Multiplayer Mobile Games

A Multiplayer mobile game is often a re-branding of a multiplayer game for the PC or Console. Most mobile games are single player mobile games perhaps with artificially intelligent opponents. Multiplayer functionality is achieved through:

· Infrared

· Bluetooth

· GPRS

· 3G

· WiFi

· AI

· MMS

· Wireless LAN

Infrared connectivity

Older mobile phones supporting mobile gaming have infrared connectivity for data sharing with other phones or PCs. This connectivity is not practical as any disturbances in the infra-reds line of sight could cause loss of connection, hence this technology was seldomly used in mobile games.

Bluetooth multiplayer games

Mobiles are connected through a wireless protocol called Bluetooth using special hardware. The games are designed to communicate with each other through this protocol to share game information. The basic restriction is that both the users have to be within a limited distance to get connected. A bluetooth device can accept up to 7 connections from other devices using a client/server architecture.

WAP / GPRS / UMTS / HSDPA multiplayer game

A GPRS connection which is common among GSM mobile phones can be used to share the data globally. Developers can connect a mass number of mobile games with a single server and share data among the players. Some developers have achieved cross platform games, allowing a mobile player to play against a PC. WAP and GPRS best supports turn based games and small RPG games. (Most of the counties have a weak GPRS speed in their carriers. In these types of games, the game communicates with a global server which acts like a router between the mobile phones. Faster connections like UMTS and HSDPA allow real time multiplayer gaming though speeds will still give some level of lag. Currently, there are a lot of multiplayer mobile games entering the market.

3G and WiFi

3G allows in most cases realtime multiplayer gaming and is based on technologies faster than GPRS. Wi-Fi is often used for connecting at home. Not every mobile device allows games to use the wifi connection.