Four phone giants define standard for mobile games interoperability

Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and the Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group (IC Mobile) recently launched the Mobile Games Interoperability (MGI) Forum, which will work to define a mobile game interability specification for network-based servers.

The specification will enable game developers to produce and deploy mobile games that can be distributed across multiple game servers and wireless networks, and played over different mobile devices.

The MGI Forum has evolved out of the Universal Mobile Games Platform initiative, which Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens IC Mobile launched last March.

With the formation of the MGI Forum, the four founding members reinforce a joint commitment to the mobile games industry as a whole and will continue their work to define application programming interfaces (APIs), which will allow game developers to produce and deploy mobile games over wireless networks in a client/server model.

The initiative aims to specify a global standard and develop certification procedures to encourage a wide adoption of the standard.

The MGI Forum will work with and provide recommendations to the appropriate standards bodies and fora to ensure an open environment for developing mobile games.

The MGI Forum will also work closely with tool developing companies to develop software development kits (SDKs) and other necessary tools for game developers. Work has begun with one company, Metrowerks.

"Ericsson is committed to creating demand for mobile Internet services by supporting application developers, working with partners and driving open standards," said Lars Boman, Ericsson’s Internet Applications head.

"This initiative is aligned with our aim to make sure that users have as many good services as possible to make the Mobile Internet a success," Boman added.