Friday, June 1, 2007

Mobile Gaming- Possible problems


Mobile gaming is at an odd stage. Here, but not here. Most people in the mobile gaming industry have had passing whiff of it but they'er not sure what it smelt of. Some of the pioneers got burnt. They retreated to the comfort of the web after buying in poor technology and not appreciating the differences between the expections and needs f the mobile gamer and his internet counterpart. Even mobile networks kept their distance, concerned about how toxic an association with gambling could be to their brands. Not a good sign. At the conference, which are like group therapy session, tales of misery abound of network configuration problems, impossible payment system, regulatory nightmares, nervous consumers, appalling economics, and hundreds and humdreds of incompatible, badly behaved, irregular mobile phones.
None of these problems are really important, because none are insurmountable. We've got over most of them. I'll let you into a little secret, for free. The answer to the handset problem is to top looking for shortcuts and start looking for people. Then make sure you get every new phone, give it to those people, and get them to test every game you have, on every network, all the time. It's expensive, slow and impossible to avoid. Anyone who says they can just hasn't tried hard enough.

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