Mobile games staying away from Symbian Smartphone Show

Mobile games are conspicuous by their absence from this week's Symbian Smartphone Show in London. Only one games publisher is here - Astraware - and while there are gaming folk wandering the showfloor - I've spotted Digital Legends, FinBlade and Digital Chocolate - they're few and far between. Is that Symbian's fault? You could argue that the platform is missing a trick, given the excitement around games on the iPhone and Android platforms. Yet big publishers ARE releasing Symbian games - look at what Gameloft is doing with its HD range of titles. The results can be impressive. But judging by this show, either games aren't particularly high on Symbian's agenda, or Symbian isn't particularly high on games publishers' agenda. Or a combination of the two. Perhaps this will change as Symbian completes its transition to a more open mobile platform to compete with Android in the coming months. The show itself is pretty interesting, particularly when you meet some of the user-interface focused companies. But in terms of games, it's sadly thin pickings.