Author Archive

Utilizing the handset as a tool for real life games

August 14th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | 3 Comments »

Recently Frank Lantz has written an article in the 16th edition of Vodafone Receiver in regards to what he calls Big Games. The article is really interesting for studio’s which are thinking about projects like pervasive multiplayer gaming. On the other hand, it’s also just a nice article to spend some time on to read. Some examples of games discussed are the famous ones like ConQwest and PacManhattan.

Signing off for a week

August 4th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Other news | No Comments »

Due to holidays, I will be off for a week. Make sure you have us bookmarked in your browser or RSS reader. Subscribing to the mailinglist using the form on the right is also a possibility. We are back the 14th of August!

Flash Lite, our own experience

August 4th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Platforms: Adobe Flash & Air | 2 Comments »

Flash Lite rocks! So that for starters. We went over the post from AllAboutSymbian with a 6670 from Nokia. Cheap as we are, we used the Mobizines shortcut to get hold of the player which was no problem from outsid the UK except for the fact that the online form was not working for our number formatting.

The installing of the flash player took some time, but went flawless. Using a test OTA platform developed, we fired off three swf files from the example archive of AllAboutSymbian. We noticed that it’s confusing for the user that after downloading the app fires up directly. The user needs to select options?save by himself or after closing down, he or she will not own the actual download. As a general rule, left softbutton is options and right softbutton is used to close the app. Not all apps in the example notify the user about that which is confusing as well. So game and app designers should do this in general. Another problem we see is the fact that the files seem not to be protected at all. We can just BT and E-mail them all over the place without any problem.

So this new technology faces a couple of problems. First, no intuitive way of installing. No use of softbuttons unless you create a .sis wrapper idea like Mobizines which is a disaster for game designers. No decent protection for your file and finally a market that will probably be swamped by homebrew projects.

So even though we are really happy about Flash and the way it all looks, we see the market will need to survive a lot of the problems associated with this new technology.

Entering Flash Lite development? Read this!

August 4th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Platforms: Adobe Flash & Air | No Comments »

All About Symbian released an extensive post on how Flash Lite works for the user of a series 60 device. It’s still a pretty horrible job to get flash files on the device we think. However Symbian’s S60 3rd edition comes packed with flash (finally), so it’s good lecture. The development side itself is not handled, but the post does feature handy links.

O2 and Puzzler to deliver cheap puzzle games

August 4th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Games | 1 Comment »

O2 and Puzzler have agreed to set up a dedicated portal to service UK clients with the most popular puzzle formats available like SuDuKo, KaKuRo and crosswords. The dedicated channel will also allow people to form puzzle groups and compete for prizes. Playing puzzles will cost 50p a time. Currently there are 1.000 puzzles available online and new ones will be added on a daily basis. "With [Puzzler Media’s] expert help we have broadened our popular mobile entertainment services to include a fun and intriguing selection of mobile puzzles that should speak to a wide audience amongst O2’s 16m customers." Said Anthony Douglas, head of games at )2 UK. "The Puzzler Portal on O2 Active is the new go-to destination for mobile puzzles — the puzzles are fun, easy to access and play, and provide hours of entertainment." Said Neil O’Brien, Business developer at Puzzler Media. Puzzler Media currently is publishing more then 50 titles.

The pressrelease didn’t mention if the puzzle games are regular games or wap games. Something that would be interesting to know in their pricelevel.

Tubbs goes global with Player X

August 3rd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | No Comments »

Player X announced their release of Miami Vice in the US late last month. Player X plans to release the game also in other territories, riding on the marketing wave that will be created by the movie that is coming. Previously, Infospace released a game based on Miami Vice in 2005. “We are thrilled with Player X’s ability to achieve ubiquitous deployment of Miami Vice mobile content and that fans of this film worldwide will have an opportunity to engage a piece of Miami Vice’s dangerous and alluring world on their handsets” said Jeremy Laws, vice president of Universal Mobile Entertainment. “Miami Vice is one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer and we believe the mobile game will further enthral a global audience,” said Tony Pearce, Player X CEO. To support the game, Player X released a dedicated website at www.miami-vice.the-mobile-game.com. With such a url, we are happy that it’s not a wapsite 🙂

Infospace to do Activision

August 3rd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | No Comments »

Infospace announced a deal with Activision to publish and distribute their licenses. The deal includes titles like Tony Hawk. This is an interesting move since HandsOn and Jamdat have also been distributing Activision titles in the past.

Face-off: Ozura vs. Eidos

August 3rd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | No Comments »

Ozura‘s newest game might be taken to a whole new level as Eidos might interfere with it. Ozura recently announced their newest epic action adventure starring Lava Kroft, a girl that’s all about adventure. Now the parents of Lara Croft are upset (as was to be expected). So Eidos is now investigating how to handle the almost infringement of their copyright. "The game first came to our attention yesterday evening," a spokesperson said. "We have contacted our legal department and brand team who are currently investigating the matter." With many games in this world having names similar to originals, this might be a case that shakes up the whole market. We’re curious about the results as are you probably

EA Mobile from $ 1 million to 33 million in a year

August 2nd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »

EA announced stunning figures as their revenue climbed from Q2 2005 at $ 1 million to $ 33 million in Q2 2006. Of course when you count the fact that a year ago they didn’t own Jamdat yet, it’s simple to explain. Q1 2006 brought $ 15 million in revenue, but Jamdat’s revenue was accounted only for half of the quarter. Mobile accounts for 8% of the total EA revenue.

Ed Lang from SE to Playboy Mobile

August 2nd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in People | No Comments »

MoCoNews today announced the move of Ed Lang from Sony Mobile to Playboy Mobile. Ed’s task will be to improve business as Playboy has a hard time getting well positioned into the US market. MoCoNews suggests a possible D2C move.