O2 Launches Java Games Service - but Not the First One

mmO2 has claimed to have launched the first commercial Java games service in the UK. Presumably they've chosen to ignore the Java games service being offered by the UK based www.icon-a-phone.com, which has been offering Java Games for paid download for several months.

All of the O2 games arcade games will be free to UK customers for one month from 1 to 30 September 2002. The service will launch across the other O2 territories (Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands) from October.

A wide selection of games are offered within the O2 games arcade at launch, including Atari classics - Asteroids, Pong and Breakout- plus Marslander, Men in Black II, Denkiblocks!, Oilrig, Racing Fever, Forbidden Jungle, Pinball - The Castle, Turtles, Towers and Popstar. Around three new games a month will be added to the O2 games arcade.

Analysts forecast that gaming on mobiles will be big business, extending the role of the mobile phone beyond communications. Forrester Research predicts that, in three years, 45% of mobile subscribers in Europe will regularly pay to play games on their mobile. Ovum forecasts that global spending on mobile games will total EUR 4.4 billion by 2006. O2's own research highlighted that, when shown games from the O2 games arcade, 65% of mobile owners aged 16-19 expressed a 'strong interest' in downloading them to their mobiles.

mmO2 is working with a number of game suppliers and developers, including Motorola, THQ, Digital Bridges, Macrospace, MR. Goodliving, Sumea, Picofun and Ifone. As well as partnering leading branded suppliers, O2 will leverage its online application developer communities - including the 9,000 registered to sourceO2, mmO2's accelerator of mobile services.

Tim Raby, head of games for O2, said: "Our research highlights that customers are looking for better 'playability', a greater challenge, enhanced colour graphics and a 'console-like' feel to games on their mobile - all of which the O2 games arcade will deliver. We have selected games that are ideally suited to mobile - that look good on screen and take only minutes to download. To ensure variety, we will be adding around three games per month to our portfolio to ensure that our gamers never get bored."'"

Posted to the site on 29th August 2002