AT&T Customers Get Mobile Spore Exclusives

Excited about mobile Spore? Well, if you're an AT&T customer, you're pretty much in luck, because AT&T has signed an agreement with EA to make Spore Origins for mobile phones exclusive to AT&T until the 4th of September. Uh, take that, Sprint subscribers?

Both AT&T's high-speed internet customers and mobile customers get exclusive Spore goods, not just the phone users. New AT&T high-speed internet customers get a free copy of the full downloadable PC Spore, which AT&T probably hopes will entice Spore junkies to get out from under their old provider.

There's also an "AT&T Edition" of the Creature Creator Demo, but it's unclear how that varies from the version everyone else can download.

Sega: The iPhone is as Powerful as the Dreamcast

Speaking with SEGA of America president Simon Jeffery earlier today he noted that the iPhone is about as powerful as the publisher's console the Dreamcast. Jeffery said the company is delighted with how their iPhone version of Super Monkey Ball has been received by the phones many owners and detailed how the developer plans to take advantage of what he calls an upcoming and potentially major new platform for gaming.

By: Brian Crecente, Michael McWhertor and Leigh Alexander

The iPhone Games are here. The iPhone Games are here. Things are going to start happening to me now!

As of this morning you can download iTunes 7.7 and add the App Store to your iPhone. Why would you do that? So you can check out the spiffy new games they have available. Yeah, I'm sure some of the games currently available will be shovelware, but that doesn't mean there won't be some gems.

Hit up our guide to what's to come on the jump. We'll also be updating this page throughout today and tomorrow with hands on impressions of the games as we play through some.

Feel free to make requests in comments.

No More Heroes Mobile Is Less Bloody, More Adorable

Suda's No More Heroes is violent. It's also really, really stylish. Those are the two things the game's probably most renowned for, so when a Japanese mobile version of the game turns up looking neither stylish nor violent, should you care? Yes! Because there's not just one mobile game, there's three of them, they take Travis and co. and turn them into fat-headed children, and because each game only costs ¥100 (USD$0.95).

NO MORE HEROES FLASH ゲーム [Game Watch]

It's official you can start downloading games to your iPhone starting in July with the launch of App Store.

The App Store will be part of the iPhone 2.0 firmware update that is free to iPhone users, but $10 for iTouch owners. That's right, Apple is charging for a firmware update.

Why should you care if you own an iPhone or iTouch? Spore, Trism, Galga, Pacman and maybe, just maybe Puzzle Quest. Also there are the games announced at the beginning of the conference.

Games can be downloaded by cell connection if they are less than 10 MB and via WiFi if greater than 10MB.

So far it looks like games will run for $10 a pop, though it will ultimately be up to the developers to set prices. Apple keeps 30 percent of the revenues. If the dev decides to give the game away there is no charge at all from Apple.

Stay tuned here for other gaming news coming out of WWDC today and if you're looking for a deeper, more in-depth look at the whole show make sure to catch Gizmodo's amazing live coverage of the conference.

On Monday there's a good chance that Nintendo's console war is going to get a new front. That's when many believe Apple's Steve Jobs is going to unleash the iPhone's App Store and with it the ability to download directly to your iPhone, applications and, yes, games.

Forbes points out that with a fairly powerful engine and the ability to do both motion and touchscreen, the iPhone could be a threat to Nintendo's lucrative handheld business. Of course the DS' staggering numbers will be the biggest opposition to Apple crushing Nintendo directly in some handheld-to-handheld combat, but even that could change over time. And keep in mind a slew of companies have announced games for the iPhone already, also Apple is giving away their SDK.

While I think that it's unlikely that the relatively inexpensive DS will be toppled by the expensive iPhone, I do think, hope actually, that it will shake some trees at Nintendo and perhaps get them to drop news of another, more advanced handheld in the coming year or so.

Make sure to stay tuned here on Monday for any iPhone game-related announcements that come out of Monday's WWDC.

Why Apple Could Kill The Nintendo DS [Forbes]

Poor mobile games. Always the hope for the future! Always the laughing stock of the present. And fair enough, too. Cheaply made, rubbish to control, the vast majority of mobile games are a waste of everyone's time. Oh, unless you're Japanese, and pick up a Panasonic p906i. If you do, well, you'll be able to play Professor Layton. In widescreen, no less! And if you can't be arsed counting matchsticks, there's a nice-looking Gundam game on offer as well. Can have in West, please? Kind of bored of my 4th successive phone with a Worms clone.

Panasonic P906i [Product Page]

N-Gage Games Don't Carry Over To New Phones

I'm not really sure how they do things in the US, but down here, standard mobile phone contracts last for two years. Once that time's up, 99.8% of people go and get a new phone. Simple plan, everybody wins. OH. Except for anyone with a Nokia phone who actually buys games over their new N-Gage platform. See, the games are locked to the handset you purchase them on. If you break your handset, you'll get them reissued, but if you upgrade to a new phone, you lose your games. Nokia's explanation?

Our policy is that the N-Gage activation codes only work on the device where they were first activated. As with any digital media there is a potential risk of piracy and this policy is one of the ways we are dealing with piracy and ensuring our partners receive their rightful revenues from our platform.

