The head of a trade organization representing the mobile communications industry says new standards for development could mean the implementation of more effective and user-friendly games on the wireless platform by the middle of next year.
Paul Goode, chairman of the Mobile Games Interoperability Forum, feels now that an industry-wide set of standards has been issued, it shouldn’t take long for developers and operators to create systems based on the guidelines.
The MGIF is a group formed by some of the leading mobile phone manufactures and was designed to get operators within the industry on the same page in terms of their foundational formula used for developing and distributing games through a mobile platform.
Founded in July 2001 by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens, the MGIF was established to define mobile games interoperability specifications and application programming interfaces (APIs).
Now that the new guidelines have been released, Goode said, game developers can produce and deploy mobile games that can be distributed across multiple game servers and wireless networks and played over many different mobile devices.
The aim of the initiative is to specify a global standard and to develop certification procedures to encourage wide adoption of that standard.
Many within the wireless communications industries feel that gaming and gambling will be a major source of revenue for both mobile manufactures and operators.
The new specifications are designed to give gamers ease of use and multiple device options that currently don't exist.
Goode said a report from Frost & Sullivan earlier this year claimed that in 2001, the mobile gaming industry generated revenues of just $436.4 million from downloadable, message- or Web-based games. By 2008, however, the industry will be worth a massive $9.34 billion, according to the report.
Goode said the importance of gambling to the wireless community has been shown in how a popular acronym within the industry has been changed in some circles.
3G refers to "third generation" wireless devices and platforms that are being developed. Goode said many refer to 3G as "goals, games and gambling."
With game playing such a central and vital part to revenue streams for the wireless communications business, MGIF publicly released its version 1.0 specifications. The guidelines are just the first step toward addressing the many portability and interoperability issues that the industry faces.
Goode said many "play anywhere" Java-based mobile games must be re-written to run on different handsets--all of which have varying ways in which users input commands.
With the new set of rules, game developers and handset manufacturers will be one step closer to resolving this and other issues and will have a basic set of common, reusable functionalities in the form of programming APIs. These are among the core functionalities for server-based mobile games.
"Since its inception, mobile gaming has been fragmented because of a lack of standards and a plethora of portability and interoperability issues," Goode said. "This specification is about lowering the technical barriers so that the entertainment industry can exploit the great potential of mobile phones as a channel to market."
Goode also said the MGIF v1.0 specs will provide benefits for all stakeholders in the mobile gaming space, including developers, publishers, platform companies, operators, handset manufacturers and end users. He added that the latest specs could pave the way for future standardization in the industry.
Due to the enormous revenue stream that mobile gaming represents, Goode pointed out, many developers and software suppliers have already started to explore the option, and some have fully developed systems.
With the new guidelines in hand, he said, developers and operators will have to change the basic building blocks that run the technical side of the system, but he's confident that could be done in a short amount of time.
If operators know that their systems can be used across a number of devices or can be interfaced with more than just one or two brands, it will only make sense for them to adapt the new guidelines.
Click here to view the guidelines.