the concept of playing games on mobile phones and proved (once again) that gameplay is better than graphics, like Tetris and PacMan before it. Anyway, the Mobile Entertainment Forum has given Armanto a “special recognition” for his role in the game, and said that his “ingenuity and vision have made a significant contribution to the growth of the mobile entertainment industry”.
Nokia made an interesting move to promote its N-Gage Arena: “Nokia is offering all N-Gage Arena members a chance learn more about the history and creation of Snake via a chat session with Mr. Armanto on on Tuesday, June 28th, 2005, 10:00 am -11:00 am PST (Pacific Standard Time) at http://forums.arena.n-gage.com/.”
In other games news, THQ Wireless is launching South Park Save Kenny on mobile phones across Europe from September. The game seems to combine Sims/Tamagotchi style tending with action-based minigames. So, the idea is to keep Kenny alive by fulfilling his needs, such as hunger, thirst, sleep, avoiding satan, that sort of thing. From what I understand you not only have to play the mini-games on a regular basis to advance, you have to play on a regular basis just to keep Kenny alive. This is obviously good for the game-makers, but will also appeal to many consumers who only have time to play for a few minutes on the way to work but would prefer a longer-term game.
The mini-games described in the release include: a trap with four-arsed monkeys in Mephesto’s Lab; Satan chasing Kenny through the graveyard; avoiding the spinning asteroid crashing to earth as well as Death’s firetraps.
Also: Vietnam’s Mobile Games 2005 competition kicks off with up to VND200 million in total prize money going to those with the most inventive programs. The competition will run until October 15.
Namco America has announced the advancement of three top-level executives in its wireless division. “The promotions, which are effective immediately, will better position the mobile division to achieve its goals and reflect its recent success as a leader in the industry”.
Telcogames has announced it will distribute its catalogue of titles to mobile network subscribers worldwide using the new Preminet Solution from Nokia. Preminet is an end-to-end global sales channel for mobile content downloads that will make Telcogames’ catalogue available to millions of consumers around the world who own Symbian OS and Java-enabled handsets.
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