Mobile Phone Games World

The Myth about Mobile Gaming report on a survey from Glu Mobile that phone games are most popular in the 16 -24 age group.

Actuallly this does not surprise me at all. Games (other than snake) are relitively new on cell phones - early adopters of mobiles will now be more into the PDA ./ camera type applications and if they are hard core gamers will have (and be able to afford) a dedicate game device.

The 16 - 24 age group have less disposable income so phone games are affordable and the latest phone is becoming more and more a status symbol, so they are not lookng for the dedicated portable console.

No new N-Gage until 2007 due to poor sales to date.

As the N-Gage has failed to come close to Nokia’s hoped for 6 million unit sales, further development plans seem to be on hold, with Nokia concentrating instead on mobile music and mobile tv.

With the N-Gage technology being incorporated into Series 60 phones, game development shouldn’t suffer, and there is no indication that the current model will be discontinued.

Previously announced as Space Shooter, this MMOG will allow gamers to form alliances with other players, to outwit the alien enemy, rather than playing against themselves.

There will be a live moderator, coordinating the action and providing updates on attacks and suggestions on the direction of the game.

The game is expected Q1 2006.

Nokia have released a downloadable demo of ONE, the 3D fighting game for the n-gage at n-gage.com :

The demo will allow gamers a taste of the title without giving away all of its secrets. With access to two locations (New York and Hong Kong) they can try out a selection of fighting moves against seven enemies in single player mode.

M:Metrics report that, in a recent survey, 3% of phone users download a mobile game each month, equating to 5,331,000 downloads. This compares with 15,669,000 downloaded ringtones (8.7%) and nearly 58 million who use text messaging.

Search technology comes to the camera phone by way of sophisticated image recognition techniques, which would allow advertisers to interact with their intended audience.

By having their intended audience snap a picture of an image in the advert and send it to the advertiser, they can reply with specific content, say a ringtone or mp3 download, or movie trailer.

The potential for Massive Multiplayer Mobile Gaming applications are not difficult to see; create a mobile game around your advertising and you have a self perpetuating viral marketing opportunity.

Can Microsoft Score in Mobile Gaming? Microsoft, who to date have outsourced their mobile games titles to third party developers are lining up to make a significant impact on the phone games market.

Their plans include offering top notch games in their own right, but more importantly by linking mobile content with XBox games.

You can imagine playing chess on your mobile phone — it has a certain look to it — but your opponent is actually on the Xbox and is seeing much more advanced, three-dimensional graphics and sounds.

Taking this a step further, their vision is to extend the playability of XBox and PC games with mobile micro modules. Design a battle unit, or spec up a race car on your phone and then set them in motion in the full game when you get back home.

They have some catching up to do, but no one could argue they don’t have the resources to throw at the task.

Two new games from Nokia hit the shops, both for the N-Gage.

From their press release:

Rifts: Promise of Power allows players to explore the Rifts universe in real time as they venture through the post apocalyptic remains of Germany, North America, Scotland, China and Quebec. During their quests gamers will have the chance to engage in turn based combat against 50 + fearsome enemies using over 100 weapons, spells and psionics

There is a free 6 hour long demo available (not bad value!) .

The second game, X-Men(TM) Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is another action RPG, where you can control teams of Super Heroes and Villains. Both single and multi player game play is incorporated into the game.

Cruise the Caribbean in a bid to save your father from pirates in the lates N-Gage game, out today.

Sail from island to island and do battle on sea and on land, with a wide variety of units, resources and terrains.

There are multiplayer options as well, via Bluetooth or N-Gage arena.

Nokia have announced today the upcoming release of Habbo Islands, a N-Gage game designed to connect the Habbo Hotel Community.

Habbo Islands offers an exotic, fun-filled adventure vacation to both existing Habbo Hotel users as well as people experiencing Habbo for the first time.

There will be twenty adventures set in four environments but unlike the original, online environment, (and unlike the focus of many of the N-Gages other games on multi player environments) this will be a single player affair.

There is certainly a wide existing user base to which this game will appeal and Nokia are no doubt hoping to boost N-Gage sales to a new audience.