Play golf and catch villains - on your mobile phone
Play golf and catch villains - on your mobile phone Europolitan Vodafone launches major initiative in the mobile gaming and entertainment market In April Europolitan Vodafone is launching a broad range of gaming and entertainment services directly for mobile phones. A large number of WAP and SMS based games will be on offer right from the start. Gaming and entertainment services will form a significant part of Europolitan Vodafone's range of mobile Internet services. The company is already focusing on starting to develop tomorrow's 3G adapted mobile telephony services. "With 3G around the corner, we will be offering our customers high- quality gaming and entertainment services this spring," says Mikael Kluge, Director of Europolitan Vodafone's Mobile Internet business area. "We will evaluate, improve and broaden our entertainment portfolio based on a continual dialogue with the users, so that we may offer Sweden's best mobile entertainment services," he says. Entertainment services will include action and adventure games, board games, "dating" games, sports quizzes and horoscopes such as Flirtylizer, Black Jack, Tama Gunnar, Life Stylers, Fight Arena, On the Green, Black Jack, Outpost Island, Hangman and Love Horoscope. "I'm fond of sports games and quizzes, myself. My teenage children, on the other hand, are sure to prefer the action games," says Kluge. These services are geared to a broad target group and probably the generation grown up with TV- and computer games will be among the majority of users. The number of games will gradually increase. The launch is being supported by an advertising campaign with outdoor, printed, radio and Internet ads. The theme of the advertisement is 'Waiting is Fun' and is based on mobile users' behavioural patterns when waiting for a bus to arrive, a lesson to begin or a film to start at the cinema. Europolitan Vodafone's gaming and entertainment suppliers are currently Bluefactory, Picofun and Aspiro, but the company is also conducting ongoing discussions with other content providers. Cost structure The cost varies from game to game, and users pay once they have activated the game by clicking on the appropriate URL address in their WAP portal. Information about the cost of the games can be found on the pages where each game is presented individually. The cost of starting a game varies depending on the service used. Adding to this is the user's regular subscription-based call rate. Users are charged each time they access a URL and start a game. If users do not quit the game, playing it again is free. Players will only be charged again if they quit the game, return to the portal and activate the game again. Where SMS based games are concerned, players pay for the SMS messages they send in certain games, and those they receive in others. For more information, please contact: Mikael Kluge, Director Mobil Internet, Europolitan Vodafone tel: +46 708 33 12 05, e-mail: mikael.kluge@europolitan.se Mårten Ulvsbäck, Business Manager Mobile Internet Applications, Europolitan Vodafone, tel.: +46 708 33 13 63, e-mail: marten.ulvsback@europolitan.se Europolitan Vodafone is a mobile operator with a licence to build a 3G mobile telecoms network. Our strength lies in our focus on developing international services, customer service and quality. Europolitan Vodafone employs some 1,400 people. Europolitan Vodafone is listed on the O-list of the OM Stock Exchange's Attract 40 list through Europolitan Holdings AB. The company's principal owner is Vodafone, with 71 per cent of Europolitan Holdings. The remaining 29 per cent is owned by private shareholders, investment companies and pension funds. The Vodafone group is represented on 5 continents and has around 80 million customers (proportionate customers). For more information, please visit www.europolitan.se and www.vodafone.com. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/30/20010330BIT00620/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/30/20010330BIT00620/bit0002.pdf