Interview

With BB 10, BBM and Scoreloop, RIM will find its place in mobile games market, says Gameloft's Ludovic Blondel

Publisher keen to support launch

With BB 10, BBM and Scoreloop, RIM will find its place in mobile games market, says Gameloft's Ludovic Blondel
Most commentators in North America and Europe treat RIM like a dead man walking.

There's plenty of passion for the upcoming fight when it launches BlackBerry 10 within the company, however.

And some of RIM's development partners are surprising upbeat, so following the BlackBerry World 2012 conference, we've been polling the views of game studios already supporting the platform.

One key publisher for RIM is Gameloft.

It's released hundreds of Java games, and is gearing up for BlackBerry 10's launch as VP of OEM Ludovic Blondel explains.

Pocket Gamer: What's your current view about PlayBook as a gaming platform?

Ludovic Blondel: The PlayBook is a great device because it enables us to provide Blackberry users with a whole new gaming experience.

The fact that our teams can code in C for the QNX-powered PlayBook allows BlackBerry consumers to play games that they have never experienced on any previous BlackBerry OS.

How are you finding the early version of BlackBerry 10 in terms of development?

The consistency between the PlayBook and initial [Dev Alpha] BB 10 device has allowed us an early jump on getting our games running on the platform.

We hope this will remain consistent in the future so we can get as many of our games available on the device as possible, in preparation for the launch.

What are your hopes for the autumn OS and device launch?

We hope the market reacts very positively to the new device and OS.

One of Gameloft's main priorities is to make games for everyone. So, for us, having another established channel to sell our best products and reach a whole new audience is always a positive.

What do you think is RIM's biggest challenge?

I think it's changing the perception that RIM devices are not as powerful from a specs perspective as current devices on the market.

The developer community sees that the internal power of the device can compete, but the native feature was what was missing for consumers. With BlackBerry 10, we see the potential for that image to shift.

Do you think RIM can find a place in the mobile gaming market?

RIM devices have performed well for us in the Java space globally , and we feel that this trend can certainly continue and grow once the customer base for BB 10 grows.

Additionally, with new features such as BBM and Scoreloop, we think RIM certainly has the tools to find its place in the mobile gaming market.

Can you say anything about your plans for BB 10's launch?

As we announced during BlackBerry World 2012, we are very excited to about the launch of BB 10, and plan to release a total of 11 games, with four of them being made available at launch including smash hits like Ice Age Village and N.O.V.A. 3..

Thanks to Ludovic for his time.
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.