International Mobile Gaming Awards 2006 will be sponsored by a host of big names in the industry. It will be sponsored by Adobe, MOVIDA Group, Nokia, NVIDIA, and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI). These awards will also be sponsored by Orange, the Khronos Group, Auchan and Belle de Mai Media Park, Marseille.
The categories for prizes are:
Richard Kerslake, General Manager of TI’s OMAP Platform., said “Ultimately, we expect the IMGA awards to improve the mobile gamer experience. Entrants will be challenged to push existing technology to the limit, and TI is looking forward to seeing the result — bleeding-edge gaming capabilities — running on TI’s OMAP applications processors in mobile phones around the globe.”
Gary Kovacs, vice president of product management and marketing, Mobile and Device Solutions at Adobe is very excited about it and was quoted saying, “With Flash technology already the standard for delivering games over the Internet, these awards will provide a showcase for innovative work from around the world.”
Nokia us also gung-ho about sponsoring such an event. It will be releasing its next-gen game platform in 2007 and will use this event to publicize it.
Kamar Shah, head of industry marketing, Nokia Multimedia says “The release of Nokia’s next generation gaming platform in 2007 gives us added impetus to support the IMG Awards. It is essential that we encourage the mobile developer community to push the boundaries of technology, creativity and quality. It is this that will ensure the continuing growth of the industry and keep consumers coming back for more”
“This is a great chance for the new generation of mobile-specific game developers to impress us with novel, compelling game concepts. MOVIDA is very pleased to be involved.” Said Shingo Kunieda, CEO of MOVIDA HOLDINGS Inc.
Students will also be included in a separate competition this year. Along with cash prizes, they will win the latest gaming handsets. They will also get an opportunity to attend top-level training camps run by the biggest names in the industry, plus an all-expenses-paid trip to the 3GSM World Conference 2007 in Barcelona.
The deadline for the entries is 6 pm CET September 11, 2006. The best 20 will be announced on September 20, 2006. The winners will be announced at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona on February 14, 2007 after the top 20 short listed have submitted a demo version of their concepts.