National Hockey League Launches a Java Game

Tira Wireless has launched what it says is the first North American major sports league branded Java Game, the National Hockey League (NHL) PowerShot Hockey. The game carries the NHL brand as part of a licensing agreement signed between Tira Wireless and the NHL. NHL PowerShot Hockey will be made available to mobile subscribers through mobile operators in North America and across Europe.

Users can choose their favorite NHL teams, and leverage distinct attributes, such as skating speed and offense and defense abilities, to win the game. Users control skating and shooting and, in this no-rules version, can deliver body checks and a super-charged power shot. Users can also select from three levels of difficulty and electronically keep track of win/loss records to compare with friends.

"While the market for the J2ME platform continues to grow, it is applications such as NHL PowerShot Hockey that will set a new benchmark for quality J2ME development," said Greg Wolff, group marketing manager, Consumer and Mobile Systems at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Sun is pleased to have Tira as an iForce(SM) partner and customer, as its full-service publishing model delivers value to both developers and operators."

As part of the value-added services Tira offers to mobile operators, all published Tira Studios applications, including NHL PowerShot Hockey, bear the Mobile Assure trustmark. The Mobile Assure certification program encompasses more than 200 tests across multiple devices and networks to ensure that every Tira Studios branded application meets stringent standards for security, usability, and copyright ownership."

Posted to the site on 25th March 2003