Atari: Mobile Civilization III coming

August 17th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Games | No Comments »

Atari licenses the PC strategy game to Korea-based Com2uS, which will release the game worldwide.

Atari today announced that it has licensed Civilization III to Com2uS, a Korea-based mobile games developer. Under the three-year licensing deal, the company will create mobile games based on the PC strategy game for all major mobile devices and providers worldwide. More ..

Cell phone gaming gathers momentum

August 17th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Other news | No Comments »

Wireless gaming is a match made in venture capital heaven: The mobile carriers need new ways to hold on to its customers; the gamers need ways to find new ones. Small wonder, then, that financing is flooding in to the handful of companies looking to become the Electronic Arts of the wireless gaming market. More …

THQ Wireless Unleashes a Triple Threat of Racing Games With MotoGP 2, MX Unleashed and Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild

August 13th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Games | No Comments »

THQ Wireless Inc. today announced MotoGP 2, MX Unleashed, and Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild for mobile devices. The games will be available for download from leading carriers worldwide.

All three games are based on best-selling and critically-acclaimed console titles from THQ. MotoGP 2 is the sequel to the award-winning wireless game that has been played by millions worldwide. These games offer amazing graphics and intense gameplay to racing fans and gamers alike.

“The excitement of racing in all three games proves that it’s possible to deliver quality and depth in the wireless environment,” said Tim Walsh, president of THQ Wireless. “These games will satisfy the need for speed racing action, a variety of challenging water and terrain courses, full sound effects and realistic handling that require both skill and fast reaction.” More …

Fox: Alien vs Predator Go Wireless

August 13th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Games | 1 Comment »

Twentieth Century Fox is teaming up with the nation’s leading wireless carriers to create an ambitious and innovative wireless campaign for the studio’s highly anticipated ALIEN VS. PREDATOR.

All of the major U.S. carriers are joining Fox to bring users an unprecedented amount of content, promotions, and contests in the far-reaching campaign. By texting “AVP” to 20369 (20FOX), people can access the following: More …

Summer Games Madness: Four track & field games land on handsets in time for Athens.

August 13th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Games | No Comments »

This Friday, the entire world will be watching as the 2004 Summer Olympics gets underway in Athens, Greece. And because no piece of consumable entertainment — either movie, television show, or sporting event — can call itself complete without a video game, three major wireless publishers have released a series of track and field handset games to capitalize on the sport’s heightened awareness. Olympic fever — catch it! Then spend money on it! More …

Digital Chocolate secures new funding, again

August 12th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

Mobile developer Digital Chocolate, the company of industry veteran Trip Hawkins and co founded by EA, has raised a new $13 million in funds by issuing shares of Series B convertible preferred stock to 23 investors according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

This will be the third time the company has made such an endeavor, with the company already having raised $8.4 million in December of 2003. Found here…

Elkware: The biggest stars and most beautiful celebrities will be going mobile

August 10th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »

The biggest stars and most beautiful celebrities will be going mobile as elkware GmbH, Europe’s leading mobile games developer, today announced an agreement with the marketing company iModel Music, enabling elkware to globally publish mobile games with a host of celebrities, effective immediately.

elkware is launching a dedicated new range entitled “CellEb”, combining “celebrity” and “cell phone.” The “CellEb” games’ glamorous design will appeal to a wide range of consumers, in particular the fans of the celebrities concerned. The games are easy to understand and easy to play through their simple controls, optimised for mobile phones. More …

Sony Ericsson web game challenge

August 10th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Games | No Comments »

Here’s one more reason to surf through the Sony Ericsson website (www.sonyericsson.com). The company has launched the Sony Ericsson Game Developers Challenge 2004 in a special campaign website where anybody can pick a game, play to their hearts’ content and vote if the game rocks or flops. Sony Ericsson will then pick the winners to be featured in phone models like the new K700i, which features a powerful application for enjoying cutting-edge graphics and multiplayer games. More …

Mobile Casino Software on the Go

August 10th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Games | No Comments »

Betting has always been a popular activity. People bet on sports, lotto, at online casinos and even online. The latest form of electronic gambling to hit the market is mobile betting for your cel phone or hand held unit. Seeing how popular cellular phones are, it was only a matter of time before someone put two and two together and came up with the idea of mobile online casino software you can play on the go. Now wherever you go, if you have a mobile phone or a pocket PC, you can bring an electronic casino along with you for the ride almost like online casino. More …

Ashu Mathura on mobile advergaming; free games anyone?

August 9th, 2004 by Ashu Mathura Posted in Ad Funded Gaming, Analysis & Editorial | 6 Comments »

Can we convince consumers to pay money for advertisement driven games?

The business of video games for mobile phones must be one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries in the world today. New phones are hitting the shelves faster and faster. Phones are becoming more and more powerful by the month. Innovative technologies like 3D and multiplayer games are pushed into the hands of end consumers. Mobile game development studios are working on steroids to develop better, bigger and more complex video games (and yes, we at Overloaded are very proud that our latest game “Xyanide” has received The Mobile Gaming Award: “This is one of the best games for mobile phones so far” by Midlet Review). But in the midst of this all a new trend is emerging; free mobile video games.

In today’s world end consumers are bombarded with hundreds of marketing messages each hour. Finding ways to connect to end consumers and create awareness is becoming increasingly critical and more difficult for high profile brands like Coca-Cola, Suzuki, BMW and Heineken. Traditional mass marketing (TV / radio / print) campaigns seem to have less effect every year and consumer preferences are even more difficult to predict and influence.

Clever brand marketers are finding in mobile games a new way to reach the young people who are ever more stubbornly ignoring their sales pitches. As more consumers have game capable mobile phones, the potential for advergaming and thus free sponsored games is huge.

For brand marketers there could be a number of good reasons to deploy a sponsored mobile game. First and most obvious is to create awareness for a brand. Second is to introduce a (new) product or service in a way that involves and entertains the consumer and interacts with the actual product. Third is to educate consumers in an entertaining way about the product features and way of usage. Any combination of these reasons is also possible.

Creating awareness for a brand sounds easier than it actually is. Consumers are not easily fooled and today it is simply not enough to recreate Frogger or Pac-Man and simply put your logo on top of it. Coca-Cola for example is by no means linked to Tetris or Arkanoid and consumers will simply have a negative experience if brands chose to do so. Creativity and understanding the brand values become very relevant skills for game development studios to understand and apply.

Currently many mobile games released are focused on console gamers or at least are inspired on console games. Think about the Ubisoft, Atari, Sega, Namco, Capcom and Microsoft games that are heavily pushed by operators worldwide. In contrast, brand marketers are focussing on the casual gamers instead. Casual gamers tend to like games that are quick to learn and have a relative short playtime per game, typical 5

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