Games People Play!

You can now win wars on video game consoles! Before you grab hold of this
product, let me add that I am referring to the war games here and not real wars.
In fact, these products are gaining very fast acceptance in developed countries.
An IDC report shows gaming consoles are the fourth most purchased consumer
device in the US household, behind TVs, VCRs, and PCs.

These video game consoles feature proprietary hardware and software design
and require AC power as the primary energy source with an external video display
such as a TV. Some current generation gaming consoles have analog modems to
provide Internet browsing capability for on-line gaming (OLG).

GAMING
IN YOUR HAND

A subset of gaming consoles is handheld gaming devices, which are primarily
meant for mobile users. These are battery-powered and include a built-in LCD
display. The handheld gaming market is about to heat up soon and is seen as the
next great gaming battleground.

Growth accelerators for this market include the introduction of several
next-generation products and the capability to access the Internet using these
products. On the downside, growth inhibitors include the growing presence of
low-cost, high-performance PCs.

Despite this, the gaming market will experience strong growth for years to
come. As the new gaming platforms get integrated with common devices like cell
phones and PDAs, the popularity of gaming will grow accordingly.

True, this is not going to happen at the same speed all over the world.
Volumes will be much higher in the US and Europe, but the advantages of high
technology growth will show up even in other products. Most importantly, the
development of smaller, faster and more powerful chips. This benefits everyone
­ gamers or non-gamers!

A QUANTUM LEAP

Gaming technology is the next logical step in the digital evolution. After
video streaming, online gaming technology will be able to take a quantum leap.
This is because streaming movies do not have what the games can offer ­
interactivity. Making it more addictive than movies because your action
influences the results of the game.

Demand for better games will drive the demand for better hardware and
software. Gaming platforms will vary from traditional consoles to PCs, pocket
PCs, handheld devices, PDAs and cell phones. Many players have already lined up
for the action, and others will soon follow.

Monkeystone Games Inc is one such company which develops interactive
entertainment for PCs and mobile devices. Their primary focus is now on games
for handheld devices including Pocket PCs, PDAs, mobile phones, and Nintendo´s
GameBoy Advance.

Argentum, a cutting-edge Real Time Strategy (RTS) game for the Pocket PC from
Monkeystone games, has been claimed to be one of the most unique and promising
games for the Pocket PC platform. Argentum features superior artificial
intelligence, incredible graphics, an intuitive interface and an engaging story
to complement the stellar game.

MORE JOIN THE FRAY

Nintendo of Japan has controlled the world of the handheld video games for a
long time. Now Sony has announced its plans to get into handheld gaming with a
new device called the PSP to be released in late 2004. It will have a wide
screen that is 480 pixels wide and 272 pixels high, resembling a wide-screen TV,
and it will be backlit. The screen will be able to render 3D images.

The chips inside will be small and powerful, manufactured on the latest
90-nanometer manufacturing technology. Most PC chips, like those from Intel and
AMD, are manufactured on the 130-nanometer processes. It will have a USB 2.0
interface, to talk to PCs in some fashion, and will have a fast
handheld-to-handheld connection for head-to-head gaming.

Ken Kutaragi, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, is calling
PSP "the Walkman of the 21st Century." It will support both stereo
sound and MPEG4 video. The media used for gaming software will be the Universal
Media Disc, which is a 1.8 GB optical disc in a cartridge. A re-chargeable
lithium ion battery will power the PSP.

Nokia is building a phone called N-Gage that’s also a gaming platform. It
has enlisted popular game publishers to create games for the N-Gage. Sega, for
example, has committed to bring its classic character, Sonic the Hedgehog, as
well as its current hit game, Super Monkey Ball, to the platform.

With N-Gage you’ll be able to challenge a friend over long distances via
the phone network or over short distances using Bluetooth close-range wireless
technology. Games will be sold on flash memory cards.

The N-Gage also functions as a tri-band GSM phone that will be capable of
working on wireless phone networks in Europe, North and South America as well as
Asia. It also contains an AM/FM radio and an MP3 digital music player. It will
browse the Web using XHTML, and will support multimedia messaging and e-mail.

EXCITING TIMES ARE HERE

A startup called Tapwave, founded by former Palm executives, is planning to
build a Palm OS-based device for handheld gaming. With a display resolution of
320 pixels by 480 pixels, it will also have a joystick and support Bluetooth
wireless connections for head-to-head gaming. It will also feature personal
information management tools, audio and video players, and even a word
processor.

Several prominent game companies are expected to license their titles for
this device, including Activision, makers of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series,
and Midway Games, developers of the Mortal Kombat series. Bluetooth will be
included with the product to enable up to 8 players to engage in multiplayer
games wirelessly. They’ll have to be in the same room, however, as Bluetooth’s
range is generally confined to about 10 meters.

Another direct competitor in the new market comes from UK´s TTPCom. The
handheld, code-named B´ngo is also a mobile phone equipped with both Bluetooth
and GPRS. B´ngo was demonstrated at 3GSM World Congress in Cannes in February
2003.

Over 100 games are available for B´ngo from developers including Elite,
Digital Bridges and ITE. It comes with a selection of embedded games and with
the facility to download new games. B´ngo is equipped with full mobile phone
functionality including tri-band operation for usability throughout the world,
an embedded digital camera, MMS, GPRS class 10, polyphonic ringtones and
predictive text entry.

In this untried market, both Nokia and Tapwave have side-stepped Gameboy´s
traditional audience and aimed at an older target group by positioning their
devices as hybrids with additional functionality besides gaming. Many more
companies are trying to get into the game and it would be interesting to see who
plays the best to win!

ASHOK DONGREis a
technical consultant