Tech Shout!

At the 2nd Annual Mobile Gaming Conference 2006, that was held in Mumbai, Mauj Telecom, the hosts of the event enlightend everyone present on the future of technology in mobile games. At the conference they introduced a set of 14 next generation mobile games called ‘Augmented Reality’. These games involve the use of camera phones.

One of the games called ColorfulDate requires the user to capture a particular colour, to gain points in the game, while another game uses pictures from the phone’s folders, as a backdrop during gameplay.

Mauj Telecom also introduced multiplayer Bluetooth games and around 13 regional language games for the Indian market. Upcoming themes for games include Bengali, Tamil and Telugu movies, alongside the popular Bollywood themed games already available.

Ashay Padwal, head of technology for Mauj Telecom said, “With the advent of 3G technology in mobile phones in the country, which is slated for the second quarter of 2007, the mobile gaming industry will grow by leaps and bounds. However, the impetus must come from the handset manufacturers, as in the case of Japanese and Korean markets, where mobile games are becoming more PSP-like. In fact, those markets will soon have PSP + phone devices! In the Indian market, devices like these will take time to catch on.”

The mobile games introduced by Mauj Telecom come at prices ranging from Rs. 50 to Rs. 250, depending on the complexity of the game.

In the future Mauj plans to introduce memory sticks loaded with 50 games for the Indian market.

Apart from games, Mauj also highlighted the necessity of Digital Rights Management (DRM) policy for mobile games and issues of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for game developers. Padwal said that mobile phone manufacturers have defined a new version of DRM for next generation phones, to allow ’super distribution’. DRM 2, as it is referred to, will allow games to be shared via Bluetooth, but the recipient will not be able to play the game unless he pays a license fee of Rs 20, charged to his bill. This policy will come into effect in the first quarter of 2007.