As the 20th century came to a close and mobile phones grew in ubiquity, there was a natural expectation to demand more features out of them. Mobile games became one of the capabilities eventually included in these devices. Mobile phone games have come a long way from simple two-dimensional games. Over the past decade, mobile phone gaming has flourished into a billion-dollar industry with more sophisticated applications at its disposal
The Beginning
A screenshot of "Snake" on a Nokia phone.
"Snake" was the first-ever mobile phone game, pre-installed in the Nokia 6110 model in 1997. The objective of the game was simple and straightforward: lead the "snake" (a thick black line) around the screen to connect dots.
Early Technology
- Since mobile phone games relied---and still do---on the hardware of the phone itself, they were not as advanced as console and PC games in color, sound and graphics. Usually, the earliest mobile phone games consisted of animated black squares or lines due to the fact that the earliest mobile phones were monochromatic. Additionally, the games came pre-installed on the phone.
Gaining Momentum
A version of "Bejeweled," the demo of which is a popular pre-installment in many mobile phones.
In 2001, mobile phone gamers finally had the opportunity to play "Snake" in color, as well as many other games. By this time, Nokia's monopoly on this industry was coming to a close, as Namco Mobile (a division of Namco), Jamdat (now EA Mobile due to a $680 million merger with Electronic Arts in 2005), and Mforma (now Hands-On Mobile) eventually became the three major publishers of mobile phone gaming.
Mobile Phone Gaming Today
"Guitar Hero" games are also available as phone downloads.
Mobile phone games now come in hundreds of thousands of hues due to the advent of color in phones, having more advanced microprocessing technologies, and even memory upgrades to properly accommodate them. Also, rather than just sticking with pre-installed games, you can visit mobile game websites for downloads. It is now possible to get mobile-phone replicas of popular console-game hits. Research shows that mobile phone gaming revenue reached $5.4 billion in 2008. Some of the most popular games today range from the decidedly simpler "Tetris," "Pac-Man" and "Bejeweled" to mobile interpretations of console hits like the "Guitar Hero" and "Madden Football" entries.
Limitations
- There are two major hindrances, however, that prevent mobile phone gaming from being even more popular and profitable. One, there is still a wide technological-capability gap between mobile phone games and that of consoles, PCs and even handhelds since mobile phones are still comparatively limited in hardware, thus relegating this industry to casual gamers. And two, you cannot just get any mobile game you desire; if your service provider does not offer it, you can't purchase it since it would not be compatible with your phone.
