Once Wimpy, Cell Phones Got Game

Led by Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone 3G , which was released in July, phones hitting the market these days include faster processors and the increased memory that mobile-gaming software needs. Besides Apple's phone, phones made by Sony Ericsson , Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Samsung Electronics are incorporating new technologies, such as global-positioning systems, touch screens and accelerometers, which allow gamers to control the action by tilting their phones.

To take advantage of this technology, game developers have created a host of new titles that can be played on different brands of cell phones. The games come with more detailed storylines and better graphics than previous cell phone games. In the end, game developers and device makers hope to remake mobile gaming into something unique, instead of just a little brother to console games, such as those on Nintendo's Wii .

'Pretty Blown Away'

Clayton Wakida, a TV news producer from Honolulu, was never into mobile games because they were so "primitive." But after Wakida purchased the new iPhone in July, he decided to try "Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D" from mobile-game developer Polarbit. He'd heard good things about the game and downloaded it for US$9.99 from the Apple application store.

"I was pretty blown away, actually," Wakida said of the game. In particular he liked the game-play features, which allow gamers to change the car's speed and direction by tilting the cell phone, thanks to the accelerometer in the iPhone. The touch screen can also activate features such as shooting missiles. "The iPhone games are just a totally different experience."

Tech soothsayers have long predicted that games on cell phones would become widely popular. But until now, phones were too weak to play games that compare with those running on portable game machines from companies such as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) , Sony and Nintendo. Indeed, sales in the United States for mobile games have been leveling off, growing an estimated 7.6 percent to $592 million this year from $550 million last year, according to JupiterResearch. Ringtone sales, meanwhile, topped $1 billion.

Previous efforts by Nokia and other companies to create gaming- specific phones have fallen flat, which led handset manufacturers to take a more multimedia entertainment approach, incorporating not just games, but also music players and Web-browsing capabilities.

"I think, up until now, mobile gaming just hasn't taken off in a huge way, primarily because there has been this comparison" to console gaming, said Jon Mulder, product marketing manager for Sony Ericsson North America. "And mobile gaming has been found somewhat lacking."

A New Dimension

Much of the increased focus on mobile gaming can be attributed to the launch of the new iPhone. It comes with a much larger screen than many mobile phones, an important attribute for gamers.

Felix Sheng, a 35-year-old Web developer, is a good example. When the Apple application store opened in July, Sheng, who lives in New York City, says the first application he bought for his iPhone was a game called "Super Monkey Ball" from Sega of America for $10. In the game, the monkey character is controlled by tilting the iPhone back and forth through obstacle courses.

"It's unbelievable how sensitive it is. Just real small moves get picked up," Sheng said. "It's pretty amazing."

Gonzague de Vallois, senior vice president for Gameloft, a mobile-game developer and publisher, says mobile games used to be two-dimensional and often restricted to no more than one megabyte of computer code. That made it increasingly difficult to improve the quality of games the company was developing. Now, with the iPhone, de Vallois says, developers can develop games as large as 100 megabytes -- similar to a game on the Nintendo DS, a handheld gaming device.

Other Manufacturers

Other companies are taking their turn. Sony Ericsson is launching its W760 Walkman phone, which has a 2.2-inch screen and dedicated gaming buttons, much like a console game controller. It also comes with an accelerometer that is enabled for gaming. The device is expected to retail for $349, though carriers may subsidize the cost of the phone, reducing the price to about $99.

At launch, Martin Blomkvist, who heads content acquisition and management for Sony Ericsson's game development community, says roughly 25 games will be available for purchase that will use the accelerometer, including Electronic Arts' (Nasdaq: ERTS) "Need for Speed ProStreet," which sells for $6.99. Controlling one of 16 cars, gamers can race through 12 courses turning the car left and right by tilting the phone as if it were a steering wheel.

In June, Samsung launched its Instinct touch-screen phone for $130, which allows mobile gamers playing "Midnight Bowling," for example, to slide their finger across the screen and send the bowling ball down the lane.

Nokia in late August launched "Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol," an adventure mystery game where users solve a series of investigations and navigate through the game by tipping devices such as Nokia's N85, which will start selling later this year, forward, backward or side-to-side. The game, which has 30,000 words of dialog, is priced at $9.50.