Author Archive

Glu Aiming to Raise $80 Million on IPO

March 12th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

According to Market Watch, Glu has offered 7.3 million shares at 10 to 12 dollars each. With this offering, Glu hopes to create a $ 80 million war chest. Glu will be traded on Nasdaq under the GLUU Symbol.

SilverBirch Studios to Produce Ice Planet Mobile Game

March 9th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | No Comments »

Spaceworks Entertainment and SilverBirch announced to have started the
production of a mobile game related to the Ice Planet HD-TV Sci-Fi
Series that features Michael Ironside.

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GDC: Mobiles Could Out-Wii the Wii

March 9th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | 1 Comment »

Sometimes we think Mike Yuen (and since today also Markus Kassulke) are the only ones fighting for innovation in the industry. At GDC however, Paul Coulton explained a view new visions on how mobile games can improve. WiiSpin launched the short version of it.

Open Discussion: Casual Games Slow Down Innovation and Growth of Mobile Games Market!

March 9th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Open Discussions | 6 Comments »

This morning we received an open letter from Markus Kassulke (you know, the other driving force behind German developer HandyGames) about how Casual games might sound like a great way to sell games to the public, but actually slow down innovation. It’s good reading material and we are curious what you, our readers think. Please leave your replies below!

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Vollee Raises $ 4 Million

March 9th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Israel based 3G mobile games developer Vollee announced to have raised
$ 4 million in its first round of venture capital funding.

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Elite Releases R-Type

March 7th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in New Releases | 1 Comment »

Back in my childhood, there where two great space themed shooters on my consoles. The first was Konami’s evergreen called Nemesis (and also part 2 of course) and the second was R-Type. For those that have spend to much hours behind these games in their past, there is good news as Elite releases R-Type as mobile game.

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GDC: Most Innovative Mobile Game Award

March 7th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Game Awards | No Comments »

TelcoGames reached yet another victory with their SIL mobile game. After winning several awards before, this time they scooped up the Most Innovative Mobile Game Award at GDC. The game was developed by Telcogames owned developer Fathammer. A great summery of the awards night is available at GamesOnDeck.

GDC: Mobile Games: A Strategic Review of the Sector

March 7th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Paul Heydon, managing director at Unity Capital, has held his keynote about the M&A and Fundings in the mobile games market. Amongst other topics, Paul speaks about the expected number of fundings and acquisitions that are about to happen in our market.

GDC: Ten Years of Mobile Gaming!?

March 7th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

You might not expect it, but mobile gaming has been around longer then the six years we have been able to run our J2me, Symbian and other games on consumer handsets. According to GameDaily.biz, it all started out with Snake on the Nokia’s. Personally I doubt however if gaming over SMS wasn’t there first. I remember some huge companies like Riot-E (there is a great must-have documentary on them called "Riot On") that introduced SMS games. Also I’m questioning if Namco was really first with a 3D game. I remember Fantom Overdrive from Overloaded was released around the same time and even featured Bluetooth Multiplayer. Anyway, the QB guys also did a fine live blog for those that like a more QB style minute by minute approach.

Actionscript.it’s Mobile Game Contest 2006 Winners

March 6th, 2007 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Game Awards | No Comments »

Actionscript.it has held their second Mobile Game Contest for developers of J2me and Flash Lite games. Main sponsors for the event wher jamba, O’Reilly’s and Adobe.

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