Frank "verve" Kuhn

HardCore Gaming in the mobile sector has pros and cons. A mobile game is a video game which can be played on mobile telephones, smartphones, pdas, handheld computers, or portable mediaplayers. Portable game consoles like the Nintendo DS are not contained devices. “Snake” (on the Nokia devices) was one of the most well-known mobile games. With recent innovative growth, Smartphones are becoming high-end devices. The HTC HD2 with Windows Mobile 6.5 already has a 1GHz quadcomm processor and it is possible to play Playstation games (like Tekken) via simulator.

Development
The upcoming Windows Mobile Phone 7, being released at the end of 2010, will support XNA and Silverlight. iPhone is a strong competitor. An update for the current HTC devices (like HTC HD2) is not planned in the immediate future. Microsoft wants only one device with a new operating system. In addition, the current HTC devices do not have a “search button” which is required by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7.0 specification. Developers would have no more problems trying to port their game into different screen resolutions. Customers are annoyed that they do not get a Windows Mobile update for their current device but new clients are pleased about the new “big thing”.

XNA is the Framework for Xbox 360 and Silverlight “the Flash” by Microsoft. The advantage of XNA and Silverlight is that application developers are used to C# and can simply develop games. The IDE (Integrated Development Environment), Visual Studio Express, as well as the framework, are free for download.

Of course, hardware is not everything. The software is more understandable than ever – at least a more user friendly option. Some people think that the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 graphical user interface looks terrible but others say that it has a modern look. Through the simplification of elements and skillfull graphical presentations, they are able to reach a wider audience. In the future, even more people will carry a small game console. Generally such settings, like HD2, are not an advantage to set on boring mobile gaming but work better on mobile hardcore gaming with game engines for high end devices.

Marketing
Of course, it is easier for a developer to market games through Microsoft. Developers will have to spend only a minimal amount for development but it is also more difficult to sell your game to the public.
Take a look on the reviews of game purchases on Apple’s AppStore. Most buyers would like to buy a product with a value of almost 40Euros (like a game costs mostly in stores in Germany) for 74 cents and complain about it – when the game just costs 5Euros. Buyers even complain about a free game demo version with only one level. They want more levels! Only large publishers are earning the most profit on this sector because they already have their engine and have only to port their existing games to the iPhone.

Conclusion
In recent years, many enterprises have spent time to develop “casual games” – games that require less budget and focus on one target group but still earn considerable profit. In the future, owing to high-end devices, there will be a shift in the market. Regarding PC’s, the mobile sector will grow and reach an expanding market. Apple proved this point with their product iPhone which enjoyed 1.4 million in sales since its release. There will be no more gaming though in the underground but users will have the best mobile gaming experience.