SkillPod plans

SkillPod Media began its mobile strategy sometime ago and has been finalising the games content and more so the new mobile games platform which will be launched and on offer to publishers from February. More recently SkillPod began with the deployment of its Flash Lite based mobile games into the Nokia Ovi Store, and is also on the Nokia Launchpad program. The games have been available for a few weeks on the Ovi store now and include 15 of the 40 titles available. The response really hasn’t been bad, says Mark van Diggelen, CEO of SkillPod Media, with some typical superstars enjoying downloads from 55 countries.

There is definitely a purchasing trend towards the handsets that include the Ovi Store links pre-installed on the handsets, such as the new Nokia N97 and 5800. SkillPod has also recently partnered with the new BuzzCity mobile portal Djuzz, which will also be launched in the next week or two as well as the ever popular Australasian mobile portal, Cellmania.com. We’ll add 4 to 5 new titles a month to the Ovi Store and our other mobile partners, adds van Diggelen.

The new SkillPod Mobile Games Platform will be a feature rich offering and will initially be launched as an internal mobile brand, offering a showcase of the solution and the available games titles. The new platform will allow users to register online or from their mobile handsets. Users will have the ability to customise the interface from a selection of skins on offer and will be able to play the games via their handsets browser enabling them to log scores, challenge friends and enter the various tournaments on offer. Users will be able to purchase their favourite games for installation on their handsets which will feature local high score logging, for offline gaming fun. SkillPod launched its virtual currency system, Pods, almost 2 years ago whereby users earn and spend Pods when they play certain games, enter tournaments and challenge friends. This Pods system will also be introduced into the Mobile offering.

SkillPod will be launching a number of titles for the ever popular Apple iPhone and its baby sister the iPod Touch. Titles will also be available for the Blackberry and Android handsets towards the 2nd quarter of 2010.

The mobile platform will be made available for customisation and translation - look, feel and language wise, to publishers as either a white labelled version or through our robust XML solutions. Various revenue models are available for publishers to share in the sales of the mobile games.

SkillPod will be offering advertisers and publishers the option to customise, re-brand and/or translate the games for their mobile offerings, thus opening up additional revenue streams for partners.

The translation of SkillPod’s online games has already covered Afrikaans, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Spanish and Dutch. SkillPod will be rolling out titles in Spanish, Dutch, Russian and Polish and any additional languages are able to be translated as well.

SkillPod’s Mobile Games Platform is an innovated and compelling offering and will enrich gamers’ mobile world. It is a significant step for SkillPod Media, and the launch can’t have been timed better.