Mass market appeal essential to future of mobile gaming

February 9th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

MASS MARKET GAMES DOMINATED 2004, TREND SET TO CONTINUE IN 2005

Games with mass market appeal will continue to dominate mobile entertainment downloads in 2005, according to wireless entertainment publisher iFone.
Big name brands from outside the console gaming world have proven to be the most popular downloads for mobile phones over 2004.

Both of the final ELSPA Java download charts of the year were dominated by such titles with Monopoly at number one in November, followed by Tetris in December, each game published by iFone. Other mass market appeal titles, such as Pacman, Trivial Pursuit, Pub Darts and Pub Pool, have continued to consistently enjoy significant positions within the chart over the year, according to data submitted by the five major UK mobile operators. More ….

Mobile phones to turn into golf clubs and toy guns

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

Subway commuters could get more energetic in Japan through a new motion-sensitive mobile telephone equipped with games that will let people on the move practise their golf swings or shoot up monsters.

The local branch of British mobile giant Vodafone on Monday unveiled the V603SH, billed as the first phone in Japan to respond to movements, which will let users perform basic mobile functions through programmed shakes and jerks.
The 142-gram (five-ounce) telephone, developed with Sharp and the Aichi Steel Corporation, can be used as a golf club. Users look back at the screen to see how well they putted. More … More …(2)

Non-Gamers and Casual Gamers Continue to Be the Key to Success in the Mobile Games Market, According to Development Studio, Mr Goodliving.

February 4th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

The company, which saw it’s mobile version of quiz game Trivial Pursuit reach number two in the official UK mobile games chart in November 2004*, has seen downloads soar for games which are not aimed at the traditional ‘console’ gamer.

"The mobile games market has often been treated as simply another games platform," says Juha Ruskola, the managing director of Mr Goodliving. "However all of the evidence we have seen is that this is not the case and simply recreating established videogame genres is not bringing new players into the market." More …

World’s First 3D recognition phone could evolve the user interface

January 20th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

The rapid evolution of the mobile phone took an interesting turn this week when Samsung demonstrated a movement recognition mobile phone, a new technology that could mark a significant point in the evolution of the man-machine interface.

Information input devices for the ever shrinking mobile telephone to date have included several different forms of keypad, touch screen and voice recognition but all have their drawbacks in serving the ever increasing capabilities being packed into new designs by phone designers. More …

Deloitte Identifies Top Trends in the Media Industry for 2005

January 18th, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

– Legal Music Downloads, Embedded Advertising, Customizing Mobile Phones among Key Trends –

Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) industry group today announced its predictions for the media industry in 2005, forecasting that the year ahead will be driven by the public’s desire for more content, more media and more choices — leading to a market that is both larger and more diverse. More …

Games industry squeeze forces staffing layoffs

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

Simian Industries, the developer that created the Beano-town Racing game based on the comic book characters of Beano & Dandy, has laid off two-thirds of its staff and turned to contracting in a bid to deal with the feast and famine economics of the games industry.

Dundee-based Simian has retained a core group of five staff and will now put all its development work out to freelancers. Mark Ettle, the founder of Simian, is acting as a consultant to the business. Observers said the move reflected a trend emerging across Britain as the games sector follows in the footsteps of the film industry by looking for ways to reduce its fixed cost base through various forms of outsourcing. More …

Calling all video gamers

January 1st, 2005 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

In a market once dominated by men, cellular telephone makers find that women are as likely to download video games

Ana Carolina is someone who cell phone companies refer to as the Holy Grail of video gaming. When Carolina, 22, has a few minutes to kill and is not dialing friends or family on her cell phone, she uses it to play video games. "I’ll play when I’m waiting for something, like at the doctor’s or dentist’s office," said Carolina, a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio. "It makes time go by faster." More …

Gaming industry takes off in India

December 28th, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

The numbers are not mind-blowing just yet and the craze is restricted mostly in larger cities in India. Yet if there is one new revolution that is taking Indian youth hostage, it is computer gaming, which is fast emerging as a multi-million dollar business with promises of turning the country into a new creative hub. More …

Mobile games get fancier, more social

December 24th, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

Games tailored for cell phones are increasingly adding community-oriented elements, such as tournaments for top scores, head-to-head combat or chatting with other players. After all, the ubiquitous gadget is meant to connect people.

"The mobile phone is really turning into a social computer," said Trip Hawkins, founder of Digital Chocolate Inc. More …

Mobile moves towards BREW

December 22nd, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

As Ireland’s mobile application developers grow their reputation for excellence and creativity, they will seek new markets and segments to expand into. But something is BREWing.

With over 1 billion people around the world using GSM phones, and with GSM and related technologies like GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) accounting for almost three quarters of the world’s mobile networks, it would seem that application developers would be best served putting all of their eggs into the massive GSM basket. More …