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 Shockwave.com's Shockwave Minis announcement was interesting for a handful of reasons. For one, it's the first example of Flash being given a big push as a North American mobile gaming platform. For another, the subscription-only, "buffet style" monetization of the service is unlike anything yet attempted in the Western mobile market. Lastly, Shockwave.com's parent being MTV Networks opens up significantly licensing and marketing opportunities simply not available to others in the mobile space.
We spoke with Atom Entertainment's Games Senior Vice President Dave Williams about the news, the importance of the Flash Lite technology, and what's next.
GamesOnDeck: First, can you tell me a little about Adobe's Flash Lite? How long has the technology been around, and what makes it a fit for mobile gaming?
Dave Williams: Flash Lite version 1.0 has been available for a number of years, and has been used extensively to create great mobile gaming experiences in Japan. The current 2.0 version based on the Flash 7 player was recently released, and of course is just now available in the US through Verizon Wireless.
We think there are two main benefits here which both converge towards one ultimate goal – a high quality, mass market mobile gaming experience. The part users will notice right away is the look and feel of the games. The graphics are enhanced, and the flow of the games seems natural.
The second benefit of Flash Lite is aimed at the content creators, but will ultimately serve the users. Developing mobile games currently has a huge barrier – porting cost for each handset model has pushed the development and deployment cost for a single game into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Each handset requires a new game file, so mobile developers end up spending far more on creating handset files than actually developing a game. With Flash Lite – all you have to do is optimize the file for screen size and resolution – that's it. We expect Flash Lite to revolutionize mobile the way Flash revolutionized online gaming. You're going to see a whole lot more developers throwing their hats in the mix, and it's going to lead to much more diverse – and ultimately much more creative game experiences.
GOD: I see that right now only a select few handsets support the Flash Mini Platform. What kind of adoption does Shockwave.com anticipate for future handsets? Can you share any concrete plan to roll out support for more handsets? Is Flash support something that can be included in existing handsets via updated firmware?
DW: We can't share any concrete plan for rollouts – this is really more up to Adobe, Qualcomm, Verizon Wireless and hopefully other carriers further down the line. We can say that Verizon Wireless has shown some true innovation and foresight in launching Flash Lite, and our belief is that they will support it heavily as they roll out new handsets in 2007. Right now there are four popular handset models supported including the Motorola RAZR and we hope to see this number double by the end of the year. Today, Adobe does work with several device manufacturers to ship mobile phones with Flash Lite support out of the box – for example, Nokia.
GOD: Flash seems to lend itself to relatively simple, arcade-style pick up & play titles. While its true that the majority of mobile games are simplistic, some are considerably more complex. Is Flash capable of being a platform for more complex titles, or is it intended to remain a platform for the more casual, one-button style of gameplay?
Flash can be used for both, and we think you'll see that in upcoming titles. Shockwave Minis is definitely centered on casual gaming by design - but not necessarily because Flash Lite required simple game play.
We think that the mobile environment is better suited towards casual play at the moment – but at some point the hardware has to catch up with the software to provide a complete experience. We've seen mobile games approaching or equaling 1st generation console experiences already, but they haven't been widely adopted – at least part of the reason for that is the tiny key pad users have to navigate to play them. Shockwave Minis using Flash Lite are designed with consideration of the entire mobile gaming experience – this is why we’ve focused on one-button style play for now.
Next: 30 Shockwave Minis
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