GDCE: 'Feature: Case Study- Designing Games For 3G Networks'

In this report of his GDC Europe Mobile lecture, Matt Bellows, who heads operations, sales and marketing for Floodgate Entertainment, talks about the advent of the high-speed 3G mobile networks and their effect on mobile gaming. Bellows bucks the trend of casual gaming on mobile devices, instead aiming for the more hardcore, 3D gaming market. In the introduction to Gamasutra's write-up of his sessions, it's explained: "While he was not necessarily rejecting the possibility that casual games are important to mobile phones, Bellows' decision to show Blizzard's MMO World Of Warcraft in his opening slide, commenting on the "intense, deep, rich play experience that people want to build", and further arguing: "The thing that's interesting to me about the inevitable progression of this industry is the entertainment, absorption and creative opportunities enabled by mobile phones", clearly placed his flag in the sand as an advocate of the advanced 3D graphics and in-depth gameplay shown by the most advanced mobile games. In his opening remarks, Bellows commented that the very best phone games have PlayStation-like graphical capabilities. But he believes that it will be the ability of swifter 3G networks, alongside 3D chipsets in new handsets, which will gradually enter the industry over the next few years, so that allowing lower ping times for playing multiplayer games, and equally importantly, faster download times for extra game content, will immeasurably help the sophistication of mobile gaming." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).