Yahoo! Games will debut its next generation multiplayer games, featuring Yahoo! Poker, during this year's Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3). Yahoo! Poker is one of the first PC-to-mobile games available in the U.S., allowing players to get in a game of poker virtually anytime, anywhere, on any device.
Yahoo! Poker is a Texas Hold 'Em game that enables up to 10 people to play at once, connected with their mobile phones or through Yahoo! Games on their PC. The company says some new mobile phone handsets will feature Yahoo! Poker in the games selection menu, starting with Sprint handsets this summer. The game offers multiple game play options, including a tournament style no-limit multiplayer game like the pros play, as well as a single-player career mode that takes a player through five different casinos.
Yahoo! Poker integrates Yahoo! Avatars, graphical and customizable characters that millions of consumers have already created to represent themselves while connecting to friends and family online, to make the multiplayer game more engaging.
"The merger of mobile and online games offers a number of interesting possibilities," noted Schelley Olhava, IDC Program Manager. "I think PC-to-mobile game play gives the wireless gamer an incentive for multi-player gaming, knowing that a base of PC online gamers are ready to play."
Professional players Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari will be in Yahoo!'s E3 booth to teach poker tips and tricks to convention attendees. Yahoo! Games will also have game stations in Chicago's Union Station so passersby can get into the E3 action and play Yahoo! Poker during the event.
