JAMDAT Mobile Launches Wireless Games Based on New Line Cinema's Critically-Acclaimed ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King''
"LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 29, 2003--Wireless entertainment publisher JAMDAT Mobile today announced that it has launched a suite of New Line Cinema's 'The Lord of the Rings(TM): The Return of the King' entertainment applications for wireless. The lead product is an adventure game that captures the thrill of the movie through side-scrolling fighting and fierce battles through eight levels. Additionally, players open chests, replenish ammo, pick up extra lives and use items to regain health. The game includes the major movie characters Aragorn, Frodo, Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas, Pippin and Sam who battle Orcs, Uruk-hai, Trolls, The Army of the Dead, Shelob and other foes. "

A Game in the Hand? - WBT talks to Spiffcode and Handmark about mobile-game development
"Gaming on the move has always been the poor cousin of console and desktop gaming, generally limited to the various incarnations of Solitaire or basic puzzle games. It wasn't until Nintendo's GameBoy that companies started to take handheld games seriously. But even with dedicated hardware, the capabilities were very limited, and taken up only by teenagers and younger, never achieving the lifestyle acceptance that Sony managed to embody with PlayStation"

Gamasutra - Features - "Dealing With A Fragmented Java Landscape For Mobile Game Development"
"Mobile game development using J2ME is not all it's chalked up to be. In theory, J2ME offers a compile once, run everywhere environment. In practice, however, the platform is very fragmented. From game developer's point of view, this platform consists of hardware, software, and back-end technology that is very often unique or proprietary to the mobile phone hardware or service provider. "

DoCoMo Unveils its Latest 3G i-mode Phones
"Tokyo (JCNN) - NTT DoCoMo, Inc. today unveiled the FOMA(r) 900i series, which they are calling advanced-ever 3G FOMA i-mode mobile phones, featuring a Macromedia Flash-equipped browser, HTML e-mail and avatar-capable videophone.

Compared with the original series of FOMA phones, 900i models offer three times longer standby and weighs 20 percent less."

The StrangeMaze 3D benchmark
"In the PC world the buying customer is given important information about the PC: the microprocessor (e.g. Intel Pentium 4), the speed of the microprocessor (e.g. 2GHz), as well as a whole range of other specifications. These specifications help the customer make an informed choice, they give the customer an idea of the relative performance of one PC compared to another, and more importantly they give the customer an idea of how fast software applications will run on a particular PC.
Unfortunately this is not the case if you are buying a Java mobile phone. The customer generally does not know what processor is running inside the phone, what speed the processor is running at, how fast is the Java implementation and therefore the customer cannot get an idea of how fast Java games will run on a particular phone."

Discreet 3ds max Animation Software Captures 2003 with Major Market Expansion
"Discreet 3ds max software has made aggressive strides in advanced simulation/ design visualization and the emerging mobile games market. "

Metrowerks Ships Development Kit for Series 60-Based Siemens SX1 Phones
"Austin, TEXAS – December 18, 2003 – Metrowerks is now shipping its CodeWarrior™ Wireless Development Kit for Symbian™ operating system (OS), Siemens SX1 Edition. The kit offers developers everything required to write, debug, test and deploy Symbian-based applications and games for the Siemens SX1 and other Series 60 devices – all in the user-friendly CodeWarrior environment. "

Walt Disney Internet Group launches disneymobile.com
"North Hollywood, CA – December 15, 2003 – Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) today launched its first comprehensive consumer Internet site devoted to its wireless content offerings (www.disneymobile.com). The site will provide consumers with information regarding Disney Mobile content offerings and purchases as well as product demonstrations. It can be accessed directly from the homepage of Disney.com, the number one family entertainment site that attracted 14.4 million unique visitors in November. "

Mobile boost for conservationists "
If you have ever wondered what it is be like to monkey around as a gorilla, you can now have a go at ape life on your mobile phone, all for a good cause. Flora and Fauna International (FFI) and Vodafone Live! have teamed up to provide a gorilla game and downloads of wildlife images, sounds and news.
All profits made from the downloads will go straight to conservation work. FFI said it is about 'putting conservation in your palm' because although fun, people learn facts too. "

Time to reassess Brew
"The mobile operators' increasing obsession with content as the way to maintain or boost margins in the future is pushing content download/delivery platforms out of their niches and into the strategic mainstream. Whether or not we believe that content will really compensate the carriers for the commoditization of the voice market, those with any chance of success need three strengths - good, well branded content partners; appealing handset designs; and a simple and effective software platform for developers and downloaders. "

Mobile phone software maker fails to connect with customers
"A company which promised to revolutionise the world of mobile phone games has lost all of its full-time staff and is looking for another firm to take its technology forward.

