Nokia (NYSE: NOK), the global leader in mobile communications, and the Korea Game Development & Promotion Institute (KGDI), today announced the signing of an agreement of mutual support for the development and deployment of Korean digital content for mobile communications. The agreement will nurture one of Asian fastest-growing games industries. Nokia will provide Korean developers with its matchless technical resources and aid in entering European and American markets. Korea has committed enormous resources to establishing creative and technological gaming leadership and weve seen an astounding number of high-quality mobile games as a result, said Vesa-Pekka Kiri, who heads the games effort for Forum Nokia, Nokia’s global developer effort. This agreement underscores our commitment to working with some of the worlds leading mobile games developers to help their games get out into the global marketplace. (Stanton) As a part of the cooperation, Nokia will gain access to the leading-edge mobile game technologies and content being created through the support of KGDI – a unique government agency whose mission is to make the digital games industry to Korea what Hollywood is to the United States.
KGDI operates a Game Academy to develop skilled game technologists, participates in research and development through its Games Research Center and invests in early-stage games companies through a venture capital arm. KGDI officials see this relationship with Nokia as an opportunity to link up with the leading technology in the fast-growing mobile communications industry. With the continuing growth of wireless technology, KGDI officials expect games to become an increasingly important content component of mobile services. This agreement with Nokia helps ensure that our developers have the resources they need to develop applications on the newest devices from Nokia- and opens up distribution channels to get our applications into the hands of the world’s leading operators in order to enable Korean developers to play a leading role in the evolution of this market, said Young-soo Chong, president, KGDI. (Stanton) Nokia and KGDI will conduct technical forums, share market information and provide Korean game developers early access to wireless equipment.
Korean developers will also have access to Nokia Tradepoint, a business-to-business mobile services e-marketplace linking buyers and suppliers for trade in mobile applications and content. Nokia Tradepoint contains a wide spectrum of applications covering business, finance and entertainment. The service already lists approximately 500 games from 70 game companies around the globe. (Stanton) Nokia has long been a leader in mobile games. In 1997, it was first in bringing mobile games to the mass market. Since then, hundreds of millions of Nokia users globally have played and enjoyed games on Nokia handsets.
Nokia is committed to a future with ever more sophisticated and exciting game play for millions of mobile users and new revenue streams for service providers and content developers. The Nokia-KGDI agreement was announced here at the Nokia Global Games Summit, a day-long business development event that brought together the worlds leading mobile operators and mobile games creators.