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.
Danish outfit Kilo was one of the first to release a free-to-play game for PlayBook via BlackBerry App World.
We caught up with CCO Simon Møller to get his take on the situation.
Pocket Gamer: What's your current view about PlayBook as a gaming platform, especially as a free-to-play platform?
Simon Møller: I personally like the PlayBook. The device feels light and has a really good size for gaming.
With a trusted - quality based - platform, consumers will be ready to spend time (and subsequently money). This is true for both pay-to-play and free-to-play content.
How are you finding the early version of BlackBerry 10 in terms of development?
We haven't had a chance to really dig through it in detail yet, but it looks promising.
What are your hopes for the autumn OS and device launch?
Graphics processing power and RAM. Lots of it.
What do you think is RIM's biggest challenge?
To keep fragmentation to an absolute minimum to get developers on the boat. The easier a platform is to work with (and port to), the more developers will join and try it out.
I think it's doing the right thing with offering minimum guarantees to developers when it's in an underdog position compared to other major ecosystems and needs to gain developer trust.
Do you think RIM can find a place in the mobile gaming market?
With the continued fragmentation of Android on multiple levels, RIM has a chance to gain position by nurturing developers and providing opportunities for a quality-oriented premium platform for gaming.
It really needs to put great, original content on the shelves and work with developers.
Can you say anything about your plans for BB 10's launch?
We are watching the platform closely as we've recently had very satisfactory results with the launch of Frisbee Forever on App World. I definitely wouldn't rule out any new releases on Blackberry.
Thanks to Simon for his time. You can follow his views via Twitter.
Interview
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.
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