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Mobile Games Insider: Cross-platform gameplay is the future

Nokia admits it has two mobile-to-PC games in works

Mobile Games Insider: Cross-platform gameplay is the future
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With E3 2007 reduced in size and mobile games essentially pushed out, key players in the mobile games industry participated yesterday in a new venue: Mobile Games Insider. An intimate event on the eve of E3 intended to bring attention to mobile gaming, Pocket Gamer was among a select press corps invited to attend.

One of the interesting undertones of the event involved cross-platform gaming. It's a topic near and dear to us here at Pocket Gamer, so when mobile executives began jabbering about the possibility of playing beyond handsets, our ears perked up. Few concrete details were offered by the slew of company heads in attendance, but a couple did drop a few hints about the direction they see connected gaming heading.

Kicking off the discussion of cross-platform gameplay was Michael Yuen, senior director of Qualcomm's Gaming Group, who trumpeted, "Cross-platform gameplay is the future of mobile games." Being able to play a game on PC or console and then replicating that experience or at least a component of it on a mobile handset is certainly an alluring prospect.

Director of technology for games at Nokia, Dr. Mark Ollila applied the topic to his company's forthcoming N-Gage platform. "Right now, our next-generation N-Gage platform runs on a wide range of Nokia handsets," he said, "but that's all I'll say at the moment."

Keen Pocket Gamer readers will recall we've already uncovered one mobile-to-PC N-Gage title in development; prodding the good doctor with a few tough questions yielded little beyond what we already know about Nokia's plans for connected gaming. However when specifically asked about connecting N-Gages to PCs, Dr. Ollila confessed, "We're currently at work on two titles that bridge N-Gage and PC." Further details weren't provided. "I can't spill all our beans," he protested.

We're certainly eager for specifics on these two new Nokia titles, as well as plans by other mobile publishers for connected games. Until they're ready to divulge more though, we'll have to ponder the details from the tantalising bits they dangled before us at yesterday's summit. For now, you can read more in Stuart Dredge's feature on cross-platform gaming.

Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.