Given its history as an enterprise show, BlackBerry World 2012 doesn't have a lot of sessions about gaming.
However, to underline the company's new commitment to gaming, there was a press panel on the subject.
Moderated by Anders Jeppsson, RIM's head of gaming, it featured a variety of gaming partners ranging from publishers such as Gameloft to indies like Fishlabs and Paw Print. Tools company Marmalade were also onboard.
Bang of BB
Obviously the focus of the panel was the forthcoming BlackBerry 10 OS.
"We knew it would be relatively straightforward to get our PlayBook games running on BB 10 and we've already got a game [Kami Retro] running on the Dev Alpha device," said Anthony White, director of small UK indie Paw Print Games.
Another new fan of the platform is Michael Schade, CEO of Fishlabs.
"We want as little work as possible [in terms of porting] and the best opportunities to sell our content. And that's what RIM is providing," he said.
The company got its Galaxy on Fire 2 title running on the PlayBook tablet within a day.
"The price point are much healthier on the App World," Schade added. "It's very hard on the Apple App Store. There are so many titles at 99c."
Store security
Anthony White wondered how long that would last, but he also pointed out that on Android, one of Paw Print's games had a piracy rate of 98 percent.
"What's the difference between a BlackBerry user and an Android user?" quipped one member of the audience, CrackBerry's EIC Kevin Michaluk.
"A BlackBerry user has a credit card."
"We're passionate about protecting IP when it comes to piracy," added Christopher Smith, VP, BlackBerry application platform & tools.
Schade was also very happy that RIM enables developers to select the specific devices that their games will work on via App World.
This is another key competitive issue with Android where support issues for the wide range of devices is an increasing challenge, especially when customer refund charges costs developers $6.
Feel the love
Gameloft is the first company to officially announce support for BlackBerry 10 with 11 titles for launch.
Its senior account manager OEM, Sam Shperling, said working with RIM had changed a lot recently.
"Two or three years ago, when you asked someone at RIM for a device, you didn't get an answer," he said, adding that the company's current largesse in terms of giving out devices shows how committed RIM now is to games.
"There's really good support from RIM and from the community too," he added.
News
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Related Articles
News
May 2nd, 2012
BlackBerry World 2012: Thorsten Heins signals a shift in RIM's tablet strategy. More enterprise tool than consumer hardware
News
May 2nd, 2012
BlackBerry World 2012: RIM CEO Thorsten Heins - We're here to win, not to be in the game
Top Stories
Feature
Mar 25th, 2024
5 takeaways from GDC 2024: The games industry reckons with key challenges, Godot competes with Unity, and AI was the big trend without the big announcements
Feature
Mar 25th, 2024
Hot Five: Epic’s app store plans, Turkey’s tax exemptions, and Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile finally releases globally
Events
Mobidictum Network Lisbon April 2024 | Europe | Apr 16th |
HIT Games Conference Istanbul 2024 | Apr 18th | |
App Promotion Summit London | Europe | Apr 25th |
Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024 | Middle East | May 1st |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
Mobidictum Meetup Barcelona September 2024 | Europe | Sep 1st |
Popular Stories
Feature
Mar 25th, 2024