HandyGames is planning to do over 100 million free Java game downloads in 2011

German mobile publisher HandyGames is starting 2011 with a bold target.

It's planning to do more than 100 million downloads of its games on Java phones during the year.

"Even though Mission FREE is still in the starting phase, the success is already measurable and very impressive - but that's just the tip of the iceberg," commented HandyGames CEO Christopher Kassulke.

"Free mobile games have triggered a boom in our partners' download portals and in the long term, we are confident that we can convince all mobile handset manufacturers and network operators of the benefits of free."

The company switched to a free and freemium strategy late in 2010, gaining two million downloads of its Guns'n'Glory game on iOS, Android and Ovi.

It said it also hoped to do five million free downloads on Ovi Store, following its announcement of one million downloads in October 2010.

But it's the Java platform that Kassulke is currently keen to talk up.

"Particularly in emerging markets, these so-called feature phones will be responsible for an immense growth in the number of downloads of the more than 40 top titles we're planning to release for free for the Java platform in 2011," he explains on the company's website.

He's not concerned that Java games can't be directly monetised using in-app purchases as can free games on smartphones either.

"You can do it with traffic back to the portal, but the main point is to break out from the five percent of people who do play games on their phones to address the other 95 percent," he argues.

"We want to make the market bigger. We make them to believers, fans and customers."

"The fact is Java is not dead."

[source: HandyGames]