Acclaim gets Connected for mobile gaming

Publisher Acclaim has launched a new division, Acclaim Connected, which will focus on the development and licensing of mobile games - with deals already in place with European providers O2 and Vodafone Live.

The launch of the division follows on from a deal signed earlier this year with Vodafone Live to provide a mobile version of Freestyle Street Soccer to the operator, and a second deal to create a mobile game based on the forthcoming XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association has been signed with the German branch of O2.

Acclaim is hoping to use some of its other franchises in the mobile space as well, with Legends of Wrestling and Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance both tipped as early contenders for conversion to mobile platforms.

"Mobile gaming represents an opportunistic market that we believe is additive to our core publishing business," according to Acclaim CEO Rod Cousens. Mobile gaming, he believes, "can provide incremental revenue and additional global exposure for our brands."

Cousens highlights an interesting aspect of mobile gaming which is often ignored - namely that the games not only create revenue themselves (and in the past year, they've actually been doing this on a decent scale for the first time), but can also serve as advertising for the "full-strength" console titles they're based on. This reasoning undoubtedly makes mobile gaming more valuable to publishers, and if mobile games are seen at least partially as marketing spend rather than purely as profit centres, it should encourage further development of this burgeoning market.