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AnchorDesk

David Coursey
Games on your cell phone? It's only the beginning

David Coursey
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Friday, February 8, 2002
TalkBack!Add your opinion
Maybe I lack imagination, but I've never really thought of a cellular telephone as a gaming platform. Actually, I am certain I lack imagination, because the big game companies--and the Asian cellular carriers--are way ahead of me on this. Gaming on pocket devices is becoming big business--incremental revenue for wireless carriers--and it may soon be coming to a cell phone near you.

In Japan and other Asian markets, people are paying real money--about $2.50 per game per month--to play on their phones. Some folks are even racking up connect-time charges playing multiplayer games, the attraction of which I have proven completely immune to thus far.

TO INVESTIGATE this phenomenon, yesterday on my radio program I spoke with Mitch Lasky, CEO of Jamdat Mobile, a developer of game software for mobile devices. His company has just signed a deal to bring two of Electronic Arts's biggest titles--Tiger Woods Golf and World Cup Soccer--from the small screens of game systems to the tiny screens of cellular devices. (Click here to listen to my interview with Mitch Lasky on AnchorDesk Radio.)

Lasky admits that moving a game from a graphics-rich game box to a graphics-impaired cell phone is not a task for the faint-hearted. The 3D graphics are, of course, gone. The game is reduced to an overhead view, in which the player views all the action from above.

Yet Lasky says many elements of play, such as the "swing meter" used to control the golf club, can be faithfully reproduced in miniature. To give people a sense of this, there is a demonstration you might want to visit.

It's on a site operated by Qualcomm and is a particularly obnoxious Flash demo--try turning off the sound to avoid the music and narration. Eventually, it shows you what the game looks like and gives you some idea how the cursor control and menu buttons are used to guide play.

AGAIN, THIS ISN'T something I am likely to do, but I can easily imagine some bored golfer sitting in an airline clubroom playing this on her cell phone to kill time between flights. And as cellular telephones become more like PDAs--larger screens, more color, faster processors, more memory--the game experience should only improve.

Of course, some games aren't likely to make a smooth transition to small keypads for control surfaces. Games that require lots of user input--especially the so-called "twitch" games--probably won't do so well. But games that require more thought than dexterity ought to do fine.

Games (and the SMS messaging I've warned you about previously) are a big part of the cellular companies' plans to grab an ever-larger chunk of your kids' allowances. Not to mention all the money to be made from kids in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.

GIVEN AN ALWAYS-ON data connection with a little bit of oomph--due out this year but probably not in common use for another two years--your cell phone has the potential to become a Swiss Army Knife of information and entertainment.

This emerging role of the personal communication/information appliance as the pocket-sized center of your universe is compelling in some ways, frightening in others. If, as some posit, your cellular telephone will eventually replace your credit cards for making in-store purchases, it's easy to imagine a whole range of opportunities and challenges. Identity theft could someday be as easy as stealing someone's cellular telephone.

I am not sure it will get that far. But it won't be for lack of trying by the cellular industry. In Finland, Nokia's home country (and preferred test market), cellular devices are already being used for a variety of financial transactions.

ANOTHER INTERESTING trend--not yet visible to most consumers but clearly on the horizon--is the rise of location-based services. These applications use information about where you are to respond to your information requests and make special offers.

The location information will be provided by the cellular network using the same technology that helps 911 dispatchers send help to the correct location even when the caller is completely lost. Need I mention there are certain "Big Brother" implications here?

Anyway, suppose you want to find a restaurant, or a movie, or a place to get your car fixed. Because your telephone would be able to provide your location, the software could respond with the locations nearest you, probably even with directions while you drive to the restaurant, theater, or auto repair shop.

Will these features catch on? Some will and some won't. Pricing and privacy issues will definitely play a role, as will the X factor caused by the fact that humans often don't choose to do things in the most efficient way possible. Former online grocer Webvan was surprised, perhaps, by the large number of people who actually like to go to the store and shop for themselves.

BUT MAKE no mistake: There are all kinds of new services coming to your cell phone over the next couple of years. Instant messaging, gaming, and location-based services are just three of them. I'll address more in future columns.

Even though I am only an occasional gamer, I am not completely immune to the charms of cool graphics. I even think the new football title for Xbox--the one with the live play-by-play--is kind of cool. Given enough pizzazz, and a simple enough game, maybe I'd get drawn in.

Do you want to play games, send IMs, and receive location-based info on your cell phone? Why or why not? What else would you want to do or not want to do on your phone? TalkBack to me, and take my QuickPoll below!

On my cell phone, I would (or already) do the following...
Play games
Send instant messages
Receive location-based info
All of the above
None of the above
Some of the above

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