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

AJAX on Mobile to replace J2ME

There is a great artice here on AJAX replacing J2ME. I have been thinking about AJAX on mobile for quite a while so its good to see others on the same wavelength. AJAX on mobile makes sence, especially if the carriers offer flat data plans then this is one possible future for the low end of mobile games.

Mobile Platforms and Execution Enviroments

For those people who don’t yet know the world beyond J2ME (JAVE) or realise mobiles have OS (or an RTOS for that matter) then take a look at this mobile platform execution environment overview at Packet Gamer http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Mobile/feature.asp?c=1266

 

They missed out Linux for Mobile, you can find that here: http://www.linuxdevices.com. Anyways, it’s a great intro and if you want my opinion skip J2ME and focus on native environments like Symbain, BREW, WinMob and Linux.

Mobile data a big turn-off for consumers

I caught this article (http://www.telecomtv.com/news.asp?cd_id=7052&url=news.asp?cd_id=7052)  earlier and have to say that I am in full agreement after being badly burnt on mobile data in the past.

 

2004 at 3GSM in cold and windy Cannes I used mobile data for three days, on receiving my next bill I was shocked to see my bill had a data charge in the £100’s of pounds. Even though I had a 15mb data plan this did not apply to my usage in France. Ever since I have avoided mobile data wherever and whenever possible so I can concur with this article.

 

The issue for operators is how to get us “once burned, twice shy” mobile data users back, a seemingly impossible task from a set of companies who cannot to market anything other than calls and txt.

 

Bring on flat data plans please.

News media adding to D2C push

Just read here that NGN are going to be offering highlights and clips from all premiership matches as part of the 3 year deal with BSkyB.

With substantial companies including EA announcing (then later "clarifying") D2C plans along with Infospace and now NGN we could be seeing healthy marketing budget put behind D2C mobile content.

Developing Wireless Content using XHTML Mobile

An interesting and useful article for WAP/XHTML developers
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/04/14/mobile.html

ClamAV first to detect new viruses

Just read this report which is very pleasing as I use ClamAV in preference to other annoying commercial tools. "Electric Mail (http://www.electricmail.com/) recently tested several anti-virus products, and were surprised to find that in 77% of cases, ClamAV were the first to detect new viruses" source: Sourceforge.net

Vivendi Universal Games goes Mobile

Vivendi Universal Games has created a dedicated mobile gaming section and plans to launch 5 titles based around its franchises starting July 05

MocoNews.net: mobile content news

Fantastic review of Need for Speed Underground 2 - Mobile

This review is a testament to quality of the DNA, development and technology
at Ideaworks3D. The final paragraph says it all, "Simply put, mobile gaming
just got a much-needed kick up the evolutionary ladder". Well done guys.

http://www.gamespot.com/mobile/driving/needforspeedunderground/review.html

The Video Game Ombudsman - Journal

http://vgombud.blogspot.com/

Antifactory - the art and science of game design

http://www.antifactory.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl

Antifactory - the art and science of game design

http://www.antifactory.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl

The Video Game Ombudsman - Journal

http://vgombud.blogspot.com/