Mobile Game News 9-12-07
Each week MobileCrunchArcade compiles the biggest news from the world of mobile gaming.
This Week’s Headlines:
Gameloft Dealt In; Greystripe Allows Gamers to Get Hands-On Titles; Pandemonium at Eidos; I-play Plays It Casual, Glu Sticks To Inc 5000
Gameloft Dealt In
“Poker games are a staple in the arena of mobile games and our challenge was to develop the next evolution of them,” said Gonzague de Vallois, vice president of publishing, Gameloft. “With Million Dollar Poker, we have succeeded through integrating Gus Hansen’s strategic genius and input to create one of the most challenging poker games that takes on the player on a mental level.”
Greystripe Allows Gamers to Get Hands-On Titles
These seven games will be available from Greystripe distribution channels including GameJump.com, a free, ad-support mobile gaming portal. “Greystripe has created an economically viable alternative to for-pay mobile game distribution with their AdWRAP distribution solution,” said Erik Pavelka, Vice President of Business Development at Hands-On Mobile. “We have the ability to distribute our games worldwide increasing our reach for our titles.”
We like the idea of free anything, and getting to play these games is a good step forward. But it needs to be seen how the ads affect gameplay. While Electronic Art’s Pogo.com has already offered free ad-supported gaming, numbers suggest many gamers leave as soon as the first round of ads hit. In fact the ad is a good cue that it’s time to get back to work!
Greystripe
Hands-On Mobile
Pandemonium at Eidos
“Pandemonium represents a whole new level of gaming experience on mobile phones,” says Dave Clark, vice president of New Business Development at Eidos “The graphics remain strikingly faithful to the original game on console and, as levels load while you play, gamers will enjoy a seamless gaming experience. This is head and shoulders above what most people imagine when they think of games for the phone.”
If you don’t remember this one, fear not. It was one of the few notable titles on the SEGA Saturn before arriving on the PlayStation 3 and Nokia N-Gage. Hopefully this time the Pandemonium will be a little more memorable, as the game makes its debut on BREW-enabled handsets.
Eidos Mobile
I-play Plays It Casual
In addition to those two titles, this line up of 11 games includes Slinky, a mobile version of the spring, the spring, a wonderful spring; Fish Tycoon, a mobile version of the popular PC game, and Bubble Town, an arcade-styled puzzle game.
“I-play has always been committed to driving the mass-market casual game genre on mobile,” said David Gosen, president of I-play. “The combination with Oberon with their leading position within the online games market provides the ideal opportunity to drive real growth to this vital market sector and demonstrates one of the many synergies being delivered by the linking of the two companies.”
There is no doubt that mobile gaming is going to continue to be big on mobile phones, and it is refreshing to see a continued push with easy to play casual games. While we’re still watching to see hardcore games make headway into the mobile space there is no doubt that playing it casual could be mobile’s best asset.
Glu Sticks To Inc 5000
Just don’t look for Glu to stick to the list for next year. It isn’t that the company is losing its adhesion, it is just that Glu Mobile went public this year, proving that it was indeed a fast growing company. MobileCrunch says congrats Glu.
Inc 5000 profile page on Glu Mobile