Gamers 'angry' over new N-Gage's DRM [Develop]

EA Buys Korean Mobile RPG Dev

In an effort to grown their mobile business in Korea's massive gaming market, Electonic Arts is purchasing the assets of Hands-On Mobile Korea and turning it into EA Mobile Korea.

The Korean mobile developer and publisher is best known for their mobile role-playing game Heroes Lore.

“This acquisition is a major milestone in growing our mobile business in Asia,” said Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager EA Mobile. “Hands-On Mobile Korea brings us a great leadership team, proven studio talent, and outstanding carrier and OEM handset manufacturer relationships.”

While mobile gaming and it's plethora of platforms continues to fail to substantially tap it's mammoth market, it must be heartening for that industry to see a company as large as EA show such interest.

Microsoft Still Working on Live Anywhere

During his talk at the Electronic Gaming Summit today, Microsoft's Jeff Bell briefly, very briefly, touched on the long-lost, quickly becoming mythical Live Anywhere pipedream that Microsoft first mentioned at E3 in 2006.

The concept, captured in blurry pics later that year, would allow gamers to access Live via a cellphone so they could check friend status, Achievements, all the data of Live, on the go.

Bell said not to give up hope. "Live anywhere is not abandoned, it's just not easy to do."

And then he never mentioned it again.

N-Gage Gets Konami Games (Yes, Including Metal Gear)

In case you missed it, the "new" N-Gage service is out. The one that makes the games available over a variety of Nokia handsets, instead of a single, dedicated unit. If you didn't know that, it's OK, it wasn't that interesting. This might be. Konami have signed onto the service, and will be releasing a ton of their mobile games onto Nokia's fledgling platform, including a version of Metal Gear Mobile that will supposedly "raise the bar with respect to graphical detail and made-for-mobile features". All relative terms, of course.

Nokia to add Konami games to N-Gage platform [Reuters]

This Portable NES Is Legit, Works

Worms 2008 Inching to Mobile Phones

THQ Wireless and Team17 Software have teamed up to develop a new Worms game for the mobile phone.

Worms 2008: A Space Oddity will include four new mini-games, an enhanced single player campaign, new landscape view mode and new weapons, including the Impact Frag, Atom Packs and Cluster Frags. In Worms 2008, the worms are exploring their solar system, fighting to defend installations, repair space craft, collecting minerals and battling alien races.

The game is scheduled to hit 850 mobile phone types starting in June. More details on the release after the jump.

N-Gage Goes Live! Hello? Anyone?

Nokia's second attempt at N-Gage-ing mobile gamers has unofficially gone live, with the official N-Gage blog announcing that the revamped platform is now available for download. If you have a Nokia N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 or N95 8GB, you can bask in the warmth of the new N-Gage, bringing a try-before-you-buy, Xbox Live-like experience to your phone. Offerings from Gameloft, EA and others are available now or coming soon, which don't look too terribly bad. Yeah! That was kind of a compliment. We won't even make a sidetalkin' dig!

Official N-Gage Site [via Gizmodo]

EA Announces Mobile Invasion

Five mobile games and two iPod games were released by EA's Casual Entertainment label today. The seven games include two mobile Sims games and a slew of board games.

"EA Mobile continues to create and distribute games that compel potential customers to download and play games on mobile devices," said Travis Boatman, Vice President of Worldwide Studios, EA Mobile. "The wide range of handsets, from everyday devices to sophisticated 3G phones, and the iPod, provide great platforms that foster and satisfy consumer demand for anytime entertainment."

Here's the full break-down:
The Sims 2 Castaway (mobile)
The Sims Pool (mobile)
Monopoly Here & Now (mobile)
Yahtzee Adventures (mobile)
Merv Griffin's Crosswords (mobile)
Scrabble (iPod)
Yahtzee (iPod)

Screw the iPod, where are my iPhone games? Hit the jump for the descriptions if you're all out-dated and boring and don't own an iPhone...loser.

Second place mobile manufacturer Samsung has revealed a Second Life client for their phones that will allow the relatively small horde of visitors to the virtual world and their legion of alts access to the grid and related services wherever and whenever the whole thing hasn't crashed. This is a monumentally bad idea. As a Second Life resident for nearly a year now, I know people who only leave the world in order to buy groceries, and some of them already carry their laptops around when they do that, just in case they catch a stray wireless signal. We don't need to be able to connect to SL from anywhere. Sure, you'll be able to have quickie unicorn cybersex in the bathroom at work, but at what cost?

Samsung Unveils Mobile Application for Second Life [koreatimes via Gizmodo]

Analyst: iPhone Not A Viable Gaming Platform

Playing Super Monkey Ball and Spore on the iPhone sure sounds like a nifty diversion, but is a $400 mobile device really going to be a success as a gaming platform? Not if Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter's perspective on new ventures from Sega, EA and THQ is spot on. He tells Next-Gen "To the extent that hip, rich people are an interesting gaming audience, iPhone games will work" adding that the demographic will probably "only interested in the most rudimentary games, and that the market will be small."

Maybe he's right. I'm still in the honeymoon phase with my iPhone, but my hype level for using the accelerometer to game is on par with the prospect of further SIXAXIS gaming. That's hovering around zilch, currently.

Pachter: iPhone Gaming Not Commercially Sound [Next-Gen]

Metal Gear Solid Mobile On Verizon