of the performance of the N-gage service since its launch. Nokia also announced a new SDK for Snap Mobile to provide more support for cross-platform gaming. And last, but not least, the winners of the Nokia Mobile Games Innovation Challenge were announced at the summit.

The faces of innovation gather at annual Nokia Games Summit

Rome, Italy / Espoo, Finland  Oct. 29, 2008 -- Nokia hosts games industry leaders from around the world today in Rome, Italy to discuss openly about how to evolve, innovate and cooperate together to grow the mobile games business globally. In addition to discussions around trends in mobile gaming, publishers' perspectives and visions of the future, attendees learn how the N-Gage service has been doing since its launch six months ago, hear how Nokia Games Publishing is innovating with new games like Dance Fabulous, and see concepts of the top three finalists of the Mobile Games Innovation Challenge.

"With the N-Gage service now live for six months, we have a truly global service on offer with sales transactions in over 130 countries and tens of millions of N-Gage compatible devices available," said Tero Ojanperä, executive vice president and head of the Nokia entertainment and communities business. "The most active players reside in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Australia and Spain, but we've seen active players worldwide with repeat purchase rates over 35% globally. Game trials have also proved to be important, with download to purchase conversions up to 30%."

"As we continue to scale with N-Gage, games remain a key part of our vision of context aware internet services and important to our overall services strategy," Ojanperä continued. "But, we have a challenge for the future: how do we work together to innovate in this new environment, around Internet and services? The Nokia Games Summit is a great platform to discuss some of these challenges as well as the opportunities."

Nokia Games Publishing has been creating unique made-for-mobile games for many years and the latest game coming exclusively to N-Gage in 2009 is Dance Fabulous. Players can create their own dance moves to any music stored on their mobile device. As they hone their dancing skills, players will be able to share their best choreographies with friends to see who has the most fabulous moves. Nokia together with music legend Dave Stewart, who is working with Nokia on the Nokia Artists' Advisory Council, are introducing up-and-coming singer Cindy Gomez through the mobile game with brand new songs including the theme song, "Street Dancing".

Publishers also continue to bring more games to N-Gage. EA Mobile™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc, continues its support for N-Gage at the Nokia Games Summit with the announcement of an extensive global release schedule for the platform. EA will be bringing some of its popular franchises to N-Gage in the coming year, including EA SPORTS™ FIFA 09, Need For Speed™ Undercover and The Sims™ 3.

Asphalt 4: Elite Racing by Gameloft is also coming to N-Gage offering the largest number of high-end cars ever in your mobile device: 28 prestigious dream cars and bikes including the Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari F430 Spider, Nissan GT-R and Ducati 1098.

SNAP Mobile SDK 2.2 provides game template, UI tools and support for cross-platform gaming

Rome, Italy / Espoo, Finland  Oct. 29, 2008 -- Nokia today announced the availability of the latest Software Development Kit (SDK) for SNAP Mobile, its end-to end solution for connected mobile gaming in Java™ technology. The SNAP Mobile SDK 2.2 provides developers with a number of innovative tools to make it significantly easier to create connected mobile games. New features include a game template, skinable user interface framework, support for J2SE and Bot API. The SDK is available for download through Forum Nokia, the largest mobile development community worldwide, at http://www.forum.nokia.com/snapmobile. 

"Nokia is committed to enhancing the mobile gaming experience and by adding these new elements to the SNAP Mobile SDK, we're making it faster and easier for developers to add connected gaming elements to their games," said Jonathan Sharp, Director, Games Strategy, Nokia. "Consumers expect more and more from their mobile games and this SDK will help developers deliver great Java games with superior connected gaming elements. We are working in close collaboration with our gaming partners to evolve the mobile gaming industry at large and together we can ensure that consumers get even better games."

The new game template provides a complete implementation for all required community functionality such as friends list and chat, with an interface that allows developers to either plug in existing game code, or to use as a basis for entirely new connected games. This template enables developers to concentrate on developing their game, not on the platform requirements, since most SNAP Mobile requirements are already in the game template.

