pinky
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Sep 20, 2004, 7:46 PM
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Next for Cell Phones - Mutiplayer Gaming
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The newest twist in wireless game is multiplayer. Until recently, multiplayer on cell phones game meant at most posting high scores on a leader board. It's difficult to compare "Momentum" to the cinematic landscapes and sweeping orchestral scores common in many popular video games, but that would be missing the point.
Unlike most games for cell phones in the United States, "Momentum" lets Allen Eichler challenge up to five people from just about anywhere in the country to collect coins scattered throughout a maze.
Eichler, the creator of "Momentum," said true multiplayer games are a challenge. There are technical hurdles with pumping game information through slow cell phone networks and with tuning computer servers to handle mobile multiplayer games.
There's also the question of availability. For now, "Momentum" runs on a limited number of handsets offered through Verizon Wireless. During a recent demonstration, Eichler and several colleagues at Blue Ridge Games Inc. challenged a reporter to a round. In real time, the players maneuvered their characters — penguins and other critters — around a maze to pick up eight coins. The first one to get all eight coins and exit through an escape hatch wins.
"We really wanted to find a place where we felt people were ignoring an opportunity," Eichler said. "For a lot of people, one of the most expensive high tech devices that they carry around with them is going to be with their phone."
But don't hold your breath just yet for a miniaturized version of three-dimensional online role playing games like "EverQuest." The market for cell phone games remains a niche in the overall U.S. video game business, though experts believe it will grow to $1 billion in the United States within a few years.
Market research firm Gartner Inc. said sales of handsets are up some 35 percent in the second quarter to 156 million, compared with 116 million a year ago, with sales projected to reach 650 million for the entire year.
Many of the new phones have color screens, extra memory, fast processors and other enhancements, making them attractive video game machines.
Like custom ring tones and graphics, the games are downloaded directly to the phone and usually cost a few dollars a month.
Demand for games has risen as owners realize what their phones can do, said Matthew Bellows, vice president of mobile entertainment and co-founder of portable game review site Wgamer.com
Venture capitalists have invested heavily in the sector in the past few months, and Bellows said most major video game publishers now have either a wireless group or a subcontractor to churn out such games.
Electronic Arts, the world's largest video game publisher, is expanding its lineup of cell phone games for consumers in North and South America and Europe. And EA is also working on new games for Nokia's N-Gage hybrid phone/game player and the next generation hand held game devices from Sony Corp and Nintendo.
Companies like Nintendo feel they have an edge due to their big screens that almost all cell phones don't have. Their upcoming Game Boy DS handheld will sport wireless functions for instant messaging but it isn't a cell phone. Though Nintendo has yet to announce any specific wireless multiplayer game, the DS will support the capability.
Nokia's N-Gage, meanwhile, is a dual-band cell phone but includes free access to "N-Gage Arena," an online community where people can play against each other online, chat and post on message boards and receive game tips and community news.
In the first-person shooter "Ashen," up to four players nearby can compete against each other using the N-Gage's Bluetooth wireless feature, though long-distance multiplayer gaming is not possible.
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