Melbourne Telcogames signs big UK retailer

Mobile phone games distributor Telcogames has teamed up with a British mobile phone retailer, The Carphone Warehouse, in a move that will get it exposure in 1450 retail outlets.

HLT, the Melbourne-based, ASX-listed parent company of Telcogames, said in a statement that the mobile phone games distributor had signed up with The Carphone Warehouse, a mobile phone retail chain with some 1450 stores in 10 nations, including the UK.

Byron Ko, managing director at HLT, said Telcogames was targeting the mobile games and entertainment market.

"The Carphone Warehouse was the logical choice of retailer given their significant network and customer base of 1.65 million," Ko said.

The new relationship gave Telcogames direct access to the UK retail market. The Carphone Warehouse was the largest independent retailer of mobile communications in Europe, HLT said.

"From June 2005, The Carphone Warehouse will distribute the world's first-ever collection of mobile phone games using multimedia cards," HLT claimed.

The multimedia cards were compatible with the Symbian mobile phone operating system and licensed to handset manufacturers accounting for about 85 percent of annual mobile phone sales worldwide, HLT said.

"Symbian games offer faster gameplay, more involved levels, improved graphics and a more sophisticated gaming experience than possible on technologies such as Java or BREW," HLT alleged.

Some games available would compare well with those found on GameBoy Advance or PDA devices, HLT claimed.

Three titles -- Marble Revolution, Sky Force and Yukiko -- would be available for Telcogames' multimedia cards, HLT said.

HLT subsidiary Telcogames is headquartered in the UK. It supplies around 800 games from 75 publishers and mobile games studios.