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Rumor: EA may be sticking to Glu, Mobile that is
Electronic Arts could be looking to increase its stake in the mobile market by eating paste. A new report suggests that the company may be mulling over the acquisition of Glu Mobile, currently the third largest mobile game publisher and developer behind EA Mobile and Gameloft. Financial site Seeking Alpha cites a recent bevy of rumors regarding EA's growing interest in the Asian mobile market, followed by Glu's bolstered stock price as key indicators of a possible buyout.The move, if it happens, would certainly underscore EA's commitment to the mobile platform and games. We're just not sure if the world is ready for Diner Dash 2009.[Via Mobile Entertainment]
EA reveals Android gaming plans: Tetris, Bejeweled, Monopoly, oh my!
Hot on the heels of Electronic Arts kinda-sorta slamming Nokia for its lackluster N-Gage gaming platform comes word that the video game giant will be dabbling in the world of Android here shortly. Unsurprisingly, we're informed that Tetris will be the first Android title out, while Bejeweled and Monopoly should follow suit in November. According to EA Mobile vice president Adam Sussman, "Android is another exciting new platform to offer customers great games with enhancements like touch and tilt capabilities," and while we weren't given specifics outside of the aforesaid titles, more games are definitely "in development."
EA releases Tetris for Android, Bejeweled and Monopoly to follow
Electronic Arts has answered the call for more games on Google's Android mobile device platform – i.e. the T-Mobile G1 – with a version of Tetris now available for download from the EA Mobile site. The game is selling for $7.99. It will be followed next month by Bejeweled and Monopoly: Here & Now Edition. In an official release, EA Mobile America and Asia publishing veep Adam Sussman calls Android an "exciting new platform" and says that the division has "more games in development" beyond the three revealed today. Looking at its catalog of iPhone / iPod Touch games, it's probably safe to expect some variation of Spore and Scrabble to be in the bunch.
EA Mobile reaffirms commitment to smartphones
Electronic Arts sent out a press release today (PDF file) announcing its commitment to the mobile platform and games to smartphones such as those operating Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile operating systems. The release also lists games to look out for, but from we can tell, they are all currently out and have been for some indeterminate time. We've gone ahead and listed those games after the break for those curious.The big reason for the release, as publication Develop surmises, is EA Mobile reaffirming its support to non-iPhone platforms. As noted by M:Metrics analyst Seamus McAteer, 7.5 million people downloaded mobile games last month, and smartphone users download twice as many mobile games as non-smartphone mobile users.Read (PDF file)
EA Mobile's Spore becomes first 3rd party iPhone game -- available September
Just in case you didn't catch the blip earlier between Steve's announcement of the iPhone SDK and the App Store, here's some fantastic news for the thumb-happy sect: Spore is coming to the iPhone. In fact, the EA Mobile title will go down as "the first 3rd party game on the iPhone." Sadly, it won't actually be available until September, but at least you've got a month to circle on your calender, right? Additionally, EA affirmed that there were "other games in early stages of development," and that it was "actively using the new iPhone SDK to develop games for the iPhone OS." Jump on past the break for the full release.
EA mobile prez: iPhone is hurting mobile game development
Macworld has news out of CES that EA's mobile division president has good and bad news about the iPhone and gaming. The good news is that the iPhone is a terrific device -- but then again, you already knew that. But the bad news is that Apple's handling everything all wrong. By leaving out the actual distribution platform for gaming on the iPhone, Travis Boatman says that while Apple could be doing great things with games on the iPhone, they're actually hurting mobile gaming by delaying or refusing to turn the iPhone into a gaming platform.I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Apple is sitting on a goldmine in terms of games on the iPhone (well, they're sitting on a lot of goldmines with the iPhone, but this is another). With multitouch, the tilt monitor, the microphone, the networking capabilities, and the camera, this is a device that Nintendo would dream about building (their DS has half the features and it's selling like it prints money). It's the greatest handheld gaming device ever made. And yet because Apple has been so stingy with the SDK, there's not one official native game on it.Not to mention that the "distribution platform" Boatman is talking about is iTunes -- there's no better way to get your games sold and out there. Hopefully, we'll see progress on this as soon as MacWorld (and as late as February, when the iPhone SDK is set to be officially released). But Boatman is right: the iPhone begs to have some great gaming experiences on it, and Apple, so far, is just not opening the door.
Sprint Arcade brings subscription-based gaming to the mobile
We're not exactly sure how huge an audience there will be for subscription-based gaming on the cellphone, but nevertheless, Sprint is all set to find out. Announced at the Electronics for All Expo, the aptly-named Sprint Arcade will bring a number of titles from EA Mobile to "most data-enabled Sprint phones" for $9.99 per month. Among the titles listed are Sudoku, Mini Golf, Mahjong, Hearts, Air Hockey and Blue Blocks, but the carrier is already promising that more are on the horizon. Separately, the firm also proclaimed that it had partnered up with Namco Networks to bring Sprint users a mobile version of the Popeye arcade game, but it failed to cough up any pricing details to go along with it. So, anyone buying in? Or is that sound we hear the collective balking of Sprint customers everywhere?
Nokia to release new N-Gage this September
You don't have to tell Nokia that the original N-Gage was not the success they had imagined. They already know. That won't stop them from giving it the ol' college try as Nokia plans on rolling out a new N-Gage by this September. In a brief statement on the official N-Gage blog, Nokia makes mention of a September release amidst reassuring that more than two publishers are on board for the new platform.At the moment, only EA Mobile and Gameloft have known commitments for the new N-Gage with both publishers having already released titles for the original device. With Gameloft holding the lucrative Totally Spies license, we can only cross our fingers and hope for a next generation N-Gage follow-up.
EA to bypass carriers, sell mobile games direct
Feel like you're getting held down by the man every time you check out your carrier's content portal and can't find the game you're looking for, simply because they chose not to carry it? EA feels your pain, too -- though more from the revenue-sharing perspective -- and they're looking to do something about it. Their Mobile division has announced they're hard at work designing a solution for buying mobile games (like Will Wright's upcoming "Spore") on your PC direct from EA and downloading the purchased binary to your phone from there. Obviously, they're looking to make the process as painless as possible; no amount of foolproofing could make a two-step process involving two devices as easy as downloading a game directly through your WAP browser, but hey, if this is what we have to do to get our Spore on, you'd best believe we'll be digging our cables out of the drawer.[Via MocoNews]
