It has been quite obvious for some time that gaming on the move (or at least- portable gaming) is big business - ever since Nintendo released it's first Game Boy in 1989. By 2000, 100 million Game Boys had shipped, and obviously other players were itching to get into the market.
The result has been a slew of new portable gaming devices - the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS (or Micro) form the avant garde of portable gaming devices today; while the way is littered with various failed devices ...
It has been quite obvious for some time that gaming on the move (or at least- portable gaming) is big business - ever since Nintendo released it's first Game Boy in 1989. By 2000, 100 million Game Boys had shipped, and obviously other players were itching to get into the market.
The result has been a slew of new portable gaming devices - the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS (or Micro) form the avant garde of portable gaming devices today; while the way is littered with various failed devices such as the Tapwave Zodiac, Sega Game Gear (though I had one), and probably the Gizmondo (which is not so much a failed device as an apparent non-starter).
However, in many ways the significant failure has been the Nokia N-Gage - derided upon arrival because of strange "features"; like sidetalking... While not an absolute failure in terms of numbers, having shipped a total of more than 1 million units - decent for a phone; the N-gage has failed to gain the sort of mindshare of the more dominant devices. Nokia's response has been to suggest that it would make more of it's handsets N-Gage capable (although this hasn't happened yet) and a new N-Gage is due to be announced this October 13th.
The real news, however, is the rise of mobile gaming. This is not the sort of gaming which usually appeals to video gamers - it's the sort of game which (companies hope) appeals to a wider market, preferably with ring-tones-esque revenues. (Ring tones have been projected to reach $500 million in revenues in 2005).
Three recent press releases highlight this. The first and second are by EA and Sega. EA has announced it's 2005/2006 mobile lineup, while Sega has developed a site (www.segamobile.com) that lets gamers vote on which Sega titles should become mobile applications. Gamers will be able to use this to suggest new products for their phones, such as the legendary Sonic the Hedgehog. Winners will be turned into mobile applications for 2006.
The third press release is from Nokia, who has announced that it will launch a collection (Blackjack, Dominoes, Backgammon and Shuffleboard) of connected multiplayer casual games for Java enabled handsets.
Of these announcements, EA's is the most boring. Sega has got an angle - presumably after taking the time to vote for the game, people will actually -buy- the game. And setting up a website like www.segamobile.com will also allow a pretty good gauge of actual interest before resources are put into porting.
Nokia has the best idea of what is necessary; quick, easy games which can be completed quickly. SNAPmobile is obviously a data-play to increase operator revenue - as an online gaming community network usage is virtually guaranteed - but as multi-vendor handset support has been guaranteed, it's uncertain what is in it for Nokia...
In any case, the best devices for mobile gaming are probably smartphones. There are a wide variety of games available, and some of these are quite excellent. Indeed, we're current in the process of reviewing a number of games, amongst which Super Miners is a definite win. (and yes, both of the games linked are from Infinite Dreams - they just seem to be the best mobile gaming house on the scene at the moment.)
The biggest news would be if 2006 is the year that people will notice that the Nokia 3230/ 6260/ 6670/ 6680 / 6681/ 6682/ 7610 they already own is a good mobile gaming device.
Update, 01/10/05 : BBC News has just written an article about mobile gaming, which is worth a quick read.