The company invented billing software which enabled games companies and music publishers to charge fees when users sent games and songs to each other. "

Wireless gaming set for mass market
"Wireless gaming is well on its way to becoming a mass-market product in the US. Over the past year wireless games topped the list of entertainment applications downloaded to mobile phones, according to analyst IDC."

Mobile Raditude Tournament Lets Gamers Test Their Skills in Wireless Gameplay
"Irving, TX (December 11 2003) – “Mobile Raditude,” the first ever mobile gaming competition that will allow gamers to compete wirelessly in a skill-based competition, will begin today across the United States. The pioneering tournament will be exclusive to Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater for the N-Gage game deck where gamers can challenge high scores posted by other players in the N-Gage Arena. By challenging and beating posted scores, gamers will increase their overall points standings and ranking on the tournament ladder. Prizes such as an N-Gage skateboard and other cool gear will be awarded to the Top 10 each month. "

Mobile Users Just Wanna Have Fun and IDC Expects They Will, Generating More than $1 Billion in Wireless Game Revenue by 2006
"FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Wireless gaming is on its way to becoming a mass-market phenomenon in the U.S. Over the past year, wireless games topped the list of entertainment applications downloaded to cellular phones. IDC expects the number of wireless gamers to grow from 7.9% of all U.S. wireless subscribers in 2003 to 34.7%, or 65.2 million users, by 2008."

Konami going mobile in Europe
"Konami of Europe announces a content partnership deal with Vodafone that will see its games being released through the Vodafone Live service.
Following last month's news that Konami plans to release a number of cell phone games in North America through the AT&T Wireless mMode content service, Konami of Europe has today announced a similar deal with Vodafone in Europe. Konami plans to start releasing games across 13 European territories via the Vodafone Live service later this month, with Castlevania, Frogger, and Gradius already confirmed"

Mobile gambling a revenue winner - report
"While needing to overcome some significant regulatory and legal hurdles, worldwide revenues for all forms of gambling on mobile phones can reach US$16 billion by 2008, according to a new research report from Alexander Resources. New 2.5G and 3G wireless technologies and phones will play a prominent role in the growth of mobile gambling. In addition to making mobile gambling more convenient and secure than in person and desktop internet gambling, these new networks and devices will allow real-time, dynamic and peer to peer betting."

Mobile Game Piracy: Lessons for the Industry
"Okay, so I debated writing this for a bit, but decided that writing a little expose on the problem of illegal copies of games on mobile phones was needed. But there's definitely a fine line between talking about specifics and outright advocacy. I'm eager to show some of this stuff off because I'm just amazed it's possible. But I don't want to encourage this sort of thing because it's bad for the industry as a whole and just wrong. It's a real problem though, and I don't think most people are aware the extent to which pirated software is playing a part in the burgeoning mobile applications industry. "

New mobile console to offer GPS positioning
"Tiger Telematics plans launch of latest entry into mobile gaming for Q2 2004. The latest entry into the mobile console space, a unit called the Gametrac, is set to offer GPS positioning and data communications functionality, as well as music and movie playback.
The system, which is being developed by Tiger Telematics subsidiary Gametrac Europe, is due for launch in Q2 2004, and sports a comprehensive feature-set for a mobile device, including Bluetooth support and a built in digital camera."

Nokia Game clocks up over a million players
"Quirky wireless game proves more popular than ever in 2003. This year's version of the annual Nokia Game mobile phone game tournament clocked up over a million players, with Finnish giant Nokia recording over six million visitors to the Nokia Game homepage.
The game concluded on November 29th, following a ten-day period which saw players presented with a variety of different challenges - including problem solving and arcade-style dexterity tests."

Nokia unveils seven new N-Gage titles
"While seven previously announced titles are shipping now
Nokia has today unveiled seven previously unannounced N-Gage titles for release in 2004 - including the first games to be published by the Finnish giant itself, as well as major new titles from key publishers supporting the platform.
The seven games announced in today's statement are Ashen, Operation Shadow, Requiem of Hell, Sega Rally Championship, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, Worms and WWE, a wide spread of titles which includes some of the industry's biggest franchises."