(Press Release) Smartphone users now have access to more popular games than ever as Handango Inc. (Handango), the leading retailer of smartphone apps globally, announced partnerships with top mobile game publishers Digital Chocolate and I-play. Through these deals, Handango added a vast array of top entertainment content for Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices.

Digital Chocolate titles include 3D Brick Breaker Revolution, Mini Golf 99-Holes and Shopping Madness and games from I-play include Deal or No Deal, Million Dollar Mission, Jenga, Jewel Quest 2, Mercenaries 2, and Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift and more.

“With the‘Games’ category now coming in at second place behind‘Entertainment’ for the first time in Handango’s history, we are excited to expand our content offerings through partnerships with some of the leading mobile game publishers in the industry,” states Alex Bloom, VP of Content, Handango.”Digital Chocolate and I-play have created an incredible array of games for the exploding smartphone marketplace.”

“Digital Chocolate is well known for award-winning, high-quality games, and we are excited to be partnering with Handango to bring our content to smartphone users,” states Jason Loia, COO, Digital Chocolate.

“At I-play, we pride ourselves on our portfolio of award-winning and top-selling casual games”, says Anders Evju, General Manager, Americas, I-play.”Partnering with Handango is a great way to reach a new generation of gamers. This deal not only continues our commitment to distribute our games on every screen, but also provides us with the opportunity to work with the world’s leading retailer of smartphone applications.”

Previously this year, Handango announced distribution deals with EA Mobile and Capcom as part of its ongoing effort to increase entertainment and gaming options for smartphone users.

About Handango

Handango is the leading provider of smartphone applications globally for the BlackBerry®, Palm®, Windows Mobile®, Symbian OS®, and AndroidTM platforms. Leveraging its 140,000+ apps, network of 23,000+ content partners, and vast distribution network, Handango delivers top-selling mobile applications including games, business and entertainment apps and productivity tools to millions of consumers. Applications can be downloaded via www.handango.com, partner Web sites, SD cards and Handango’s proprietary on-device catalog, Handango® InHandTM, the industry’s leading content delivery platform that allows consumers to purchase mobile apps directly from their smartphone and download them over the air. Handango’s unparalleled content expertise has attracted numerous mobile industry partners including Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Alltel, Nokia, Research In Motion, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, AOL and The Carphone Warehouse. For more information, visit http://corp.handango.com.
Handango is a registered trademark of Handango, Inc. All other tradenames, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved. Subject to change without prior notice.

About Digital Chocolate

Digital Chocolate is the world’s most efficient producer of high quality, original games across mass-market casual platforms. With offices in San Mateo, Helsinki, Bangalore, and Barcelona, the company offers more than 60 award-winning games, including Tower Bloxx and AvaPeeps, with a focus on casual, social, and mobile play that is offered globally over both wired and wireless networks. Digital Chocolate was founded in 2003 by CEO Trip Hawkins, who was also the founder and CEO of Electronic Arts. In addition to leading the industry in awards for its mobile games, the company known as “DChoc” has itself won more than 10 awards in the last two years including Best Game Developer of the Year awards from both IGN.com and Mobile Entertainment and inclusion in The Red Herring Global 100. For more information, please visit www.digitalchocolate.com.

About I-play

I-play, the publishing division of Oberon Media, Inc., is the world’s leading multi-platform casual games publisher. With powerful franchises and massive distribution across the three most popular entertainment screens-online, mobile, and interactive television-I-play content reaches global consumers, and delivers fun, entertaining, accessible content to casual gamers of all ages. I-play’s PC publishing division, formerly Oberon Games, is based in Seattle and created the hit Dream Day Series, as well as the first casual games for bestselling author James Patterson and legendary mystery author Agatha Christie, including the Causal Connect 2008 Game of the Year, Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile. I-play’s mobile division has delivered some of the biggest selling franchises in the mobile space, including the world’s #1 best-selling racing franchise, The Fast&the Furious, based on the blockbuster movies. I-play’s interactive television group, formerly PixelPlay, creates and distributes games featuring top brands including CentipedeTM, Missile Command®, AsteroidsTM, Monopoly®, Scrabble®, Boggle®, and YahtzeeTM. I-play is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Seattle, San Mateo, London, and Dunfermline, Scotland.

