Heavyweights to lift mobile gaming to new heights

Over a dozen wireless and mobile gaming industry heavyweights are collaborating on an open gaming architecture in support of "premium quality" native games on mobile phones based on TI's OMAP processors. The key objective is to provide a framework for platform-independent gaming software, according to TI (Texas Instruments).The effort will be "well aligned with related industry standards, like Khronos," according to TI's media relations program manager, Jennifer Anderson.Athough no processor manufacturers other than TI are listed in TI's announcement of the initiative, Anderson says the architecture specification will be "hardware agnostic, and will be publicly available. Therefore, it may be implemented by any silicon vendor."In a press release about the initiative, TI said, "The architecture will be assessed and influenced by an ecosystem of gaming application developers to efficiently and openly support development, testing, and deployment of premium quality games on major high-level operating systems, including Microsoft Windows Mobile, Linux, Symbian OS, and mobile operators' terminal platforms like WIPI GIGA of SK Telecom."In addition to TI, the group's initial members include Activision, Digital Chocolate, Electronic Arts, Ideaworks3D, Konami, Microsoft, MontaVista Software, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, Square Enix, Symbian Limited, and Tao Group.