Author Archive

QB’s Kyle leaves

December 15th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in People | No Comments »

Today we’d like to say goodbye to fellow blogger Kyle from Quicklybored. It was a pleasure reading your work and cooperating to improve the market. Good luck in Israel!

Accounting in mobile games; a big pain

December 14th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

MobileIndustry has an interesting editorial about the problems in accounting for mobile. Even though our business model is much simpler, it seems we can’t avoid making mistakes in reporting. The only thing I miss is an estimation of the average size of unreported downloads.

German Development Awards

December 14th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Game Awards | 2 Comments »

Yesterday, the German development awards where handed out in Essen by G.A.M.E., a society for game developers in Germany. The big winner in mobile was FDG soft’s Bobby Carrot. A bit of an old game, and considering the amount of games from German developers it was even a surprising choice. Nevertheless, congratulations to FDG soft!

Announcement Casual Games Association Europe: West 2007

December 13th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Events & Conferences | No Comments »

The Mobile Games Blog will be present during CGA Europe: West from February 7th till February 9th in Amsterdam (NL) to cover all mobile news coming from the event. If you like to schedule a private meeting with us, please let us know so we can schedule you in between the many sessions during the three day event. More information on the event can be found here and hotels are widely available trough this link.

We would like to thank the guys at the Casual Games Association for providing access to the event and Overloaded and MoConDi for providing travel and accommodation costs.

Edge SDK 2.95 released

December 13th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in 1 | No Comments »

Elements Interactive just released the 2.95 version of their Edge SDK. The Edge SDK is an SDK to help rapidly develop native mobile games for Symbian S60, UIQ, Windows Mobile and similar platforms. In this version, sound support and word wrapping is included. More details in the press release below.

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Digital Chocolate takes on The Sopranos

December 13th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | 1 Comment »

Digital Chocolate and HBO inked down a licensing deal to bring The Sopranos into the world of mobile gaming. For the US, “The Sopranos Bada Bing!” will exclusively launch on Cingular, but in Europe we hope to see it pop up in many more places. The game will be set up to lure the viewer into an interactive experience with all known characters from the cast.

Glu’s first negotiations with Atari successful

December 13th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | 1 Comment »

Glu has successfully extended the range of Atari licenses they received after the acquisition of I-Fone earlier this year. Glu will kick off by releasing Centipede 21st century edition where the classic arcade game will be polished with extra themes and features to extend its playability.

Mobile Game Censorship in China

December 13th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Games | 2 Comments »

Well, Gamasutra seems to be right on the spot with their editorial about mobile game violence as China tightens censorship on mobile content like video and games. All mobile games need to be approved by the government. Full details can be found here.

Will Zed buy Monstermob?

December 13th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

MonsterMob, a channel much like Jamba, is financial problems according to several sources. MocoNews reports the possibility of a takeover by Spanish based Zed, who is currently promoting their mobile games download service on several spots and also active in the UK. The takeover could mean the joint entity will become one of the biggest off portal channels in the UK. If the deal doesn’t pull trough, it will be at least six months before the next possible buyer can be attracted. With the latest developments, I guess it wouldn’t be strange for a company like Swisscom to be interested as well.

Mobile Violence, a problem for the future?

December 13th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Games | No Comments »

Gamastutra has put online an editorial about the growing violence in videogames and the possible effect it might have on the mobile games industry when the level of violence reaches a level of concern to the public or at least the government. Examples are the possible need to have mobile games ESRB of PEGI certified so consumers know the level of violence they are to expect during the game. The editorial is a great piece of reading with a lot of history behind it.