WAP – The Underestimated Mobile Gaming Platform of the Future

Wednesday, 04 April 2007

This blog is all about mobile gaming, you all know that. Untill now however, we mostly discussed J2me, Symbian and other gaming technologies that require the classic download method. There is much more however. In this editorial by HandyGames, they explain the possibilities and opportunities that lay in WAP based games.

In 2000, the European mobile games market didn’t really exist. Ok, there were some bad quality black and white games, which came pre-installed on handsets, e.g. Snake, and the first mobile internet browsers were coming up.

Users were used to write SMS and for them WAP was a more advanced technology. Services were provided on a server where each user connected to and requested pages from this server. These WAP pages were created separately for each user session and sent to the mobile phone browser. We were stuck with a standard Client-Server environment that only had very basic features. Navigation was dominated by links and graphics had no animation at all.

Analysts predicted a strong growth of WAP gaming and many companies on the mobile games market calculated their numbers based on a positive tendency which was also pushed by the success of the Internet.

But what hindered the fast success was the fact, that browsers were hard to configure, hard to control and the graphics were hard to recognize. WAP gaming was not sexy at all, especially because of the low traffic rates which caused slow game play. So the usage and the revenues were low, too.

Nevertheless, some bigger companies like I-Play (in these times named DigitalBridges), In-Fusio and Gameloft (formerly known as Ludiwap and Ludigames) started to produce and publish their first line-up of WAP games and placed them at the operator portals – so did HandyGames™. The gamers were confronted with tons of trivia games, hangman clones or basic text adventures.

Instead of rushing into the market, HandyGames™ developed its own SDK with real-time rendering for graphics, multiplayer features and multiple language handling. One of the first innovative games was a round-based strategy action title called “WAP Tanks”, which featured real multiplayer gameplay and basic 3D graphics. It was a milestone for early mobile internet gaming in the year 2000.

The competition was dominated by the upcoming pre-installed games and many handset manufacturers at that time had the strategy that sexy games on their phones are requested by operators and end-users. So they invested a lot in their applications and games. The advantage: the users could play games similar like the good old Gameboy titles with nice animation, faster game play and it costs nothing. It was hard to compete with WAP games against pre-installed titles.

After some time, J2ME was coming up. It was the real birth of mobile gaming with the possibility to download new games over the air. A lot of bigger publishers switched their strategy and stopped their WAP games development more or less - HandyGames™ did not.

Now, in the year 2007, we see a lot of things happening in Mobile Gaming. In regards of WAP gaming, we evolved a lot: colour graphics, UMTS speed, easy navigation, pre-configured browsers and advanced mobile operator portals. Most handsets are sold with a pre-installed portal start-button or an internet connection key. Mobile internet has become more interesting and easier to use for end-users.

Portals like Vodafone Live! or T-Zones are completely based on WAP, and users are used to navigate through the pages in order to search the latest football news, check weather data or buy mobile entertainment content, like ring tones or J2ME games.

In 7 years, HandyGames™ has produced more than 50 WAP game titles, upgraded its own tools and SDKs to the newest standards, and has established co-operations with many operators. Almost all major game publishers have stopped the production and publishing of WAP games, although there is high potential in bringing huge brands to the mobile internet.

Of course, the competition for WAP games are nowadays colourful J2ME games with a lot of content, high replay value and big brands. There is no doubt the J2ME gaming overtook WAP gaming, but there is still a big chance to generate revenues on the mobile internet.

We have seen a lot of well working concepts like WAP Girlfriend, a game where the player has to win the heart of a dream girl, or the WAP Casino deck with Texas Hold´em, Blackjack or Roulette. The newest successful titles are Braintrainer and Sudoku.

Especially on the social gaming side, WAP has a huge advantage over J2ME. There is no other platform where you can chat more easily, place high score lists, challenge human players or manage teams in an international league. HandyGames™ has built a complete community feature set in its latest games, e.g. WAP Bowling or the German League Better, where users compete against each other in huge teams.

The advantages of WAP gaming are immense. Once a WAP channel is integrated (user recognition, billing and individual customization), the service generates stable revenues without huge maintenance from the operator side. Everything is handled by HandyGames™ - from the integration of new games to the update for new handset browsers. The only thing the operator has to do: good placement in the portal structure with a clear differentiation from downloadable games.

WAP can generate a lot of airtime for operator partners and in addition, the games can be billed in many different ways: pay per time slot, pay per play, pay by event or pay by monthly subscription etc.

Competition on the WAP games market is low and there is only a handful of European companies that have a longtime experience in regards of technology. On the other hand, WAP is still not recognized as a mobile gaming platform when we talk about Mobile Gaming. Why? Because big brands are missing and the lack of good placement on the operator decks. So there is still a huge potential, which is underestimated by many parties.

“Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” would be the perfect license for a push in the WAP gaming with community tools, competitions and always changing content. And there are many more potential cash cows and big names which could be successful on WAP.

The only hurdle is the technology. It took years to setup an environment and to create tools around WAP gaming, in order to be able to produce and deliver stable and interesting services. So there is actually no way around for newcomers to start producing or publishing WAP games by working together with existing companies like HandyGames™.

The technology is evolving – so why not think about WAP games in 2007?

Read more about Platforms: Wap