The future is South Korea: Tech firms try out latest in world’s most wired society

March 14th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

Pick up your mobile phone and watch your favorite TV show. At home, on your computer, download a feature-length movie in no time at all. If you live in South Korea, it is an everyday reality to have always-on superfast Internet — broadband — both in your cell phone and in your home. More …

Mobile Gaming Gets the Limelight at GDC

March 14th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

The mobile-videogame industry is showing off the progress it’s made from the antediluvian days of the mid-1990s, when playing Snake on a tiny black-and-white screen was cutting-edge. Thousands of eager developers, savvy entrepreneurs, and avid gamers will descend on the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association meeting in New Orleans next week as both well-established companies and ill-funded startups look for opportunities in the hottest industry going. More …

Wireless Gaming Held Hostage

March 10th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

In order to see the future of the American wireless gaming market, said a presenter at the Game Developers Conference here Tuesday, all one has to do is look at Japan for a preview of the devices and mobile games that will hit the United States in about three years.

The line was a joke, referring to Japan’s traditional leadership on wireless technology, but it had more than just a hint of truth to it. And nowhere is that more clear than at GDC, where two days of panel discussions and presentations have probed the possibilities of wireless gaming. General sessions at the conference begin Wednesday. More …

Crazy Frog turns into a real prince

March 7th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

The huge popularity of ringtones is fuelling rapid growth and consolidation in the mobile-content industry.

Turn on MTV and you would be hard pressed to avoid the first star

Mobile phones seen challenging Sony PSP

March 3rd, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

Mobile phone video games will rival games on mainstream handhelds like the Sony PSP by late 2006, executives of some of the top phone game publishers say.

The cost and complexity of developing such games makes consolidation inevitable, the chief executives of private publishers Sorrent and In-Fusio and top mobile executives of Electronic Arts and the Walt Disney said in a panel discussion at the Reuters Technology Summit. Handhelds like Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS currently far outstrip cell phones in terms of graphics capability and processing power. But before long, those executives said, phones will be equal to the challenge. More …

Game Wars: Who will win your entertainment dollar, Hollywood or Silicon Valley?

February 28th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

This unusual "premiere" had the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood film debut. On Feb. 10, in New York City’s Little Italy, Il Cortile, a restaurant decorated lavishly with faux alabaster statuary, was jammed with journalists, producers, corporate executives, and assorted hangers-on. Actors James Caan and Robert Duvall worked the red carpet, chatted with fawning TV folk, and posed for the paparazzi. The event: a sneak peek at the next installment of The Godfather. More …

Two visions for cell phone games: To brand, or not to brand?

February 24th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

LEADERS COMPETE FOR WHAT MAY BECOME $1.5 BILLION INDUSTRY

Two San Mateo companies are wrestling with that question as they battle to entice people to play video games on their cell phones. Are consumers more likely to be attracted to games associated with titles they’re accustomed to playing or do they want original games designed specifically for the small screen? The winner could take the lead in what is expected to be a $1.5 billion industry in the United States by 2008. More …

Mobile Games: Entrance of Girls and the Advancement of Location

February 23rd, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

Amid the usual onslaught of big brands, sequels and movie tie-ins, mobile game developers brought a few interesting concepts to this year’s show. There is, for example, a growing recognition that girls own phones and might be interested in downloading games.

US company Mforma revealed Little Miss Naughty, a cute, highly stylised platform game based around the Mr Men characters, which looked quaintly out of place next to the company’s generous line-up of Marvel titles – Blade Trinity, Elektra, Fantastic Four and Ultimate Spider-Man are all out this year. More …

Calling all gamers: Mobile gaming matures from a time killer to a killer app

February 17th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

In the mid-1990s, a cell phone game meant one thing