Wireless World: Phone games a big hit

A story about games on mobile phones.

Chicago, IL, May. 12 (UPI) -- Playing "Trivial Pursuit" on a mobile phone is no longer a trifling matter. Games for mobile phones finally have emerged as a major technology and entertainment business, experts told UPI's Wireless World.

This week RealNetworks Inc., maker of streaming video and audio software, acquired Helsinki-based Mr. Goodliving, a maker of mobile phone games like "Trivial Pursuit" and "MetalSmash Pinball," for $15 million, joining the teeming wireless gaming market.

The deal is coming at an apt time because industry revenue, according to Now Playing Magazine, is expected to total $1.5 billion by 2008. Total mobile gaming revenues today are a fraction of that -- in the tens of millions of dollars. By Gene Koprowski