Nokia, Samsung, SK Telecom, Square-Enix, Symbian, Tao Group, and Texas Instruments have joined forces with the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) to further define and support an open gaming specification for premium-quality native games for mobile phones.

Platform fragmentation is a barrier to achieve games’ potential in the wireless marketplace, and OMA’s ongoing commitment to interoperability made the organization a solid venue around which these players could coalesce. With more than a billion mobile phones in the marketplace today, this initiative will fuel the growth of mobile games for the masses by crafting an open approach for gaming development.

Formed in early 2006, the mobile gaming initiative is comprised of companies across the mobile gaming value chain whose aim was to streamline the process of developing and delivering games for a range of mobile environments. The companies who were part of this gaming initiative will now join OMA’s Game Services Working Group to broaden industry participation among world’s leading mobile operators, device and network suppliers, information technology companies, application developers and content providers. The Game Services Working Group’s efforts create an environment for reduced platform fragmentation, lowered development costs, and a richer mobile gaming experience for the consumer.

“Developing specifications under the OMA Game Services Working Group is a natural move that allows participating companies to rapidly develop the specifications needed to enable a richer, more consistent mobile gaming experience for consumers,” said Kevin Mowry, chairman of the OMA Game Services Working Group, and OMAPTM software product marketing manager for Texas Instruments.

Developing the game services specification will establish a common definition for minimum device capabilities and measurable performance characteristics that game publishers and developers can rely upon. This will result in easier and more efficient games portability from one mobile handset to another and greater revenues from games for the entire industry. With less time spent developing multiple versions of a single game to account for the broad range of device capabilities, content developers will instead be able to focus on creating new gaming titles for mobile consumers with richer graphics and features.