If industry-wide expectations come true with the wireless Internet, a U.K.-based games company has put itself in great position to take advantage of the burgeoning market.
nGame Ltd., a channel, content and technology provider for wireless, PC-web and interactive television community-based games, announced a global distribution agreement with Yahoo! Inc., to provide an initial selection of nine wireless games via Yahoo! Games on Web-enabled phones and other wireless devices.
John Brimacombe, CEO of nGame, said that the initial agreement will bring the games to mobile phones and that there's room for growth.
"At the moment we are squeezing a lot out of the WAP (wireless application protocol) gaming platform," he said. "Right now the main focus is on mobile phones, but we expect to be making an announcement soon on the PDA front."
Yahoo! will host a selection of nGame titles, including "Alien Fish Exchange," "Dataclash" and the BAFTA nominated "Merchant Princes" for Yahoo! consumers with Web-enabled phones. nGame is also providing Yahoo! with customized parlor and casino games, including "Black Jack," "Four-in-a-Row," "Crack-the-Vault," "HiLo," "Video Poker" and "Hangman."
Brimacombe said Yahoo! signed the agreement to cover the wide array of games.
"They wanted to take some of the fun games as well as some of our heavyweight games," he said. "The big advantage to the wireless platform is that you can start a game at your office, continue it on your way home while on the train and finish it at home."
In addition to being able to continue games from one area to another, Brimacombe said the interaction between players can also go to new levels.
"There can be a lot of one-on-one play with the wireless platform," he said.
Brimacombe said nGames will be making an announcement in the next couple of months regarding its newest one-on-one game.
"We are in the final stages of development and testing a WWI airplane fighting game that is played one-on-one," he said.
In addition to the one-on-one games, Brimacombe said taking the casino games to the next level is also on the horizon.
"Right now our casino games are strictly for amusement," he said. "We are looking into instituting a AWP (amusement with pay-out) system, but not in the United States."
Brimacombe agrees with other gaming industry experts who feel that PDAs and other hand held devices are going to offer a new avenue for the gaming industry. The agreement with Yahoo! was a perfect fit for his company.
"This is a new relationship for us," he said. "We have been working on it for the last four months. Yahoo is a great fit for us. They are a company with a global perspective and they are able to grasp how big of a market this could become."
According to Brimacombe and officials with Yahoo! Games, the United States and Japan are the two biggest markets for wireless Web games.