EB Games and WideRay deliver wireless game retail distribution platform

Electronics Boutique and WideRay announced that the companies have partnered to deliver mobile games to consumers inside select EB Games retail stores beginning in December 2004.

EB Games will make its Wireless Game Portals -- in-store zones where customers can download games -- available in 100 retail stores across the US beginning in December, marking the industry's first wireless distribution platform implemented in a physical retail setting. Mobile phone users can access the Wireless Game Portals by simply going into a participating EB Games store and using a compatible device to view a listing of popular game titles available for purchase. Users also have the ability to receive game-related video as well as reviews and previews of PC and Console games. All this without any pre-installed software.

The Wireless Game Portals are powered by WideRay's Jack Service Point, which enables applications to be downloaded at high speed through built-in Bluetooth connections on consumers' mobile devices. The platform supports a wide variety of mobile devices, including those running the Windows Mobile and Symbian operating systems.

The proliferation of more advanced mobile phones and the introduction of gaming-first handheld devices has spurred a new category of wireless gaming. According to research firm Datamonitor, the wireless gaming market in the United States and Western Europe alone is expected to reach approximately US$6 billion in the next four to five years.

EB Games and WideRay are working with many of the top handset manufacturers and operating system developers, as well as some Symbian OS and Java mobile game publishers, to bring their mobile games direct to wireless devices via the Wireless Game Portals.