The game within the game: Making mobile gaming work for ...

2011 was a banner year for mobile gaming. We?re now seeing 60 percent of smartphone users regularly playing games on their devices and surveys indicate that number will only increase. That?s a remarkable achievement considering only 18 percent of gamers played on mobile devices in 2009.

Mobile game development has also transitioned, from niche hobby to lucrative profession. While developers continue to push the boundaries of mobile gaming, the industry must consider the business imperatives affecting the evolution of this dynamic marketplace. As it does so, companies will have to address three distinct challenges:

Console vs. mobile

Technology hurdles that once prevented mobile gaming from rivaling console gaming are gone. Battery life, formerly a huge hurdle for mobile devices, is less of an issue now, although there will always be trade-offs around how and where the best gaming experiences are delivered. Advanced mobile technologies are offering better power performance for longer play as well as new innovations, all of which can match the console online experience. This raises the question of whether the next-generation gamer will need to buy a dedicated gaming machine at all, if their mobile devices can match the console experience.

At the same time, visionary companies are taking mobile gaming to uncharted places. Take vision-based augmented reality (AR), which superimposes 3D graphics on real world objects and landscapes to create immersive 3D games that combine real and virtual worlds. The mobile technology in this area is advancing and bringing brand new gaming experiences to life. Imagine the camera in your smartphone being able to recognize the objects you see and provide information in real time that would be useful to you as you moved around. Companies doing research in AR for mobile are working on the technologies to make that possible ? and it?s something that you can?t do at all in the traditional console world.

The LTE revolution

Next-generation 4G networks are winning points with consumers as game developers harness bigger, faster pipelines in new and creative ways. The industry-leading 4G standard is now Long Term Evolution, or LTE, and it?s enabling a whole new kind of mobile game.

For example, Gameloft (a Qualcomm partner) will soon release Modern Combat 3, an exclusive game that is one of the first massively multiplayer on-line (MMO) mobile games to take advantage of LTE?s bandwidth and low latency. LTE opens the door to MMO games for more powerful mobile gaming experiences. That?s exciting for the millions of players seeking to replicate the intensity of online console gaming on their mobile devices.

LTE?s main game development challenge is production expense: It costs more to make an LTE game, with its richer graphics and larger amounts of data, than a game meant for a lower-bandwidth connection. While LTE is quickly expanding in the U.S., it needs broader penetration to become a profitable and viable option. Until then, games made for LTE will be slow in coming to market, especially from smaller game developers.

The solution? An ongoing commitment from the mobile industry to double down on proliferating LTE on a global scale. As the networks become universal and more LTE-enabled devices come to market, it will make economic sense for developers to commit to the technological investment. Mobile enablers and carriers can help set the table for their game developer partners and bring more LTE games to life by driving LTE access and adoption.

Getting graphic

Mobile graphics innovation is at an all-time high. Enhanced graphics processing units (GPUs) make it possible for consumers to enjoy immersive gaming experiences on mobile devices that were previously only possible on consoles or desktop PCs.

Many developers have started to enhance their games with the addition of new location-aware and social features, as well as optimizations to enable higher performance when running on mobile devices. However, this is still far from the norm. Business realities often necessitate optimizing games for the capabilities of lowest common denominator hardware, resulting in a less impressive user experience for a wider audience. Managing that balancing act is a challenge for any developer.

Chipset companies and manufacturers must work with middleware and game engine vendors to bring an increased supply of optimized implementations to mobile platforms. By offering developers the best of both worlds, we?ll progress toward an ecosystem where the optimal gaming experience ? one that takes full advantage of the GPU ? is possible on the majority of mobile devices.

A whole new world

The future is bright. We?re on the verge of mobile experiences that previously only seemed possible if Captain Kirk and Spock were prominently involved.

Creating the best possible gaming experience across wireless platforms is the only way to equal (and potentially surpass) console gaming while spurring innovation within the mobile industry. But we can only get there by thinking bigger. That means increasing the ratio of games fully optimized for the capabilities provided by modern mobile hardware.

If we?re to make AR and LTE gaming an everyday reality, we must begin by embracing and taking full advantage of the incredible developments made over the past couple years. It?s a daunting challenge, but it?s one we can take on together. Game on!

