Namco to bring KDDI titles to US

Interesting news story on MobileIndustry.biz around Namco US bringing KDDI games to the US (Link)

KDDI supports games based on J2ME and BREW, in 2004 KDDI launched the aU service which offered flat rate data at broadband speeds. This revolutionised the Japanese market and proved to be highly popular, helping the network to rapidly grow in a short time frame.

KDDI is Japan's second largest MNO and the largest single territory 3G operator in the world (20M+ 3G users) with flat rate data running at 2.4 Mbit/s.

It will be interesting to see how the titles translate to the US market, in terms of content & technically. In the early 00's I was involved with a company bring Korean content to Europe and we experienced issues which made it a valuable experience.

Vodafone Live Deck viewed on N70 230107

Juan Montes joins DD

Juan and Nigel kept this quiet Thursday evening - good for both sides.
More details on Mobileindustry.biz
Maybe Nigel will make a for Infospaces IOMO Studio - now that would be interesting.

O2 Java game Top 10 for weekending January25th

I have added games categories to the listing to give some insight to popular game types (3 puzzle, 2 Sim, 2 Sport, 1 x  TV, Racing, Management)

 

1. Deal or No Deal (Publisher: Gameloft, Category: TV)

2. The Sims 2 Pets (Publisher: EA Mobile, Category: Sim)

3. Lumines (Publisher: Gameloft, Category: Puzzle)

4. Phil Taylor Power Darts (Publisher: Player One, Category: Sport)

5. LMA Manager 2007 (Publisher: Codemasters, Category: Management)

6. Flexis (Publisher: Telcogames, Category: Puzzle)

7. Ms Pac-Man (Publisher: Namco, Category: Puzzle)

8. FIFA Street 2 (Publisher: EA Mobile, Category: Sport)

9. Monopoly Tycoon 2007 (Publisher: Hands-On Mobile, Category: Sim)

10. Need for Speed Carbon (Publisher: EA Mobile, Category: Racing)

Mobile Meetup - Indiagames rumoured to be buying Infospace's IOMO Studio

The Mobile Meetup at the Pitcher & Piano was interesting last night - the Best Rumour of the Evening had to go to Indiagames Buying Infospace studio, IOMO. This breaking news dominated conversations of the evening.

 

Pity then when later in the evening Affinity Studio’s Brian Rodway announced he had started the rumour and there was no truth in it – What goes around, comes around Brian :-D

Infospace Games to be split

Mobile news sites are reporting that Infospace has sold its US games group to Twistbox. This means that Infospace games are being broken up in to their geographical groups with the UK group (IOMO) yet to announce a buyer.

 

The deal is interesting as it suggests that Infospace was unable to find a buyer for the whole games group and needed to split the units in order to make them attractive to buyers.

Kuju move out of Mobile

Mobileinustry.biz are running an article on Kuju's Ian Baverstock conformation that they are moving out of mobile. Not a surprise to anyone in the industry, especially since they previously had sold off their mobile development arm.
Kuju have never had a substantial presence in the mobile market either as a developer or publisher and in the market of 2007 you need to have one of these at least to survuive:
- Great tech
- Extremely low base
- Broad effective distribution WW

I'm not sure Kuju had any of these! but I am sad to see another Brit soft company depart mobile non the less

Infospace woes increase

Mobileindustry.biz is reporting that EMI are suing Infospace for $100M. The pressure is on Infospace are who acquired UK mobile game developer IOMO which is now reported to be for sale again. EMI's claims look serious and could spell serious trouble for the group.

What ever happened to THQ Wireless

I find that I keep asking myself this every time I hear or see their name. Out of the blocks early in to mobile gaming THQ Wireless were in a commanding position and could have easily been up there fighting for the number one slot with EA Mobile.

Then I purchased 3D Marble Madness for a N70 from the Vodafone Live deck last week and found myself wishing I hadn’t of bothered in the first minute. Slow, clunky and downright unplayable, it destroyed my very fond memories of playing this is great game in the Arcades of old.

THQ Wireless if I remember rightly reported a less than 20% increase in T/O on respective Q1 05 & 06 Qtrs while other leading mobile gaming companies were doubling their numbers.

Next, I download 3D Worms from THQ – 3D :-O