AUSTIN, Texas -– Wireless companies have come calling on video-game developers, and the two want to combine the portability of cell phones with the power of virtual worlds to build a new gaming culture.
Simple games have proven to be a large, if not entirely lucrative, industry. While these games are expected to bring in less than $20 million this year, there are over 20 million Java-based games on cell phones in the United States.
Games have become an integral part of mobile culture. Those games, though, will soon be supercharged. On the opening day of the Austin Game Conference, a two-day confab of online game developers, discussions turned to the new spate of handheld devices that combine mobile gaming and cell phone capabilities that will enable people to play full-color, three-dimensional, multiplayer games over cell phone networks.
"Networked gaming is becoming a minimum requirement for every phone that ships," said Chris Lovejoy, Nokia's director of business development.
The future for these mobile, multiplayer worlds begins on Oct. 7 with the release of Nokia's N-Gage: equal parts cell phone, MP3 player and game device.
The device lets users connect with Nokia's Arena network, a centralized database that will eventually allow N-Gage players anywhere in the world to compete against each other.
While the Arena will launch as simply a "high score" clearinghouse, developers are already working on multiplayer components for the mobile phone version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, which will have cooperative functionality allowing two people to play simultaneously.
"This isn't a mass proposition just yet," said Nada Usina, Nokia's general manager for entertainment and media. "You convince the masses over time. We're looking at a very specific market right now, but you can see the (game) developers' minds spinning at the possibilities."
Before multiplayer games flood the market, though, technology platforms called middleware must be developed. This type of application helps route players to different parts of virtual worlds and keeps track of what is happening in the games.
It's no simple task, but Australian developer Micro Forte said Thursday that it would be doing just that. The company dropped $9 million into developing a wireless middleware platform, and another $8 million for an online console game for Microsoft.
The first-person shooter called Citizen Zero will run on Microsoft's Xbox console, and allow people to play online over its Xlive service. Players won't be able to use their phones to access their accounts when the game launches, but the developer hopes its middleware will convince Microsoft to link the game through cell phones, said John DeMargheriti, president of Big World Inc., an Australian holding company.
"We see a scenario where you are playing Citizen Zero, and you're at work but you want to trade items," said De Marchetti. "The most efficient way to do that is through a mobile system."
Mobile phone makers, though, aren't just waiting around for game developers and console makers to get on board. Instead, they are scurrying to transform the next-generation of handsets into multi-use devices.
Sprint PCS released its Game Pad controller, which works with the Samsung A600, adding console-like control to mobile games; and the Sony Ericsson P800 has both a personal digital assistant and mobile game device.
Even screen sizes are changing. Most phones now come with a slightly larger, color screen like the Motorola T720 or the Nokia 3560.
Even with the new super phones, companies have been hard-pressed to create viable business models for online, mobile gaming.
Sprint PCS users pay $15 per month for data delivery services like instant messaging, e-mail and browsing, said Jason Ford, general manager for PCS Sprint Games. That flat fee won't be changing, which makes it hard for publishers and developers to create new revenue streams.
"The idea of having unlimited data transfers isn't going away anytime soon," Ford said. You won't see the prices go up."
The lack of solid revenue models hasn't stopped companies from pushing forward with game development. Sony Online Entertainment, Unplugged Games, and JAMDAT have created multiplayer games for cell phones.
Carriers have also started looking for big licensing agreements, said Eric Goldberg, managing director of Crossover Technologies, a wireless consulting firm. Verizon Wireless, Sprint and AT&T are seeking licenses for big named franchises like Lord of the Rings.
All of these hurdles, though, are leading mobile carriers and video-game developers on a course that will make real and virtual worlds collide. Ultimately, the next generation of mobile games will have to provide people with the ability to not only stay connected with their friends, but also interact with their virtual worlds.
That is the brave, new world of mobile culture. "The phone is morphing into something new, " said Goldberg. "It's quickly becoming a lifestyle device."
