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As they rang in Chinese New Year, James Wong and his
employees had plenty to celebrate.
His fledgling startup, Motile Interactive System, spent
last fall transforming the stuff that mesmerizes gamblers
-- roulette, blackjack, keno, craps -- into interactive
games that can be played on cellular phones. Wong, a
17-year veteran of Nortel Networks, believes these kinds
of mobile games will wow them in Asia. Wong says he
has already lined up a well-connected partner who will
try to root out interest in his product in China, with
its 269 million cellphone users.
Until recently, Motile's labours existed only as an
emulation on company computers. But after Wong's workers
got their hands on a long-awaited cutting-edge Nokia
6600 handset, it took just a day to move their technology
from an emulation to a reality that Wong was keen to
show off.
Moving the phone's tiny joystick and clicking its keys,
Motile's president and chief operating officer placed
a bet. With another click, Wong ordered the server in
the room next door at Motile's office to spin the virtual
roulette wheel shown on his phone's screen.
He looked up from the phone and smiled. "I won." The
server added credits to his balance. "It's not fixed,"
he assured.
"Now people can bet anywhere," Wong bragged. He envisions
casinos in Macao -- or anywhere in Canada, for that
matter -- offering clientele the chance to gamble anywhere,
anytime, legal issues notwithstanding. Cellphone carriers
too could woo customers with no-stakes versions of the
games.
"At the end of the day, we're going to help them sell
more phones."
Around the world, at companies large and small that
have pegged their livelihoods on mobile gaming, this
kind of optimism practically bubbles over.
While skeptics think twice, disparaging the limited
computing power of mobile gadgets and their tiny screens,
mobile gaming's supporters remain certain that they
are in the right place at the right time, creating entertainment
technology's next big thing.
Mobile games, of course, are not new. What's new is
that they have improved radically. In their rudimentary
forms, mobile games debuted when carriers first streamed
data to cellphones on the so-called "wireless
Internet." Bell Mobility, for example, offered text-only
trivia games in 2000. By the end of 2001, wireless gaming
was Bell Mobility's most popular data service, outshining
retrievals of stock quotations and e-mail, says Ken
Truffen, Bell Mobility's director of business development
and data marketing.
Cellular technology
has since advanced, from wireless application protocol
(WAP) phones to graphics-friendly, colour-screen devices
that use the Java programming language. "That's a huge
turning point in the wireless gaming industry," Truffen
says. "It's like going from DOS to Windows." Bell Mobility
offers 70 mobile games for between $3 and $7 each, downloaded
over the air.
With the spread of Java phones in North America last
year, the continent has begun to catch up with the global
interest in mobile games, ranging from branded, miniature
versions of console favourites such as Sega Monkeyball
and Cyber Tiger Woods Golf to digital Backgammon and
Reversi. In Canada, three of the four cellular carriers
-- all but Fido -- have launched Java phones. Alex Thabet,
vice-president of business development at the Montreal-based
mobile gaming company Jamdat Mobile (Canada), estimates
the number of Java phones in Canadian users' hands will
rise to two million at the end of 2004 from 400,000
a month ago.
As if they were trying to out-do one another, research
firms have issued rosy forecasts, fostering mobile-gaming
cheer. Sharp rises in revenues are predicted, with Strategy
Analytics, for example, last year estimating wireless
gaming will generate global revenues of more than $7
billion by 2008. Hard to believe? A July 2003 report
by the Research Room pegged global wireless gaming revenue,
including game purchases and traffic revenues, at a
staggering $41.3 billion US.
Manufacturers are on board. Some are designing gear
for hardcore gamers -- devices for gameplay that, by
the way, take phone calls. Last October, Nokia released
its N-Gage game deck in 60 countries and, according
to results released recently, shipments of the device
in 2003 reached more than 600,000 units. Sony is said
to be building a competing gadget, dubbed the "PlayStation
Portable," for release later this year. The Samsung
A600 (also a camera phone) can be accessorized with
a "RadPad" docking station that includes buttons for
shooting and menu access -- all the better for gaming.
With their service plans lean and competitive, carriers
see new profits to be made, especially if they can tap
into the huge "casual gaming" market -- people who,
for example, might not spend hours gaming at their computers,
but might enjoy a game of chess while waiting for the
bus.
"Mobile gaming represents a tremendous revenue growth
area for consumer wireless data services," says Paul
van der Zanden, product manager for games for Rogers
Wireless. In the next few years, as subscribers upgrade
their handsets, the consumer base for mobile gaming
should grow exponentially, van der Zanden foresees.
As devices gain more memory and perform better, there
will be increasingly compelling content, he adds.
Large companies churning out games include Gameloft,
THQ and Jamdat Mobile. For every large operation, there
are scores of smaller firms and independent developers
with big plans such as scoring licences for sexy name-brands
and developing multiplayer interactive games.
Hexacto Games, which has been Jamdat Mobile (Canada)
since May last year, may be the shiniest role model
for Canadian mobile gaming companies. At its spacious
two-storey quarters in Old Montreal, Jamdat is 70 workers
strong and growing. Its parent company in Los Angeles
includes about 50.
Thabet cites one analyst's forecast, which envisions
wireless games generating more revenues in 2007 than
computer gaming does now. "Obviously an optimistic picture,"
he smiles.
He reins himself in. "In 2004 and 2005, we're going
to start seeing important growth," Thabet says. He swells
with optimism -- but look how far it has gotten him
so far.
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