The Finnish company Fathammer has released a new game engine designed for developing mobile games. The X-Forge 3D Game Engine will provide interested parties “with the ability to deliver high frame rate, console-quality 3D games with low memory footprint on a wide variety of wireless PDAs, Smartphones and handheld game devices.”
(Via weblogsky)
Look for next-generation phones to come bundled with games:
Two X-Forge Powered games will be included with the retail launch of the Sony Ericsson P800 Smartphone. Stunt Run is an original racing title developed by Vasara Games, the games division of Fathammer. Real physics, compelling track design and a variety of gameplay options provide a unique 3D driving experience for owners of the phone. Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment’s Men in Black‚àö¥ II: Alien Pursuit places the player in the role of MIB agent hunting down aliens in a real 3D environment. A compelling story line with multiple levels and a variety of weapons immerses the player into a fun, easy to play game.
But the real question is - when will we have multiplayer mobile games?
Comments
@ 23:36
Jane, I think you are in Japan already, so maybe you’ve seen Samurai Romanesque? I’m pretty sure that it’s a massively multiplayer mobile game… Any local insight into popularity, etc. would be welcome.
Not too long ago at a 3G conference here in Hong Kong I remember seeing an iMode games developer show off a catalogue of mobile games they were developing. There was some cool stuff, including a MMP pirate ship game where you were evidently supposed to compete with other players in real time, sailing virtual seas and boarding other players’ ships, etc.
Aha… in the middle of posting I find a review of Samurai Romanesque that says it’s not entirely multiplayer.
@ 08:45
Why is FOMA failing in Japan? 3G phones to big and bulky for young gamers? Too expensive? Any ideas, Jane? Justin? Others?
@ 08:48
Looks like Nokia is entering this space too!
http://www.infosync.no/news/2002/n/2548.html
Wireless game console from Nokia
By: J¯rgen Sundgot, Tuesday, 05.11.02 10:20 GMT
Early next year, Nokia will introduce the N-Gage wireless gaming console - and it’s unlike anything the world has ever seen. J2ME, Bluetooth and GPRS are some of the keywords.
Through creating an entirely new product category in the company’s matrix of mobile phones - which covers just about every inch of the market - Nokia is now going after a market that’s expected to grow by leaps and bounds over the course of the coming months and years, namely wireless gaming. Announced yesterday at the Nokia Mobile Internet Conference, Nokia’s new N-Gage device is unlike anything the world has ever seen before, and is best described as a convergence between portable gaming consoles and mobile phones.
The N-Gage mobile game deck, together with branded game titles from top games publishers and developers, will be available for purchase February 2003. To ensure a steady supply of games, Nokia has teamed up with Sega - a collaboration which will have Sega develop games for the Nokia N-Gage which will run on the Nokia Series 60 platform and Symbian OS. The branded outbox games will be available separately on memory cards in MMC format.