30 May 2007
Four of the largest mobile games publishers have agreed to launch their games on the same date and across all the mobile networks, helping to remove any confusion for consumers.
The new deal, brokered by games trade body ELSPA, will see customers of 3, Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-Mobile given equal access to all the games available for modern mobile handsets.
EA, Glu, Gameloft and I-play had previously looked at providing their games for a singular network, meaning that customers would be limited as to which game they could choose by their choice of mobile provider, but decided against the move as the mobile gaming community was judged to be too small to make the venture worthwhile.
Estimated to make up around 5% of the mobile user community, mobile gamers simply aren't prepared to abandon their contract phone package in favour of being able to play a certain game, though if mobile gaming does take off in the future, there is a possibility of the publishers splitting into different groups.
According to pocketgamer.co.uk, the first of the I-Play games to be released include FIFA 08, Transformers and Guitar Legends.
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