Operators are "stifling" mobile industry - Dynamo

Mobile phone operators' control over their games decks is "stifling" the mobile games industry, according to BAFTA award-winning Dynamo Games' technical director Stuart Reid.

Talking to GamesIndustry.biz as part of Scotland Week, Reid - whose company is behind the Championship Manager series of titles on the mobile platform - was hopeful that the N-Gage platform would prove successful as a way of getting around reliance on deck placement.

"When that really takes off it'll be a good day for us I think - one of the stifling factors at the moment for the mobile industry is that the operators are controlling the decks, and they're not necessarily the best people to sell games," he explained.

"With a better community aspect, it allows the best games to stand out, and take the number one slot - so the quicker that happens, the better for the industry. Whether it will succeed or not, we don't know yet."

And he was excited about the iPhone platform as well, particularly the new options that the technology enabled, comparing it to the Nintendo DS in terms of power.

"We're quite positive about the iPhone and N-Gage platform, because we try and push the technology as far as we can - put as much into the games as possible for the device. These new devices with extra features allow us to really let our imagination go."

"But at the same time they don't require massive assets to build, so we're not bogged down by them. We're working with the iPhone SDK, and because of the nature of the high-end phones right now, they're getting very close to the likes of the Nintendo DS."

The full GamesIndustry.biz interview with Stuart Reid is available now.