Author Archive

How to sell Flash Lite games? Make it Symbian!

September 27th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Platforms: Adobe Flash & Air | 3 Comments »

Thanks go out to the Flash Lite For Mobile Developers Blog to pointing us toward Adobe for releasing their article on converting Flash Lite to a Symbian installers. As we pointed out in our own Flash test, installing a flash app of games is not easy to understand for the consumer as it plays the file after downloading it. This means the consumer has to tell the software to save the file. In our article, we used Mobizines as a background. Mobizines was already installed as a .sis file on our test 6670. Now converting a flash file to a sis file, means you force the device to install the game, but not only that. It allows you to sell it on all Symbian supporting sales channels.

Still even though this sounds good, there are two main problems. The first you encounter is that only the latest N-Series devices support Flash when coming from Nokia. The old series 60 do support flash, but only if downloaded by the consumer. A big problem as most consumers don’t know how to obtain it. Also remotely it’s not possible to scan for flash presence. The second one, is the one a lot of developers hoped not to pop up. “Symbian Signed”. Some operators want you to pass on this in order to get on their decks, or even disallow installing unsigned software via their firmware. So suddenly, the Flash Lite developers have certification to run trough.

Digital Orchid buys Blue Tech

September 27th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Digital Orchid, known for their sports apps, has pulled out it’s wallet to acquire Blue Tech, developer of both mobile games and applications. The deal boosts Digital Orchid’s portfolio as well as distribution network. Digital Orchid now has access to 65 brands.

“By leveraging Blue Tech’s European stronghold and rich technical skills we will be able to further represent our partner brands in the wireless marketplace,” said Daniel Daou, CEO and co-founder of Digital Orchid. “And with Kato Studios’ robust games catalogue, we can provide an all encompassing mobile solution to our brand and carrier partners worldwide.”

“We are thrilled to join the Digital Orchid family,” said Alvarez-Ossorio. “Digital Orchid’s advanced technology platform allows us to easily and quickly distribute our gaming products through multiple handsets across multiple regions. By joining forces with Digital Orchid, Blue Tech has gained worldwide reach for our partner products along with access to popular U.S. brands for games development.”

Financial details around the takeover have not been disclosed.

.mobi launchday

September 26th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Other news | No Comments »

Today is celebration time at .mobi where their service just went live. Check out the action at .mobi.

I-Play in Tech Track 100 UK

September 26th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Events & Conferences | No Comments »

Our congratulations today go out to I-Play. They reached the 42nd position in the UK Tech Track 100 for their growth in sales between 2003 and 2005.

David Gosen, CEO of I-play, commented, “Being in the top 100 reflects our hard work and dedication to developing and publishing outstanding content for mobile. Our significant headway out in the States and our growing portfolio of mobile game franchises are major contributors to our success. And most recently a move into mobile video demonstrates another way in which we’re continuously looking at ways to leverage our internal technology and brand relationships to further build revenues.”

Artificial Life turns to Greystripe

September 25th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Ad Funded Gaming | No Comments »

QB pointed us to yet another victory for Greystripe as they signed Artificial Life for their advert gaming service. We wonder when we hear the first studio’s claiming the succes of this service.

ELSPA top 10 May & June

September 25th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Research & Stats | 1 Comment »

There seem to have been some hiccups, but finally both May and June numbers are available. While Tetris is still the overall favorite, Glu is clearly dominating the charts.

June

01 Tetris – EA Mobile
02 Worms – THQ Wireless
03 Sonic The Hedgehog: Part One – Glu
04 FIFA World Cup Germany 2006

Scout Sniper for Abandon

September 25th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | No Comments »

Abandon Mobile has set up a partnership with the US Marine Scout/Sniper Organisation to bring games forward under their name. In return, they have deposit 15% of the sales into the organization.

"Marine snipers are an integral component in keeping our country safe, and we’re honored to be chosen as the developer and publisher behind such a unique title," said Jamie Ottilie, President and COO of Abandon Mobile. "Working with The US Marine Scout/Sniper Association helps ensure that not only is our game true-to-life, but also benefiting a great cause in supporting troops both at home and overseas."

The situation where a game is licensed from a US government body is not abnormal. We have seen it before with S.W.A.T. Sniper from InfoSpace and later the S.W.A.T. games from Vivendi Mobile.

Blog frontpage problems

September 22nd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Other news | 2 Comments »

Since yesterday the blog faced some problems with the frontpage not showing up. It’s fixed now, so we are happy to see you all back at the blog and the open discussion.

Keith McCurdy makes a quick jump to COO

September 22nd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in People | 3 Comments »

Having joined Hands-On only recently as president of studios and products at Hands-On, Keith already made the jump to COO within the company. Keith will now be responsible for North-American operator sales, marketing and business development.

Jacob M?ller in Denmark’s top 10

September 22nd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

Our congratulations this morning go out to Jacob M?ller who has been announced to be in Denmark’s top 10 of most important entrepreneurs. The top ten list is created on an annual basis by Danish business magazine Berlingske Tidende. Jacob, who started his company Kiloo at age 19 in 2000, commented the following;

“I am delighted to be chosen as one of the top ten entrepreneurs in Denmark” says Jacob. “It means a great deal to me to be recognized in this way. The mobile entertainment sector is still a young market in many ways and to have a magazine of Berlingske’s reputation pick someone in such an emerging area shows the potential of the industry globally. Kiloo has achieved a great deal since it was founded and we plan to build on our past success. We have a great many new partnerships, deals and games to announce in the near future which will ensure Kiloo remains on the cutting edge of mobile entertainment for a long time to come.”

Kiloo hit a number of milestones like creating the first ‘Nokia OK’ game and winning the Nokia Mobile Challenge in 2002 with Popstar. Kiloo was also one of the first companies to produce branded games when they started of with their Hugo series. Later on, Kiloo created games under the licenses of the Happy Tree Friends and Lego.