Top Ten Mobile Games in UK

This is based on carrier data from 3, O2, Orange,T-Mobile, and Vodafone, and released by ELSPA.
1) Tetris — Jamdat
2) The Sims 2 — EA
3) Pacman — Namco
4) Who Wants To Be A Millionaire — Glu Mobile
5) Block Breaker Deluxe — Gameloft
6) EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 — Iplay
7) Tamagotchi — Living Mobile
8) Midnight Poker — Gameloft
9) New York Nights (Success in the City) — Gameloft
10) 3D Pool — Iplay

Game Makers See Growth Market in Mobile Phones

Growth in the gaming industry may come from a surprising platform: the cell phone. The problem is that it's hard to design compelling and addictive games for use on an instrument with a tiny screen and little memory.

EA Mobile's Mitch Lasky to Deliver Opening Keynote at GDC Mobile 2006

Mitch Lasky, senior vice president of EA Mobile and former chairman and CEO of JAMDAT Mobile, Inc., will deliver a keynote address at GDC Mobile 2006, held during the 20th annual Game Developers Conference (GDC). The two-day event, set for March 20-21 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, Calif., will feature more than 40 lectures, panels, and roundtable sessions that explore What's Next for the mobile gaming industry.

Study Indicates North America Lags In Mobile Gaming

According to a study by research firm Parks Associates, Asia-Pacific countries are ahead of European and North American countries by over two to one in the adoption of mobile phone games. Factors cited as a reason for the lag are the lack of support for 3D multiplayer gaming on mobile handsets, as well as weak PC-to-mobile compatible titles."Leveraging unique characteristics such as always-on connectivity and always-with-you ubiquity is extremely important to the success of mobile gaming," said Parks Associates director of broadband gaming Yuanzhe Cai. "Focusing on brands and franchise licenses alone is not a sustainable model."In the Asia-Pacific countries examined in the report, 28% of consumers played single-player mobile games at least once a week, compared to 13% in Europe and 8% in North America. The incidence of multiplayer mobile games was smaller all around, but Asia-Pacific countries still saw 7% usage compared to 2% in other territories."Cellular operators in North America and Europe are lagging behind their Asia-Pacific counterparts in mobile gaming, but they are starting to increase their focus on this area," said Cai. "Large game publishers such as EA are also reevaluating market opportunities and investing heavily in the space, so with wider deployments of 3G mobile networks and the continued development of feature-rich handsets with gamer-friendly designs, these regions should be able to reduce the international gaming gap."

Sony Could Lose Ground in Gaming Wars With PS3 Delay

A delay could also tilt the battle over the next-generation DVD standard toward the HD DVD format, which enjoys the backing of powerful heavyweights such as Microsoft and Intel. Sony has said its Blu-ray is a superior technology and was designed to work better with high-definition television sets -- which it also produces.

Sona Mobile Aligns with SugarCRM for Wireless CRM

Sona Mobile Holdings, a provider of wireless technologies to the financial services, enterprise, entertainment and gaming markets, announced that it has entered into a strategic joint marketing agreement with SugarCRM to provide wireless customer relationship management functionality to SugarCRM's customers.
The companies said the collaboration will enable SugarCRM, a supplier of commercial open source CRM solutions, to offer companies the ability to enable wireless applications. Sugar Mobile can also be deployed as a carrier-branded product by the large mobile operators and cellular carriers, who want to deploy a mobile CRM solution to their end customers.

Commodore Games For Mobile Phones

Commodore Gaming, the company which is resurrecting the 1980's Commodore C64 home computer brand says that it is preparing to roll-out a line of digital content touch screen MediaTowers in mobile phone and game retailers across Europe during 2006. The plan is to open new channels for delivering digital media content, which can include video, music, games and business applications for mobile phones and handheld devices.
"The mobile games market is set to grow from a €1.7 billion industry in 2005 to almost €7 billion by 2010. Such a rapid evolution in the market will inevitably create opportunities for innovative and responsive companies that are willing to push existing boundaries and bring mobile games to the attention of the mass market at the retail level," explains Bala Keilman, CEO of Commodore Gaming.
"We believe that the revolution in handheld media devices, which includes the new generation of mobile phones will demand a variety of simple, user-friendly ways for consumers to download content. Mobile phones have inherent difficulties in the way content can be searched and discovered by users, and we believe that offering this content in retail stores on a 17" touch screen will help educate and encourage consumers to try mobile games as well as other types of content."
The slim line, brushed aluminium MediaTower will enable consumers to download mobile games directly to their mobile phones via Bluetooth, media cards or USB. "The retail channel has the potential to accelerate the growth of the mobile games market and signing this deal with Telcogames means we will be able to deliver an extensive catalogue of quality content in what we hope will be a long-term and mutually beneficial partnership," stated Bala Keilman.