EA Mobile signs Taito mobile deal for Europe
Includes Space Invaders, Arkanoid, Puzzle Bobble and... Cooking Mama
EA Mobile has announced a licensing deal with Taito to distribute its mobile games in Europe, on existing and new mobile platforms.
That means the rights to retro games like Space Invaders, Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, Puzzle Bobble and Rainbow Islands (among others) instantly revert to EA, while it'll also be publishing the official mobile game of Cooking Mama.
The deal is for an initial three years, and is the first time Taito has licensed its entire catalogue to a single mobile publisher. EA Mobile will be updating selected titles (in the same way it recently released a new version of Monopoly Here & Now), and re-promoting everything else.
Are retro games like Space Invaders really still a big deal on mobile, though? "Retro games comprise a significant part of the market," EA Mobile's European marketing director Tim Harrison told us.
"Their bite-size gameplay migrates brilliantly to mobile, and these are iconic brands with broad appeal, wide handset reach and considerable potential for further success."
How do games like Arkanoid compete with newer clones like Block Breaker Deluxe, though, which because they're unbranded, can take more liberties with the gameplay?
"There are plenty of customers out there who want the faithful arcade experience, and these titles are familiar with the mass market customer where many others are not," says Harrison.
"Equally, under the terms of this deal, there'll be opportunities to take these amazing brands forward, which we're very much looking forward to."
Harrison points out that EA's Taito deal isn't just about retro games: the publisher has rights to work with Taito on new games and mobile IP.
Cooking Mama will be the first of those, later this year. The game seems tailor-made for touchscreen handsets, but details of EA Mobile's plans are scarce at this stage.
"We will be making a formal announcement on Cooking Mama in the near future," says Harrison. "This has the potential to be a huge seller across all mobile devices, and not just on touchscreen handsets. But more about that soon."
The EA/Taito deal specifically mentions "developing new channels and platforms such as smart phones", which to us sounds like a cue for future announcements for N-Gage and iPhone, among other platforms.
"Yes, you are right," confirms Harrison. "We are exploring all the new platforms, including N-Gage."
