By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines– Filipino-owned company Ubersoft Inc. has started offering an advertisement-wrapped mobile game download service called Swoopin.
The service allows users to download as many free mobile Java games as they want to their mobile phones via Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) and only pay for the corresponding phone network fees.
The ad-wrap feature will become available whenever mobile phone users start playing games.
There are also 850 Java games in 14 available categories ranging from racing, action, puzzle, sports, casino, arcade, among others.
More games are being added every week.
All of the games in the Swoopin website are also available on Swoopin’s Facebook and on Swoopin’s official wapsite.
In an interview, Ubersoft CEO Vince Yamat explained that there will be two to three advertisements showing up before and after a downloaded game is played.
However, the ads will only connect to the Swoopin server on the first and fourth attempt to play.
Essentially, the game is already been paid for by the advertisements.
Yamat said the advertisements will not appearing during gameplay so as not to disturb the mobile phone user’s playing experience.
“Whenever Swoopin games connect to the Internet the charges will be very minimal. Much of the revenue we generate in this service will come from advertisements. What we realized is that the preferred payment for players is free,” Yamat said.
Swoopin will target all markets and not just the Philippines. Thus, initial advertisements will come from foreign firms, such as Amazon.com and Best Buy.
Yamat said they are already in talks with advertising resellers and distribution channels in the Philippines to promote the service.
“There is a huge market for advertising on mobile games in the Philippines. We only need to look for the right channels,” he said.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:00 pm
These games are 100% free, but your service provider may charge for normal carrier charges (WAP, GPRS, DATA) and taxes may apply to data transfers incurred when you download games. Please consult your service provider for full info.
These games are supported by ads and sometimes connect to the network to download new ads.
A typical connection will transfer 5 to 15 kilobytes of data. Some service providers charge on a per time basis and some on a per kilobyte basis. Please consult your service provider for full information regarding their browsing fee.
Yeah free they say, will cost you more to try to attempt to download these games.