LOS ANGELES-Last week was a big one for wireless gaming enthusiasts, with dozens of announcements hitting the wires in conjunction with the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. A variety of companies, both large and small, announced their wireless gaming plans to take advantage of a potentially explosive market.
Nokia Corp., drink maker Pepsi, Sun Microsystems Inc. and others announced wireless gaming activities. According to research company the Yankee Group, today’s video game industry-which includes arcades, PCs and online games-totals $11 billion, and with the proliferation of wireless phones the potential for wireless gaming profit is significant.
“The key question is clearly not whether games are a major application for the mobile environment, but whether they can be leveraged to be an important revenue generator,” said Knox Bricken, an analyst for the Yankee Group’s wireless/mobile services research and consulting practice. “The Yankee Group believes that wireless entertainment offers an excellent opportunity for carriers to increase subscriber usage levels, reduce churn and enhance the overall user experience for their extremely fickle subscriber base.”
In addition, research company Datamonitor said that 80 percent of all wireless users will play wireless games by 2005-and last week’s announcements provide extra proof of that number.
Perhaps the most important announcement for the wireless industry came from Nokia Corp., which restated its plans to flesh out its gaming offerings.
“Mobile games are bringing an entirely new dimension to the games arena, providing people with the freedom to play almost anywhere with almost anyone,” said Ilkka Raiskinen, vice president of mobile applications and services for Nokia Mobile Phones. “We look forward to continue working with the games developer community to bring exciting entertainment content to mobile users.”
In line with its statements, Nokia announced partnerships with a variety of gaming companies, including Supedo, iomo, Kuju Entertainment and Morpheme. Nokia also said it partnered with Loki Software to design Linux games for the Nokia Media Terminal, an “infotainment” device scheduled for a Fall release in Europe.
Other announcements involved gaming company nGames and Viacom Consumer Products for games based on popular motion pictures; a partnership between Jamdat Mobile and Sun Microsystems; a deal between Small Planet and Pepsi for wireless games in conjunction with Pepsi’s Pepsi Foot summer football campaign; and wireless entertainment company G-cluster’s intent to create selected wireless networks in Finland and the United States for dedicated gaming enthusiasts.
