Mobile Choice Blog

Mobile gambling to top $5 billion by 2012 says analyst

At the moment, mobile gambling isn't very high-profile, but it seems that may change in the coming years. Mobile industry analyst Juniper Research claims that mobile users will be wagering more than $5 billion (£2.4 million) on mobile casinos by 2012.

It includes services like mobile slot machine games and multiplayer gambling, rather than the traditional betting formats. Even more interesting is Juniper's claim that the UK currently accounts for more than 60% of mobile casino spending, which is due to the fact that several operators have promoted these services (with the appropriate age-verification controls, obviously."

The report also suggests that the average monthly spending on mobile casinos has topped $100 (about £50) in some countries. Juniper says that there's already a proven demand for these services, which will only increase as the quality and number improve in the years ahead.

Nokia N-Gage delayed until December

In case you're puzzled, we're talking about the NEW N-Gage, which is now a games platform rather than a specific handset - in other words, you'll be able to play N-Gage games on a range of Nokia's Nseries handsets. It was due to launch in November, but the company has just announced that it's being delayed until next month.

"N-Gage is coming in December," said Nokia's Kari Tuutti. "Software testing is taking a bit more time than what we had expected. We are talking about a couple of weeks." The positive reading of the news is that Nokia is taking its time to ensure the all-new N-Gage is just right, rather than rushing it out. The negative reading is, well, it's not exactly a promising start.

We'll be covering the new N-Gage platform more on here, as it gets closer to launch, so stay tuned.

(via Reuters)

The future of mobile games is... gardening?

Forget your real-life allotment or vegetable patch. The future is virtual gardening on your phone. Well, that's the message from a competition organised by EA Mobile and Channel 4, which asked people to pitch their cool mobile game ideas to a panel of experts.

The winner was an idea called 'Let It Grow' by Tom Dowding, which involves nurturing a plant until it becomes a beautiful flower, then sharing it with your friends. The phone's camera is involved somewhere along the way too. He's won £2,500 and a work placement at EA for winning, although there's no guarantee that it will actually be turned into a game.

Other entries also made use of mobile phone features, including the camera but also GPS and connectivity. It seems the next generation of mobile game designers aren't content to just rehash Tetris and Pac-Man. Good work them!

(via Pocket Gamer)

ZeeMote: the Wii-like games controller for your mobile

One of the problems with mobile gaming is the less-than-ideal controls: playing a game with a mobile keypad can be a frustrating experience. A new Bluetooth controller called the ZeeMote could help. It looks a bit like the Nunchuck controller that comes with Nintendo's Wii, and provides a proper joystick and buttons. Watch the video below for a demonstration, and click here for more information.

When is a 'free' mobile game not actually free?

It's a good question, and one that's being investigated by UK communications watchdogs Ofcom and Icstis, following controversy around a Disney Mobile advert that promised a free game. Some users downloading it found they were stung for as much as £5 in data charges.

This isn't a deliberate rip-off like some of the ringtone subscription scams from recent memory: the problem is that data charges vary from operator to operator (and, indeed, from tariff to tariff), so it's near-impossible for anyone downloading a game 'off-portal' to know how much it'll cost them in data charges.

Disney is apparently rethinking its marketing strategy, while there are reports that Ofcom and Icstis are gearing up for a proper investigation, to ensure mobile users aren't hit by any more surprise charges of this nature.

(via This Is Money)

Punch US politicians with Glu's White House Rumble

Here in the UK, we're waiting to see if Gordon Brown calls a snap election in October. In the US, there's no such mystery about when they're next going to the polls: the next presidential election is happening next year, with candidates in both parties already jockeying for position.

Glu Mobile is celebrating that fact with its new game White House Rumble. It's a colourful boxing game involving George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani punching the lights out of one another.

The game has just gone on sale in the US, and we doubt it'll cross the Atlantic. However, imagine how fun a localised version with Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Menzies Campbell would be...

Nokia's new N-Gage shuns comparisons with PSP and DS

Amid all the hullabaloo around the new Nokia Music Store (something we're taking full part in), it might have gone unnoticed that the company also announced new details about its new N-Gage service last week. Instead of a dedicated games phone like the original N-Gage and N-Gage QD, it's now a platform running on various Nokia Nseries handsets, offering advanced 3D games.

The temptation is to portray the all-new N-Gage as a competitor to fully-fledged gaming devices like Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS. However, that's not something Nokia is keen to encourage, as its N-Gage chief Jaakko Kaidesoja explained in an interview with Pocket Gamer.

"We don't want to compare it with DS and PSP," he said. "They're doing a great job on their turf, and our turf is the mobile gaming market."