Mobile Gaming – the Challenge is on ..

In the past couple of years, mobile gaming – playing, downloading and purchasing games on mobile phones – has generated considerable buzz. In an ever-expanding industry, mobile service providers are collaborating with well established brands and mobile manufacturers are developing intricate and enhanced gaming features.

However, the commercial viability of mobile games is limited to a niche market as of now. According to a recent study commissioned by the GSM Association, downloading mobile content is only the 10th most common use of mobile data services. The available memory size, processor capacity, limited display size and resolution on mobile phones tend to cripple the overall gaming experience. Eating up of the system’s resources like battery power is also a serious drawback.

On the other hand, platforms and technologies for mobile gaming have significantly improved. The full scale launch of hybrid multi-player 3D games has announced the arrival of modern mobile gaming. From strategy games to action-adventures and racers – you have standout games from every possible genre. The popularity of a few 2D games though have never diminished among avid mobile users. Games like ‘Bejeweled’, ‘Tetris’ and ‘Snake’ still rank among the top 10 mobile games.

Games on mobile phones are mostly played while traveling and (not so surprisingly!) in the bathroom. One of the primary reasons why mobile games are in high demand is the casual, comfortable and interactive gaming engagement they provide. But among the young generation there are many serious players and it is they who constitute and contribute to the mobile gaming community.

Operators in the UK are gearing up to set up mobile gaming communities which would be interactive and intensely competitive. Mobile phones are rapidly encroaching upon the territories of standalone gadgets like MP3 players and digital cameras and it would be not all surprising if the next invasion is set upon PSPs and Xboxs.

P.S. Watch out for the Gen-Next N-Gage in an all new avatar!

For Further reading please click on Mobile Phone Games