With the user interface framework, developers can quickly manipulate a game's look and feel with easy to change XML. The UI framework includes a clean separation of controller logic which makes it easy to use with developers' existing UI frameworks. For example, PopCap Games' Chuzzle™ powered by SNAP Mobile is now available with new connected elements that enable players to compete globally for high scores. PopCap took their existing Chuzzle game and used the SNAP Mobile SDK 2.2 to quickly add connected functionality with only minimal redesign to the game's user interface. This is PopCap's first connected mobile game developed on a Nokia platform, with development ongoing for additional games expected to be available in 2009.

The SNAP Mobile SDK 2.2 also adds support for J2SE, enabling developers to design games with cross platform support. This means that SNAP Mobile games can also be created as a desktop applications or applets to run on PCs and web pages with the possibility to play against the same game's mobile version. For example, the N-Gage title Reset Generation uses the SNAP Mobile support for J2SE to enable players to compete against each other from a webpage and from their Nokia device.

The new Bot API helps developers deliver a better connected game experience as it guarantees that mobile players can find opponents online. If an opponent isn't immediately found online, the system will match players with a server based AI so they can play without having to wait for an opponent.

Boo! Ghostly game wins top prize in Nokia Mobile Games Innovation Challenge

Rome, Italy / Espoo, Finland  Oct. 29, 2008 -- Nokia revealed that Ghostwire, by A Different Game from Sweden, is the winner of the Mobile Games Innovation Challenge. Ghostwire is a casual collection and adventure game, where players use the unique features of the mobile device to communicate with the world of ghosts. Ghostwire also features an augmented reality-powered mini-game, where players can use the camera on their mobile device to find ghosts. At the Nokia Games Summit awards ceremony, A Different Game was awarded the top prize of €40,000 to further develop their concept.

Sweden's Jadestone and France's C4M, came in second place with Melokey to win €20,000. Eclipse Interactive from the United Kingdom claimed third place and €10,000 with Watchers. As well as the prize money, each of the winners will be given pre-production contracts with Nokia Games Publishing. The winning three titles were chosen by a panel of independent industry experts, selected from a final shortlist of ten concepts from around the globe.

"We are happy to see such exciting mobile game concepts come from each of the three winners of the Mobile Games Innovation Challenge and are looking forward to seeing these innovative ideas come to life," said Dr Mark Ollila, director of games publishing, Nokia.

"The standard of the concepts submitted to the Mobile Games Innovation Challenge was very high, and it has been fascinating to see the different types of ideas created for mobile. It has been a difficult decision, but we were all impressed by Ghostwire," said Maarten Noyons, founder and general manager of the International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) and head of the Mobile Games Innovation Challenge judging panel.

Noyons added, "This is a refreshing game that is truly 'made-for-mobile', using augmented reality in a different way. Your mobile phone helps you to discover and actually see a hidden world of mysteries and ghosts, to communicate with them, to collect them and to, as the makers state, give them peace. All judges agreed that this is a game they'd like to see progress."

The winner, Tom Söderlund, CEO of A Different Game said, "We believe Ghostwire has the potential to become an exhilarating and innovative game, and we're happy the jury agrees with us. The entire team is overwhelmed and excited to win this important award."

Second Prize was awarded to Melokey which was chosen for its potential to bring music and games to mobile with advanced social networking features. Melokey is a music game for mobile devices where players learn to master songs and play them against other in-game characters and competitors to win the hearts of fans. Once they have the hang of how to master the play interface via the immersive single player campaign, players can start playing their own favourite music, not just on their own, but together with friends.

Third Prize, Watchers, is a conspiracy adventure-themed game and is part of the new generation of games which are using location and context as an essential element. The game will use Nokia Maps and other real world tools to find locations. Players must explore these locations to uncover clues and use all their wits and any means necessary, to find out who they are, why they are trapped, and who is behind it all. Watchers is supported with episodic game play and offers players the chance to provide content to challenge other fellow conspiracy theorists.

The Mobile Games Innovation Challenge, launched in April 2008, is designed to encourage the development of innovative game concepts with the power to positively disrupt the global mobile gaming industry and to help propel mobile gaming with handheld devices into a new and exciting future.

The Mobile Games Innovation Challenge, sponsored by Nokia Games Publishing, called for mobile game developers to submit concepts that will help drive mobile gaming to the next level, relying on the advanced features and functionalities of N-Gage-compatible devices, and Java- or Symbian-based Series 40 or S60 devices from Nokia.

Information Source:    Nokia
Images courtesy of Nokia