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.

Tao Breaks Through to the Next Level of Mobile Gaming With Intent GamePlayer

Tao Group announces availability of the intent(R) GamePlayer, a high-performance, portable platform that delivers console-quality gaming to mobile devices. With native-level performance, in a portable format, the intent GamePlayer has the power to unify the fragmented mobile device market and create a compelling revenue opportunity for major developers, content owners and service providers alike.
The opportunity for mobile gaming is enormous, with the total market value predicted to exceed $18 billion by 2009 (BBC Online). However, to date there has been a scarcity of premier 3D content because the economics have not supported its development. The handset market is fragmented with thousands of variations in technology. Java has provided a cross-platform option with which to address the market, but it does not deliver an experience on a par with today's consoles. Developing games for a specific combination of hardware and software offers greater performance, but is time consuming and costly.
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With binary portability, the intent GamePlayer offers true 'write once, run anywhere' capabilities across each class of hardware and across any underlying operating system. And it unlocks the native performance capabilities of the smartphone to deliver a compelling 3D experience that for the first time is competitive with dedicated gaming devices.
"Tao has the only credible path to native 3D gaming performance with full portability, ," commented Ray Burgess, chief executive of Tao Group. "Premier games content written in native code can be ported to the player in days, rather than months, and this binary becomes portable across all comparably equipped devices enabled with the intent game player! The opportunity for game developers and network operators is tremendous."
Tao's announcement follows the creation in January of a new open standards working group for mobile gaming, the OpenKODE (Khronos Open Development Environment) initiative, of which Tao is fully supportive.
Tao will be demonstrating the intent GamePlayer at 3GSM Barcelona, 13-16 February. Discover more at the Tao Roadshow, directly outside the main halls, locations AV20-25.

India's great gaming market

Hit the throttle and rev up your engine so that you can zip past the decorated Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher on the racing tracks of Monte Carlo and hit the winning post.
Or get into the mind of a serial killer so that you can prevent him from taking his next gruesome step. If you are cricket crazy, here is your chance to bat like Virender Sehwag and get your opponents on the backfoot.
Don't worry, this is not your date with Superman. Welcome to the joys of gaming -- a phenomenon that has caught the fancy of consumers across the globe and has already transformed itself into a multi-billion dollar industry. Now, spurred by the mobile revolution, it's making a quiet and slightly tentative entry into our lives.
It might be a small market. But daring young entrepreneurs are leveraging the country's software powers to set up gaming software companies with products targeted at the local market. And mobile as well as PC companies are jumping onto the gaming bandwagon after seeing the revenue potential and market.
Mumbai-based Paradox Studios is launching a new game every four months and has over 100-odd titles on offer. It is now developing 3D wireless location-based gaming for the next generation of mobile handsets.
Indiagames, which began by making games entirely for the export market, now has over 25 per cent of its products targeted specifically at Indian audiences. Says Vishal Gondal, CEO, Indiagames: "Out of 10 games we make, two are hits but that is enough to make money. I think the market has grown 10 times in one year."