Company Spotlight #3: Tag Games
September 30th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Interviews | No Comments »
This company spotlight is dedicated to another fresh player in the market called Tag Games. We spoke with Paul Farley, Managing Director (and probably a whole lot more) at the company. When Paul first introduced his company to me, he told a lot about the legacy of it. Naturally, we want to know more;
iPhone to come for sure
September 28th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | 1 Comment »
Rumors are rising again as sources say Apple and Cingular signed an exclusive agreement on the highly anticipated iPhone. The iPhone is a crossover between the iPod and mobile phone. Apple and Motorola worked before on a MP3 targeted phone, the ROKR which was an adapted version of the E398 which could connect to iTunes. Also the ROKR was exclusive to Cingular at the release date. The iPhone is expected to save Apple from the shrinking MP3 player market as more and more people store their MP3’s on their device. If Apple is serious about this market, I wonder how often we see new iPhones turning up and to which design factors Apple will keep it similar to the original iPod design as some consumers might want business versions with full keyboard etc. Well, at least we know we can make games on it!
Disney to unleash their own dogs on the market
September 27th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Brand Licensing | No Comments »
Disney and Bandai signed an agreement to bring their own pet simulation game to the market. Bandai is known for it’s Tamagotchi range of which Disney’s Living Mobile made the mobile version. Disney will use it’s Little Dogs / Kawaii Dogs brand to fight I-Play’s My Dog and Gameloft’s Dogz.
There is a new middleware around the corner
September 27th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | No Comments »
After Infusio’s ExEn and Blaze’s Mophun, a new player enters the market with their technology. Intent’s Gameplayer sits around the OS and allows content in their native language and J2me. Visit their site for more details.
Carnival of the Mobilists #46
September 27th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »
It’s that time again, as Matthew Miller from the Mobile Gadgeteer has done a great job in writing the 46th edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists. For all you who don’t know it, the carnival is an overview of all interesting blog posts about the mobile industry. So it’s not limited to gaming of content alone.
N-Gage titles dropped price
September 27th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »
Titles like Glimmerati and Pathway to glory have dropped in price on Nokia’s official N-Gage site. Nokia reduced prices to the Euro 9.99 price level before, but that was only for game of the month titles. Now all of them are at this price. Please note it’s only for games you download yourself, not the classic retail channel.
QB’s pathway to intelligence
September 27th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »
Our friends at QB have just announced their latest roundup, consisting of brain games. Ever since Nintendo released their brain training games, the mobile industry started creating their own. We’ve seen many fly by, from high quality original gameplay to a collection of Sudoku and Karuko games slapped together. QB picked the most appealing ones and will put them to the test.
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.
Disclaimer:Arjan Olsder is the Vice President of Pixalon Studios. Opinions expressed on this publication do not have to represent those of Pixalon Studios. |
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