Mobile Gaming Mustn’t Be Ignored

Sony’s VP of studios Phil Harrison spoke on mobile gaming at the Game Developers’ Conference in London, and predicted that the will yield “huge commercial opportunities” in the future. He admitted that he didn’t know much about the mobile gaming market (which is refreshing) but emphasized that it is important: “You cannot ignore hundreds of millions of game capable devices in people’s pockets as a potential audience, and so that will eventually yield huge, huge commercial opportunities”; and different to other gaming markets: “it’s a very different market, a very casual gaming market…That doesn’t imply that it’s not important, but it’s a different kind of purchasing dynamic, and a different kind of customer acquisition process.”
In related news, Nokia has launched a website for its mobile pinball game Mile High Pinball (www.milehighpinball.com). The site has “game trailers, screenshots and wireless downloads”…while this may be overkill for a pinball game it does indicate that companies are beginning to see mobile games as more than filler, and are trying to differentiate their offerings with things that aren’t actually included in the game. “Mile High Pinball takes full advantage of the N-Gage Arena with tournaments and customization options…Players will be able to see their rankings, view and download user-created pinball boards, and check out the characteristics of the different pinballs online through the official website”. The game is not due until “this fall”, which I guess means sometime in the next few months.
Meanwhile, I-play has launched its first 3D mobile game, Major Carnage. It seems to have the standard shoot-em-up storyline of a lone hero saving mankind against invading alien hordes, and was developed by Ditto Studios, the mobile games porting specialist and developer that I-play recently acquired.

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