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Cell Phone Gaming - TOP NOTCH HOT Market
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http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=92668
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Big guns take aim at mobile game market

Posted online: Thursday, June 02, 2005 at 0000 hours IST

JUNE 1: Electronic Arts Inc, the largest US video-game maker, will on Wednesday announce an agreement with Qualcomm Inc aimed at grabbing a bigger slice of the $1.3 billion market for games played on mobile phones.


The partnership will mesh games made by Electronic Arts with software developed by Qualcomm, the world’s number two maker of chips that power cell phones, John Batter, vice president of Electronic Arts’ mobile unit, said in an interview on Tuesday. “It’s time for us to get involved,” Mr Batter said. “We saw the market developing in terms of consumer downloads.”

Sale of cell-phone games may increase more than sixfold to $7.9 billion by 2008, according to London-based researcher Informa Telecoms and Media. The growing popularity of wireless handsets as a game platform is luring investment from companies such as Walt Disney Co, Yahoo Inc and THQ Inc and could crimp sales for game makers such as Nintendo Co, which says it has no plans to put games on phones.

“Cell phones will become the world’s largest computing platform,” said Andy Riedel, vice president of game development at InfoSpace Inc, which sells Ms PacMan and other games. “Every individual around the planet will have these devices,” he said. Electronic Arts, based in Redwood City, California, will make the announcement as a three-day conference sponsored by Qualcomm’s Brew unit gets under way. Eight Brew sessions will focus on games, more than video services and business applications. About 2,200 people are expected at the San Diego conference, a 47% increase from last year.

Shares of San Diego-based Qualcomm rose 11 cents to $37.27 at 4 pm on Tuesday in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading and have fallen 12% this year. Electronic Arts rose 49 cents to $52.54 and have lost 15% this year.

Electronic Arts began its mobile unit last year and will release 20 titles for cellular phones this year, Mr Batter said. The entry into mobile gaming marks a shift for Electronic Arts, whose then-President John Riccitiello said in 2001 that games on cell phones are “more like a hobby than a business”. Mr Batter will speak on Friday at the Brew conference. Games are the third most-popular cell-phone function, after calling and text messaging, says researcher In-Stat MDR. About 800 million people worldwide will have cell phones with games by 2007, compared with 96 million in 2003, estimates game maker THQ, based in Calabasas, California.

— Bloomberg