GDC 2007: Qualcomm talks BREW Gaming Solution

While Nokia has been making a splash at GDC with its plans for the N-Gage platform, US mobile technology company Qualcomm is making sure it's not being left behind in the race to bring new features to mobile gaming. Although this being a developer's conference, the pitch is currently all a bit techie-focussed.

Qualcomm is a big player in the US mobile games arena, where its BREW technology provides a powerful alternative to the Java programming language employed by nearly all European games developers and phone operators. (See our explanation of mobile platforms for more information). Now it wants to expand its popularity still further with the BREW Gaming Solution, a suite of tools and technologies for mobile phone operators whose handsets use the company's chipsets and BREW development environment.

The new service will provide for community-style features such as gamer profiles, centralised score boards and gamer-to-gamer messaging.

"We're developing the service and talking to operators and game publishers to get a sanity check on the features we'll be offering," explains Mike Yuen, senior director of Qualcomm's gaming group. "It will be going live in 2008."

BREW Gaming Solution will be a 'white label' service that operators can re-brand, but as with Microsoft's Xbox Live, there will also be core services they must implement.

"Operators won't be able to fragment it," Yuen says. "In that sense, it's like BREW, which is the same technology everywhere, so as a game developer when you build a BREW game all the core APIs are the same and you know the game will run on all Qualcomm phones."

Key features for the service, which uses Qualcomm's uiOne user interface technology, include more flexible ways of distributing games, as well as community features such as friend lists, gamer tags, high score tables, a review and rating system. There will also be the ability to download demos.

On top of these core services, Qualcomm will also be rolling out optional features such as gamer points. "We're going to build a full points system," Yuen says. "If we build the service properly, we can set the basic rules to incentivise players to do things such as recommending games to their friends or setting each other challenges."

Unlike Nokia's N-Gage platform, Qualcomm is planning a more hands-off approach in terms of deciding what games are created, however.

"With BREW, anyone can download the SDK and build a game," Yuen points out. "We're going to build this platform, and we want to make it available for operators to give them the right core components, such as messaging, a consistent user interface and the shopping experience, but we're not going to control it."

So what's in it for Qualcomm? "When a game is sold we'll get a cut, and we'll get a little cut for the services, but the idea is this will drive more downloads in general," Yuen says.

The company is also highlighting some of its new 3D technology at the GDC show, with one interesting demo involving a high-end 3D phone with a TV-out connection and a mini USB port. Connected to a plasma screen and a dance mat, the set-up highlights some novel possibilities for mobile devices in the future, especially in developing countries where access to desktop computing is limited.