Motorola Inc. entered the wireless game sector this week in a major way, teaming up with UIEvolution to develop multi-player games for next-generation mobile handsets based on Sun Microsystems’ Java 2 Micro Edition technology.
UIEvolution-short for user interface evolution-is led by Satoshi Nakajima, a former Microsoft senior executive who left to found Ignition Corp. in March. He left there soon after, however, to form UIEvolution in October where he serves as president and chief executive officer.
“I’m still a very hands-on technologist,” he said.
His goal was to create a gaming system for wireless devices that did not depend on the WAP protocol and system. Stressing that he’s not against WAP, Nakajima said he feels the current iteration of it is rather slow because every new move or action in a game requires a back-and-forth communication with the WAP server.
“Wireless simply is not designed to be a platform for interactive applications,” he said. “Carriers are spending billions for data and 3G, but the software platforms are so primitive, almost like MS-DOS. … We need software platforms, and the applications to drive it.”
To bypass the WAP system, Nakajima settled on J2ME. While not a fan of personalJAVA, Nakajima fell in love with J2ME, which he feels is the software platform needed to build these interactive applications.
“They did a really good job to make sites small to fit on the screen,” he said. “We are escaping WAP and jumping right into J2ME. That means better graphics and better speed. The user doesn’t have to wait.”
The company’s alliance with Motorola allows it to test its applications on Motorola J2ME phones as a beta partner for Motorola’s J2ME devices. Motorola is also helping it with the J2ME technology.
The first generation games include chess, checkers, hangman, minesweeper and Space Invaders. Sun liked them so much it chose UIEvolution’s game applications to demonstrate its J2ME technology at Asia Telecom in Hong Kong last week.
The way it works is rather simple. To access UIEvolution games, users must have an Internet-enabled phone. However, as stated, the games are not WAP applications. Carriers wishing to offer the games to users must either install UIEvolution’s server software in their network servers, or license it on an outsourced basis. Also, phones need to contain the proper software, which can be embedded or downloaded.
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When users wish to play, the phone contacts the J2ME server and downloads the needed code to play. User then can play the game in real time on the device, which periodically checks back with the server for other needed bits of code.
UIEvolution won’t provide the hosting services itself, but will outsource through a wireless ASP and let them connect the application to the carrier network, said Nakajima.
“The ultimate goal is to hook people together. If we simply develop arcade games, the phone is like a Gameboy. It doesn’t use any wireless connections and only consumes the battery,” he said. “We consider our games another form of personal communication, like instant messaging or e-mail.”
Consumers are expected to see the result of this alliance when Motorola introduces J2ME enabled iDEN handsets offered by such carriers as Nextel Communications Inc. in the first half of next year.
Other wireless gaming news this week included Nortel Networks’ demonstration of a GPRS wireless network with a peer-to-peer Chinese chess game on a pair of Game Park GP32 mobile terminals over Sunday’s wireless Internet network.
In addition, CellPoint Inc. and Swedish game developer It’s Alive! teamed to develop location-based games for SMS- or WAP-enabled phones, also interactive and designed for two or more players.
“Certainly a cell phone can’t really be compared to a modern game console,” said Tom Soderlund, CEO of It’s Alive! “The key is to use the phone-specific features such as mobile positioning.”
After testing, CellPoint said it will integrate the games with its location-based platform and offer it as a complete package to carriers.
Finally, Simon & Schuster Interactive partnered with Add2Phone, a Finnish company, to provide game hints and solutions on wireless devices for games such as Star Trek Deep Space Nine: The Fallen. No games will actually be played on the devices. Instead, only hints and suggestions for the games will be provided.