In a brilliant move Handango had signed a deal with Bust Buy to offer mobile content through Best Buy’s stores. In-HandT, Handango’s new brand for that matter, will be available to buyers through Best Buy’s Mobile Genie point-of-sale system. This will allow customers to browse and download applications to the device.
I’m sure it’s a nice newsbit to all of us developers who got applications on their store. Read more »

Freyja Melhorn just dropped us a word that FISHLABS had launched a Website and PSMS billing system in Russia. They plan to “make greater use of viral distribution for high quality mobile games in Russia”, supported by Iricom (MMSKA).

Michael Schade, Fishlabs’ CEO, was quoted saying: “The launch of our website in Russian was a very important step for FISHLABS. Russia is an unbelievably attractive market for us. Along with the large number of game-capable mobile phones and the favourable connection costs over the mobile network, the Russians’ technical affinity is legendary. It is no wonder that by far the largest share of “virally acquired” mobile gamers come from Russia. Combined with an in-game online connection, we can now generate significant revenues even from pirated copies via the PSMS connection through Iricom.”

I’ll let you read the whole press release next, for the fine details.
Read more »

18 September 2008 - London, UK, Hall T4 - Sony Ericsson today launches its new multimedia Xperia(TM) X1 mobile phone, at Tent London, to showcase its innovative and unique style amongst some of the world’s most cutting edge designers.

Tent London - part of London Design Week - offers visitors the opportunity to experience and exclusively preview this stunning phone at the Sony Ericsson stand in Hall T4. Read more »

London, UK – PRESS RELEASE - MobileGD.com - 15th September, 2008: Ad-funded mobile games outfit www.123play.com today announced a partnership with one of the world’s leading independent publishers, Dennis Publishing, to give readers the means to download free mobile games directly to their phones. The deal includes the following websites in the agreement: www.computershopper.co.uk, www.custompc.co.uk and new sites like www.denofgeek.com and www.knowyourmobile.com will include instructions of how to download free games from 123play.com’s packed portfolio. Read more »

New Technology Allows Developers to “Write Once, Run Anywhere” Across Mobile, Smartphone and Web 2.0 Landscapes

SAN FRANCISCO - September 9, 2008 - Mytopia Inc., an innovator in cross-platform technology, today announced the official launch of RUGS™ (the Real-time Universal Gaming System), a patent-pending, proprietary framework for rapid rich media creation across the Web, mobile and smartphone landscapes. The revolutionary new technology, which was announced this afternoon in a presentation given at the prominent TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco, allows developers to code rich, connected applications one time, and simultaneously deploy native versions to every supported platform, including iPhone, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian, Android and J2ME devices, as well as popular web platforms like Facebook’s F8 and Google’s Open Social. Content created on RUGS harnesses the unique capabilities of each platform, while running from a singular code base. For more information about Mytopia, please visit www.mytopia.com. Read more »

San Franciso - August 25, 2008 - IQ212 Games today announced the release of Redneck Fishin’ for mobile. In the woods, the suburbs, or the city, Redneck Fishin’ allows players to fish for trout, bass and more using dynamite for bait. Read more »

Zeemote JS1 Controller Will Integrate With Nokia N-Gage Games and S60 Applications

BEDFORD, MA, Aug 20, 2008 — Zeemote(TM), Inc. , the makers of intelligent wireless controllers for mobile devices, today announced that Nokia will be the first organization to launch its Zeemote Zeekey(TM) application. This new application enables the Zeemote JS1 Controller to work with N-Gage games and other S60 applications. The Zeemote Zeekey application will come pre-loaded on featured handsets as special gaming bundles and is also available for download on the Nokia website. Read more »

Mobile entertainment provider partners with Trixcell to introduce mobile magic content category around the globe

LOS ANGELES, Calif. / BERLIN, Germany, 21 August 2008 – Jamba, a leading global provider of mobile content and entertainment, also known as Jamster in some countries, today announced a global partnership with Trixcell, the first company to introduce the concept of mobile magic. With exclusive deals in more than 201 countries, Jamba is the first to offer Trixcell’s innovative magic applications as part of its diverse mobile entertainment catalog. Read more »

Mumbai, India and Chicago, USA – August 20, 2008 – Reliance Big Entertainment today announces the launch of Jump Games USA and the opening of a new U.S. headquarters based in Chicago. Jump Games, a leading publisher and developer of games across mobile platforms, is aggressively looking to acquire top mobile content licenses and brands for distribution on its mobile worldwide network. Read more »