Games Going Mobile As Players Discover Wireless Networking
Fri May 14,10:03 AM ET
By David Isaac
Snake, released by Nokia (news - web sites) in 1997, was the first cell phone game. The object was fairly simple: Pick up small mice, really digital squares, while not turning into your own tail or the sides of the screen.
Today that snake would be blasted by laser guns, hammered with armored fists and run over by Formula One racers.
Technological advances have been impressive. They've made mobile games a viable segment of the $13 billion video game industry, said Matthew Bellows, co-founder of Wireless Gaming Review, a division of video game site Gamespot.com.
Bellows led a mobile gaming panel discussion at E3, or Electronic Entertainment Expo, the video game industry's annual convention in Los Angeles. It ended Friday.
The panel's members, who are leaders in the mobile gaming sector, focused on technology breakthroughs affecting mobile games in the near term, like 3-D graphics and wireless multiplayer capabilities.
Bellows reminded the audience that the industry recognized only two years ago that mobile games would be a worthwhile business.
In 2002, mobile games were almost exclusively pre-installed on cell phones.
With the exception of Nextel, you couldn't download a game onto your phone, Bellows said, and there were only two or three color handsets available in the U.S.
Today, mobile phone users can download games from any of the major wireless carriers.
But mobile games are still at the toddler stage. And like watching a child grow, it's fun to see the advances made within a short time.
Perhaps the most important advantage of mobile games is they are already networked. This lets users play against friends or strangers, near or far.
Gonzague de Vallois, vice president of publishing at Gameloft, showed off the Bluetooth wireless version of "Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm," a new game from the Paris-based mobile game publisher.
Bluetooth lets electronic devices connect wirelessly in a short distance, usually less than 30 feet.
Practical Approach
Although Gameloft uses Bluetooth for its new game, neither De Vallois nor anyone else on the panel was willing to bet that it will be the future wireless standard.
There are competing technologies, like 3G and Wi-Fi, and it's too early to say which will emerge the leader.
But De Vallois said his company took a practical approach. Bluetooth was the best technology available for real-time multiplayer action.
Dwight Cheu, vice president of business development at Troy, N.Y.-based Vicarious Visions, demonstrated a game using the newest in Java software.
Vicarious Visions is known for bringing "Doom 3" to the Xbox (news - web sites) console and "Tony Hawk: Pro Skater" to Game Boy Advance.
Cheu said his firm entered the mobile game business after seeing advances in game consoles and PCs. "We anticipated that mobile phones would go through the same generations, probably at a much more accelerated pace," he said.
Vicarious Visions' strength is 3-D, Cheu said. "We know 3-D is going to come to cell phones."
Ideaworks3D, as its name suggests, is another company thinking ahead to 3-D.
The U.K.-based firm has been developing 3-D games for mobile phones for five years.
Its chief executive, Adrian Sack, said Ideaworks3D decided that mobile gaming would become compelling "when you could deliver something to the consumer that they could recognize from life, something like racing a car around a track or playing tennis."
He gave a hint of what's in store with a demonstration of "Tony Hawk: Pro Skater" using an ARM chip with special software designed by Imagination technologies.
ARM chips, made by ARM Ltd., are found in mobile phones, personal digital assistants and digital cameras. ARM makes 80% of the chips for high-end cell phones, Sack said.
The quality of the game run on the ARM chip was impressive, equivalent to that of a Sega Dreamcast (news - web sites) console.
"You can expect this sort of thing hitting the market in the fourth quarter of '04," he said.
Focus On Networking
Sack said it will be dangerous if mobile game developers focus mainly on 3-D.
"On consoles, pursuing 3-D and realism has pushed production costs through the roof and it would be a pity if that happened to cell phones before there's a mature industry," he said.
Vicarious Visions' Cheu said that last year a cell phone game could be made for $50,000. Today, it's two to three times that.
Instead of 3-D, developers should focus on cell phones' inherent networking capability, Sack said.
Jason Ford, a games and entertainment manager at Sprint Consumer Solutions, gave an example of cell phones' advantage.
Ford helped found Sprint's Game Lobby, a Web site where Sprint customers can download games for $2 to $5, compete with one another, go for high scores and in the future compete for prizes.
Game Lobby has been up since January and has 60,000 subscribers.
One customer played a game 19 hours straight. But he still didn't get the high score. Another admitted to putting his cell phone in a Ziploc bag so he could play in the shower, Ford said.
"At least he's taking showers. We're not stopping that," Ford said. "The next thing you'll see is phone on a rope." |
