Challenges and Opportunities in Mobile Games

[DevelopmentTeam]

Although the J2ME API is relatively easy to learn, it is misleading to suggest that mobile Java language game development is somehow simpler than developing console or PC games. In fact, in terms of the percentage share of the total revenue, the development and engineering cost for mobile games could be much larger than those for console or PC games. Most of the speakers at the Austin conference agreed that the biggest (and most expensive) challenge in mobile game development is the support of these many different devices in a fragmented market.

The J2ME platform makes the Java programming language and a standard set of APIs available across all the Java-compatible devices from multiple vendors. Ideally, a J2ME application developed for one Java handset should run without modification on all other handsets supporting the same APIs. However, Java's "Write Once, Run Anywhere" vision has yet to be realized, thanks to the fragmentation of the device market. Meanwhile, there are several reasons why there are so many phone models: