Cell phone rivals team up for games
Telecom equipment makers and operators see the budding markets for mobile electronic games and entertainment as an important source of income that is expected to help operators fund the construction of third-generation (3G) mobile networks.
"The aim of the initiative is to specify a global standard and to develop certification procedures to encourage wide adoption of the standard," the companies said in a joint statement.
The new Mobile Games Interoperability (MGI) Forum will work to define games interoperability specifications for network-based servers, they said.
"The specification will enable games developers to produce and deploy mobile games that can be distributed across multiple game servers and wireless networks, and played over different mobile devices," they said.
The MGI Forum will work with standards bodies and others to ensure an open technological environment for developing mobile games, and it will also cooperate with software tool developers that make tools for mobile games creators, they said.
They said they welcomed game publishers and developers, game platform vendors, game service providers, mobile network operators, device and infrastructure vendors and service integrators to join the forum.