Free mobile game

Source:http://www.intomobile.com

According to the company, the quality of Mippin’s ad-supported games will be as high as those available from any other service, and the advertising does not interrupt the game or affect playability. Ads are inserted when a game is launched and when a user completes a gaming session. Mippin users will be offered a choice of 200 games at a time with the full set rotated to a new selection on a regular basis. The games are accessible to all users without charge through Refresh Mobile’s use of Greystripe’s AdWRAP Catalogue service.

Source:http://www.efytimes.com

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) resurrected its N-Gage games device as a platform for Nseries phones at CTIA last week- now M:Metrics has given us data showing why the handset maker is trying again.

Some 20.1 percent (5.9 million) of Nokia owners played a mobile game in February - behind the 21.4 percent market average. Just 6.2 percent of Nokia owners played a game they had downloaded themselves, versus 8.9 percent across the market. And only 2.7 percent of Nokia owners downloaded a new game, against 3.4 percent more generally.

” Nokia is currently underperforming in the games market today primarily due to the fact that the US market is flooded with low-end, free Nokia phones that came with carrier contracts,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst, M:Metrics. “Today, N-Series devices are still quite expensive and are not widely distributed in carrier channels, resulting in low market adoption.”

It’s a different story for those Nokia handsets running the latest Symbian OS, though -30.8 percent of them played a game, pointing to justification behind the N-Gage strategy.

M:Metrics said 48.4 million people played a mobile game in February (up from 45.2 million the previous year), 20.2 million downloaded a game they had downloaded (up from 18.5 million) and 7.6 million people downloaded a new game (up from 6.8 million)

Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com

Source:http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk

Espoo, Finland — Nokia launched its N-Gage game download service for users of N-series mobile phones around the world, including unlocked N-series “multimedia computer” phones sold in the United States.

Compared to typical downloadable Java games, the N-Gage games deliver “stunning graphics and the capability of true 3-D experiences,” the company said. The games “will be better and able to take advantage of the power these multimedia computers” and are “among the most ambitious graphically rich mobile games ever produced,” the company added.

Depending on the game, some phones will let consumers play in either landscape or portrait mode, and some have other features that deliver a better game-play experience, Nokia said. The Nokia N81, for example, features dedicated games buttons, as will the N96 due in the third quarter.

All games can be downloaded over the air directly to the cellphone, or can be downloaded to a PC for side loading to the phone.

Compatible phones available in the United States, all based on the Symbian Series 60 OS, are the N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 and N95 8GB. They are available in Nokia flagship stores, wireless retailers and online stores, including Amazon.com, Walmart.com, LetsTalk.com, BestBuy.com, TigerDirect.com, Dell.com, Gateway.com and PCMall.com. N-Gage games, however, are only sold through Nokia’s www.n-gage.com.

The service launched with six games, with seven more to follow “closely,” the company said. All told, Nokia has announced the titles of more than 30 N-Gage made-for-mobile games that will be available for the service, which includes exclusive games and games from such game publishers as Electronic Arts and Gameloft. Nokia also produces games for the platform.

To play N-Gage games, users must first wirelessly download the free N-Gage application from www.n-gage.com . After a free trial of a downloaded game, consumers can buy the game outright or buy a license for a day of use at $2.99 or for a week at $6.99. Purchased games cost $9.49 to $13.49.

The first set of games includes EA Sports FIFA 08 by EA Mobile, Brain Challenge and Asphalt 3: Street Rules by Gameloft, and World Series of Poker Pro Challenge by Glu Mobile. Other titles on the way include THQ Wireless’s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Worms World Party.

Source:http://www.twice.com

Source:http://internetcommunications.tmcnet.com

Source:http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk

Well, I say AOL is, actually, it has just used it sizeable bank roll to buy two companies that will do all the legwork for it. The first was Third Screen Media, which will be dealing with arranging banner ads to bring in the dosh, and allow you to play for free, and the recently acquired Cellufun will be offering its mobile games for your enjoyment.

Social networking is playing a key role in this. Casual gaming is all well and good, but combine it with a social networking group and you have the recipe for instant viral success. Well, as long as the games are actually any good.

Cellufun’s catalogue is already pretty extensive and some titles have won themselves some awards. One of the more intriguing social gaming titles is ‘Call of the Pharoah’, which appears to be fun way of running a pyramid scheme, but without all the pesky business of duping people out of real money.

Then there’s ‘Mobile Ring’ which is basically a boxing game featuring current US political candidates. It’s so zeitgeisty. It’s USP is that fact that player scores and the real life performance of said candidates actually affects their in-game performance. Clever, eh?

I’m deeply sceptical about mobile phone games at the best of times, but this could yield some interesting results. Cellufun has the chance to come up with some very interesting ideas with its new financial backing, and rapidly evolving mobile phone technology can’t hurt either. It isn’t clear whether AOL plans to roll out the same ad-supported scheme outside the US yet, but will the hype around mobile gaming, social gaming networks like those on Facebook and ad-supported gaming, someone is going to jump in sooner or later.

Source:http://techdigest.tv

“With smartphones becoming everyday devices, we are excited to offer the fun, and high quality of EA Mobile games to a growing and important worldwide market,” commented Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile.

“Offering top titles for the most popular smartphones, and our recent announcement that we will develop for the iPhone, reflect our focus and commitment to emerging platforms and markets.”

It definitely is a growing market and one that remains untapped by a large number of companies. Think about how much money could be produced from a market that pays $8.95 for games you can play for free on your computer.

“Mobile convergence has arrived and EA Mobile is taking it by storm by bringing its top-selling branded games to Symbian OS,” said Jerry Panagrossi, VP and general manager of North American Operations for Symbian.

“With shipments of Symbian smartphones reaching over 200 million to date and consistent year-over-year growth, the commercial opportunity for providing compelling content is clear. We look forward to collaborating further with EA Mobile on bringing many more leading game titles to Symbian smartphones around the globe,” he said.

I’ve had an increasing interest in mobile and casual games, so I’m eager to see how a title like The Sims is handled. And, even more than that, is how EA will treat microtransactions on smartphones, or if that’s something that isn’t in the cards quite yet.

Source:http://news.filefront.com

Cellufun’s games are free to play, and are funded by ad views from its 5 million unique visitors. Games such as Mobile Ring, a political boxing game, are regularly updated by players’ feedback and current events. Others, like Call of the Pharaoh, are socially-based, using a “pyramid scheme” to draw in new players.

Cellufun’s approach in using WAPs is to bypass the mobile carriers such as AT&T and Verizon, which influence users’ access to games for mobile phones through product hosting and placement.

Generally when mobile customers buy cellphone games, they do so by accessing their carrier’s games channel, instead of seeking out free WAPs with downloadable cellphone games. The phone companies are then able to determine which games receive the highest visibility, significantly affecting sales.

The partnership between AOL and Cellufun may give wireless gamers more options when it comes to downloading games onto their phones. AOL’s Games page will be accessible by directing your cellphone browser to wap.aol.com/games, and Cellufun’s WAP site can be found at wap.cellufun.com.

Source:http://www.1up.com