---

Dave Durnil is Qualcomm?s director of advanced gaming. Qualcomm will have the latest mobile gaming advancements on display at CES Booth #30313 in the South Hall.

Top photo: Judy van der Velden/Flickr

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Tags: 4G, LTE, Mobile gaming

Companies: Qualcomm

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/05/the-game-within-the-game/

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Chinese video websites in court as industry grows

BEIJING (AP) ? China's two biggest video websites are fighting in court over accusations they are misusing each other's programming as rivalry heats up in an industry that is luring viewers from bland state TV.

The conflict between Youku.com Inc. and Tudou Inc. is part of a struggle for dominance in an online market with nearly 400 million viewers and dozens of privately owned outlets that might represent the future of China's video watching and a lucrative advertising stream.

"Everybody is shooting for that golden demographic ? the young people who are just out of school, have a lot of disposable income and that watch online video instead of television," said David Wolf, a marketing consultant in Beijing.

China's video websites started out imitating YouTube, relying on users to upload cat videos and other free material. But to lock in affluent viewers, the most ambitious started to imitate TV stations, paying to import foreign programs or create their own.

Still more viewers might be driven to video websites by a new government campaign to clean up China's airwaves and promote "socialist core values."

Rules that took effect Sunday strike at a hugely popular market segment for China's ambitious local broadcasters by slashing the number of reality, talent and dating shows they can show on satellite channels. State media say the number of prime-time entertainment shows plunged from 126 in December to just 38 this week.

That hurts local stations just as rising revenues allow online rivals to produce even more content, highlighted by the court fight between Youku and Tudou.

In a Dec. 16 lawsuit, Youku accused Tudou of stealing 60 of its programs including serials called "The Emperor's Harem," ''Hip-Hop Office Quartet" and "Miss Puff."

Tudou says it has filed suit in Shanghai and Beijing accusing Youku of showing a Taiwanese series, "Kangxi Has Come," after Tudou obtained rights to it. The company claims Youku showed Japanese cartoons without the owner's permission.

The companies, both of which have shares traded on U.S. exchanges, accuse each other of trying to use legal claims to gain a competitive edge.

"Youku think they can live on free traffic without paying for the content," said Tudou CEO Gary Wang in a statement, "and they are trying to hide the fact that they are actually not as competitive as they pretend to be."

Both companies reject the accusations in the lawsuits.

"Tudou is playing games," said a Youku spokeswoman, Jean Shao.

Beijing has allowed such private companies to flourish with fewer of the controls imposed on China's entirely state-owned newspapers, TV and radio, possibly to avoid stifling what is seen as a promising high-tech industry.

Their surging popularity threatens to erode viewership for state TV, which Beijing sees as a tool to mold public opinion. That raises the threat communist leaders might tighten controls to protect their media presence.

Tighter regulation might "threaten private online video sites' very existence, and put investors at risk," said CMM Intelligence, a media consulting firm in Beijing, in a March report.

Chinese video websites make money from advertising and also have pay-per-view and other premium services. But while viewership and revenue are soaring, companies are losing money as costs for programs, marketing and Internet bandwidth rise.

The number of Chinese who watch online video jumped from 284 million in 2010 to 394 million in 2011, according to CMM Intelligence. It said the total might pass 445 million by the end of 2012.

Total industry revenue rose 139 percent over a year ago in the three months ending in September to 1.5 billion yuan ($238 million), according to Analysys International, a research firm. Youku had 25.6 percent of the market and Tudou 14.5 percent. Sohu Video, part of Internet portal Sohu Corp., was close behind at 13.3 percent.

Youku, founded in 2006, says it gets 200 million visitors a month. It reported quarterly revenues surged 129 percent over a year earlier but it still reported a 47.5 million yuan ($7.4 million) loss. Tudou, which says it has 90 million registered users, lost 55.6 million yuan ($8.7 million) despite a 52 percent jump in revenue.

Other outlets include Ku6.com, with shares traded in United States, and LeTV, listed on the Shanghai stock market.

