Blue Lava Wireless acquired by JAMDAT

Gamesindustry.biz informed that JAMDAT has bought Blue Lava Wireless. They have paid a hefty price of 137 million USD in cash and in stock. In the core of the deal lies a 15 year Tetris license.

To my opinion this is a great move from JAMDAT. They have been very successful in producing simple mobile games for different platforms. Their most successful titles have been based on physical games like Yahtzee. This is a good example of the taste of mobile crowd. However, as JAVA applications have become more and more popular, JAMDAT has to meet the growing demand for more complex games. Tetris will fill just that spot, but still follow their basic product slate of serving mobile masses.

Turning a new page

Mobile Phone Games is the name and still there are no reviews over here. I bet that most people who surf to these pages are looking for reviews and downloads. To accommodate this need, I have decided to start a long-term project to develop the content.

• I will set up sub categories for different gaming platforms and eventually analyze them.

• I will start offering game reviews for all of these platforms.

I can’t give any timetables, but it will be a slow progress. I have very little time to dedicate for this blog, so foremost purpose is still to keep you guys posted on what happens on mobile phone gaming field’s big picture. If you want to offer your review here, I am more than happy to accept it.

Gizmondo games announced

Gizmondo doesn’t want to fade away. In this Gameindustry.biz article they say that they already have 89 titles in pipeline. Pipeline? To me this is almost as if they were saying that they have plans to introduce some titles. For the moment the selection of games for Gizmondo pretty much sucks.

In the article they (Eric Peterson) also say that they are looking into expanding their game assortment. They claim that Gizmondo has all those nice features and present games only take advantage of some. Goal is to combine all the strengths of Gizmondo platform and produce better and more complex mobile games. Plus they have the added benefit of music and video. Now who is going for this?

I advice you to take a good look on the dynamics of the mobile platform markets. Only big money competitors in this arena, capital requirements are huge. General development in any given market is drifting towards oligopoly. Who would like to risk their money going to a field that is already reached general status quo? I have no idea, why Gizmondo is so convinced that this is a good move. To my opinion, what it takes for the G to make it, is that one of the other big three players is going to die.

Books on your mobile phone

Japanese are using their mobile phones to read books. Here is the link, let’s hope it stays online. These cell phone novels come as small Java installations and then you are free to read. Books travel with you conveniently packed into a phone and as screen technologies have advanced by leaps and bounds, it is not so tiring to ogle the phone screen. I personally think that big part of the success also comes from the way Japanese is written. My wife can fit a chapter in Chinese to the space where I only manage to fit a sentence.

Nokia's last stand

Now every game site is talking about the launch of Splinter Cell for N-Gage, same here. I don’t really want to get into talking about the game. It is great you can play it with your friends etc. I was wondering if N-Gage Arena is going to grow its popularity through new mobile game launches. To me this looks like the last upper ground for N-Gage – growing online community that is being served well. I think there are some chances to build on that. Reminds me bit like some RTS game. Small base and one tries to build up the empire from there.