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Multiplayer For Mobile Games - Are We There Yet?

Posted by simoniker on from the nearly dept.

Thanks to GameSpot for its feature discussing whether multiplayer mobile phone gaming is genuinely an emerging trend. According to the piece: "For every mobile maven that claims that networked multiplayer is where mobile gaming must direct its energies, there are another two that point to the prohibitive costs, technical barriers, and unacceptable risks that currently stand between wide-spectrum multiplayer and reality." Isaac Babbs of Atlas Mobile frames the problems as "...device limitations and high data costs to the consumer. On many of today's networks, even a simple chess game could hit you for half an hour of airtime--and that's if you manage to make it through without the other player getting fed up and dropping or going into a tunnel and losing reception." Will mobile phone gaming ever take off in the States?

4 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Going forward... by dmayle · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I must admit, this is one place that I see Nintendo taking the lead with the new DS. I've seen manny people pan it, because they can't think of a telling use for a game with a second touch-pad screen. Forget single-player games. If Nintendo does the dev kits right, since it's got wi-fi built into it, whether you're playing someone local, or over the net, it could be seemless.

    And the touch pad? A perfect device for communication. Forget using the stylus to scribble notes, instead imagine certain regions for different messages, defined large enough so that you can use your thumb to pick one of four, or one of eight, responses. Or the ability to send an invite, a la Xbox-live to a friend no matter what game they're playing, to get them to join you. This is definitely where Microsoft got it right, and I hope Nintendo does as well, because while there are millions of people, from kids to adults who play video games, the number who sit in front of their computer with an IM window of some type open and chatting is even greater, and if you can mix those two markets together, than you will be riding a very powerful market force, indeed...

  2. Re:Bluetooth? by Devalia · · Score: 4, Informative

    My old phone, a Sony Ericsson T68i let you do this. Albeit it had a limited selection of games (namely Battleships) which could use it but it worked well and was great for those long train rides with other friends with the same phone.

  3. from the article: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The social element is really integral to multiplayer," added Riedel, "but we can't really do chat, voice chat, or video conferencing on mobile right now."

    I'm sorry? You can't do voice chat on a mobile phone? :)

    1. Re:from the article: by perlchild · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Very funny, but no, your mobile phone can't do 8-way communication with all 8 members of your party like in Diablo, or party-broadcast either. I imagine they're afraid it would take away from their network revenue.