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PDAStreet.com > News > EA Gets Serious About Smartphone Gaming

EA Gets Serious About Smartphone Gaming

By James Alan Miller
April 3, 2008

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EA Mobile, a division of Electronic Arts, has taken a close look at the smartphone market and it likes what it sees. As a result, it is greatly expanding the number of games available for the BlackBerry, Symbian (i.e. Nokia and Sony Ericsson) and Windows Mobile platforms, EA announced at CTIA this week.

Titles that are currently available for the BlackBerry platform include Tetris, Bejeweled, SCRABBLE (in North America only), EA SPORTS Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 07, SimCity Societies, and - most recently - MONOPOLY HERE & NOW.

To date, titles on the Windows Mobile platform include Downtown Texas Hold ‘Em, JAMDAT Mahjong, The Sims Bowling, and JAMDAT Mini Golf with more titles on the way.

And EA's offered Doom, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR and The Sims for Symbian-run smartphones. More titles are on the way and it recently launched EA SPORTS FIFA 08 in Europe for the operating system.

“With smartphones becoming everyday devices, we are excited to offer the fun, and high quality of EA Mobile games to a growing and important worldwide market,” explained EA Mobile VP of Worldwide Studios Travis Boatman.

EA, along with competitor Sega, demonstrated their commitment to building games for the iPhone at Apple's launch event for its software development kit (SDK) last month.

It showed off an very early version of an iPhone edition of the game Spore, developed after having the SDK for only a couple of weeks. Spore for the iPhone isn't due for commercial release September.

It also plans to develop a version of SimCity, along with other games, for the iPhone.

In related news, at CTIA Hands-on Mobile and Magmic Games introduced a version of Guitar Hero III Mobile to the BlackBerry, which will be available for download from the country's top four carriers this month.

Featuring four guitars and three venues, the game challenges players to hit number keys in sync with colored notes that appear on a scrolling fret board.

The game offers 15 instantly accessible tracks taken from the console series, including "Cherub Rock", "Miss Murder", "Monsters", "Suck My Kiss", and "Trippin' On A Hole", and offers subscribers the opportunity to expand their playlist with three new songs every month. After a year, players will be able to access over 50 songs and 150 levels across all three difficulties (easy, medium, and expert).

Here's some more recent mobile gaming news:

  •  Astraware, a pioneer in mobile gaming, recently made news by introducing its first game for the Symbian platform, Astraware Boardgames.

  •  Glu Mobile recently inked a a deal with FremantleMedia to develop and publish titles based on "The Price is Right" and "Family Feud" for North and South America. It is also set to develop mobile games based on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and a title related to the upcoming "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" movie.

  •  MTV Networks is launching a new mobile game based on the VH1 series “Flavor of Love.” It joins existing titles based on other VH1 titles, including “Know it All” and “Best Week Ever.”

    And Comedy Central Mobile, also part of MTV Networks, is working with RealNetworks to develop a game based on South Park's Imaginationland trilogy, which over a period where Stan and the boys are transported to a magical realm called...Imaginationland. Due in June, the new game is set to be brought to Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and, if all goes well, the iPhone.

  • Sega Mobile is going to develop mobile games for the Olympic Games in Beijing. One will be called "Beijing 2008: The Official Mobile Game of the Olympic Games" and the other "Sonic at the Olympic Games."

    For the iPhone, Sega's working on a version of the console game “Super Monkey Ball.”



  • Related Links:

  • Boardgames Astraware's First Title for Symbian Smartphones
  • Bejewled 2: It's Good to Go Square
  • Astraware Bundles Board Games for Palm OS, Windows Mobile
  • Some Mobile Game Favorites to be ALP Ready
  • Electronic Arts at Home on Desktop & in Hand

     
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