Mobile phone gaming - the next big thing?

Written by Ryan Garside

September 13, 2006 | 11:51

Tags: #content #distribution #new #phone #s60 #service

Companies: #ea #games #nokia

A lot of people turn their nose up at mobile phone games, believing them to be simple, poorly made and from the same evil people that brought us Crazy Frog. Perhaps all that is about to change though, with games publishing heavyweight EA teaming up with Nokia to deliver mobile gaming content.

The initial seven games that will be available are: Tetris, Tetris Mania, The Sims2, Doom, FIFA 06, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 06 and FIFA Street. EA is designing their games specifically for Nokia devices with S60 the phone of choice for gamers in 2007.

Here's what the director of games at Nokia, Jaakko Kaidesoja, had to say:

“Nokia and EA have a common vision regarding the opportunities in mobile games and how to turn them into a reality. When you combine Nokia’s leadership in hardware, usability and software platforms with EA’s brands and quality thresholds, the results will speak for themselves.”

As well as making the games, EA is going the route of iTunes and working with Nokia on creating a fluid distribution service. We've played the EA demo version of Tetris already in the office and have to say it's quite good. EA's hope is that after playing the demo versions of its games on the newest mobile phone handsets, you will be happy to pay a small amount of money to unlock the full game, think Microsoft's Live Arcade service.

What really makes this interesting is the announcement that EA is throwing its weight behind the mobile phone industry. With phones progressing as quickly as PC's, and with companies like EA getting involved making games for them, it might not be long before we all chuck our PSPs and DS Lites in the bin. Whatever the case may be, gone are the good old days of black and white snake, something that I consider to be a sad thing. You can check out EA's mobile phone gaming catalogue here.

Got an opinion on mobile phone gaming? Don't think it will ever take off? Let us know in the forums.
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