Youku has a venture with state-owned China Telecom Ltd. to distribute video on mobile phones and announced a deal in August to show DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc.'s "Kung Fu Panda" movies on its premium service. Tudou said in November it will show TV Tokyo Corp.'s animated series online one hour after they air in Japan.

Online video also gives foreign broadcasters access to China, where they are barred from most cable systems. Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks, the Discovery Channel and others have struck deals with partners such as search engine Baidu Inc. to distribute programs.

Managers of China Central Television and local state-owned broadcasters have tried to become more commercial. But the government bars foreign programs from prime time and any material deemed racy or vulgar, leading to a schedule heavy with family-friendly but dull historical sagas and variety shows.

Video websites, with looser controls, show dramas and comedies from the United States, Taiwan and Europe and their own programs. Viewers can download shows to watch on mobile phones during their morning subway ride.

Neither the government nor private researchers have reported on how many online viewers might have abandoned state TV outright.

"We all know it's taking place but nobody wants to go out and publicize the data," said Wolf, chairman of Wolf Group Asia. "The online video guys are terrified that if there are statistics that show the 'golden demographic' dropping TV to watch online video, then the government is going to come after them."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-05-AS-China-Online-Video-Battle/id-015fb598838948afa93f0b1ab350ca84

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Mexico gang seen ramping up meth in Guatemala

By E. Eduardo Castillo and Sonia Perez

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel appears to be extending its massive production of methamphetamine into neighboring Guatemala, as hundreds of tons of precursor chemicals stream into the Central American nation.

While Mexico is usually estimated to be the main supplier of meth used in the United States, seizure data suggest that neighboring Guatemala could in fact be producing as much or more.

That data, along with interviews with U.S. and Guatemalan officials, also indicates that Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is taking advantage of Guatemala's remote, isolated mountains and an alliance with a key Guatemalan trafficker to make the nation a new international meth production base.

Mexican authorities seized 675 tons of a key precursor chemical in December alone, and all of it was heading for Guatemala.

Officials in Guatemala, meanwhile, seized 7,847 barrels of precursors in 2011, equivalent to about 1,600 tons and more than Mexico's total seizures of 1,200 tons in the same year.

The Guatemala-bound chemical seized in Mexico, methylamine, can yield its weight in uncut meth, according to Steve Preisler, an industrial chemist called the father of modern meth-making.

That means the total amount seized in or heading to Guatemala could theoretically produce more than a billion one-gram doses of pure meth, and billions more if cut to street-level purity.

Authorities say it's not entirely

clear where Sinaloa could sell thousands of tons of methamphetamine, if it produced that much. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in its 2011 World Report that total meth seizures worldwide amounted to 65 tons.

But there are many signs pointing to the Sinaloa cartel's involvement in an extensive chain of meth production and distribution. The gang has already moved into industrial-scale meth production in Mexico. And after several big labs in Mexico were raided, the cartel may feel more comfortable operating in Guatemala.

"Sinaloa is the main group down there that is producing meth," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official in Mexico City, who could not be quoted by name for security reasons.

Guatemalan Interior Minister Carlos Menocal said the Mexican cartel has prepared its operations by doing business with a gang in his country led by Juan Alberto Ortiz Lopez, nicknamed "Chamale," who, before his arrest in March, was identified by the United States as the most important trafficker in Guatemala.

"What we have found is that Chamale has links to the Sinaloa cartel," Menocal said. Those links include coordinating the processing or "cooking" of meth, he said.

"An analysis by Guatemala's intelligence indicates the laboratories were managed by Mexicans," Menocal said. "They come to oversee the drug production process; Mexican chemists came to establish the formulas, and local people talk about Mexicans who came and went, doing this work."

The U.N. drug office's regional representative, Antonio Mazzitelli, said the increased seizures in Mexico and Central America may largely reflect more vigilance by authorities.

"Maybe the amount coming in hasn't changed," the U.S. official said, "but now they've identified the problem and they're going after it and so now we're seeing the seizures go up."

Either way, evidence points to the Sinaloa connection: Five huge shipments of methylamine seized in December were found at Mexican ports that authorities believe are used by the Sinaloa cartel, and all were bound, according to shipping papers, for the Guatemala port of Puerto Quetzal.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_19653183?source=rss

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