The wireless content and gaming industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds, as new startups launch, new applications become available and new partnerships are formed. Indeed, such intense activity offers evidence the market is gearing up for significant growth.
Among the recent news:
- Wireless gaming company Iomo announced it partnered with video games publisher Eidos to offer an advanced game based on the Lara Croft “Tomb Raider” franchise. Following the release of a new movie based on the video game heroine, Iomo said it will sell a Java-based game in the United States and Europe. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said it will offer the game-which will sell in three parts-starting in September. The move is notable as several major video game companies have released wireless versions of their popular console titles.
- A new startup based in Scotland announced it will begin selling high-quality wireless games through various wireless carriers. Rocket Dog counts video game and wireless executives in its management team.
- Wireless intellectual property company TTPCom Ltd. announced it will acquire a 43-percent stake in gaming platform company Synergenix for a total of about $1.3 million and will integrate its gaming engine with Synergenix’s Mophun gaming engine. The move expands Synergenix’s sales beyond handset maker Sony Ericsson and gives TTPCom access to Synergenix’s gaming engine. TTPCom said it will sell the combined engine to its customers, which include Sharp Corp., Siemens and others.
- U.S.-based wireless entertainment company ClearSky Mobile Media Inc. announced it will partner with 9Squared for games and ring tones. ClearSky said it will sell the content to its carrier partners.
- Wireless gaming company Macrospace said it developed three new games for Qualcomm Inc.’s BREW application download service. Macrospace primarily develops Java games.
- Sony Pictures Mobile, a division of Sony Pictures Digital Networks, announced it will team with 3D company Superscape Group plc to develop a three-dimensional game based on the studio’s successful “S.W.A.T” movie. The game will feature Superscape’s Swerve 3D technology and will work over both Java and BREW platforms. The first-person shooting game will be available later this year.
