By As you know, Qualcomm is beginning to move faster than ever in the chipset race. They already have a number of devices with dual-core processors inside and quad-core SoCs are right around the corner. Their chipsets are quite capable of handling the latest video games and Qualcomm wants you to know that and wants to help you tap the power of it.
They’ve announced GameCommand, something not too much unlike NVIDIA’s TegraZone application. It highlights the many games optimized for Qualcomm’s processors. It’s a bit of an extension of their GamePack program except this one is geared more toward users and easy discoverability.
To start, they’ll be showcasing a number of PC games ported to Android that will exclusively work only on Snapdragon powered devices initially. The titles will eventually hit the Android market after their brief periods of exclusivity.
This type of showcasing is great for both Qualcomm and their publishing partners, but it’s still not great for consumers. You could have the most powerful chipset in the world in your phone, but you might not be able to play a game you want because it’s not “optimized” for anything but Qualcomm chipsets. Fragmented gaming is what it is. That’s another story for another day, though. Read on for full press details.
NEW YORK – November 16, 2011 – Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced today the expansion of its 100+ games Snapdragon GamePack and launch of a new showcase application — Snapdragon™ GameCommand™ — further bolstering the supply of console-quality and casual games for mobile devices featuring Snapdragon processors.
The new gaming titles being introduced as part of the extended Snapdragon GamePack and the new Snapdragon GameCommand app are all expected to hit the Android Market in early 2012. Additions to the Snapdragon GamePack include several new, exclusive gaming titles that will be available through the Android Market, and which will initially be designed to operate exclusively on Android-enabled devices powered by Snapdragon processors. These titles include a number of high-end PC games, such as:
• “The Ball” from Tripwire Interactive, which has earned several accolades including PC Gamer’s 2010 Action-Adventure Game of the Year, is built on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 and is debuting for the first time ever on mobile
• “Fight Game Heroes” from Khaeon Gamestudio
• “GALAGA Special Edition,” the 30th anniversary edition of the perennial arcade favorite from NAMCO BANDAI Games.While the GamePack is an ever-growing collection of great games, the new Snapdragon GameCommand app provides mobile users a way to quickly find and learn about the latest Snapdragon featured and exclusive games, with the added bonus of being able to keep and access all their favorite games in a single place with one group icon. The Snapdragon GameCommand app also provides gamers with a source for the latest gaming news from some of the most popular gaming news sites.
“Qualcomm has received great user feedback since launching the Snapdragon GamePack, so we are expanding the quantity and quality of games while making them easier to locate through the launch of the Snapdragon GameCommand app,” says Raj Talluri, vice president of product management at Qualcomm. “With more than 60 percent of smartphone users regularly playing games on their mobile devices, the time is right to bring more console-quality and casual games to the Snapdragon platform. We are very excited to put our new Snapdragon GameCommand app and more great gaming titles in the hands of consumers in early 2012.”
The Snapdragon GamePack, launched in June 2011 at Qualcomm’s Uplinq® mobile developer conference, originally featured more than 100 game titles from some of the industry’s top game development companies, including Advanced Mobile Applications Ltd., Babaroga LLC, Booyah Inc., Com2us USA Inc., Digital Chocolate Inc., Electronic Arts Inc., Eyelead Software S.A., FISHLABS Entertainment GmbH, Glu Mobile Inc., Guild Software Inc., Gameloft Inc., Khaeon Games BV, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., NaturalMotion Games Ltd., Polarbit AB, PopCap Games Inc., HandyGames, Southend Interactive, and Tripwire Interactive LLC. Qualcomm worked closely with them to utilize the advanced graphics capability of the embedded Adreno® GPUs in Snapdragon mobile processors and bring a better gaming experience to mobile users.
“We waited to enter the mobile market until we could bring a top-of-the-line PC game experience to mobile devices,” said Alan Wilson, vice president of Tripwire Interactive. “Snapdragon processors now give us the power to do that.”
“We are looking forward to the launch of the Snapdragon GameCommand app, which will bring our Snapdragon-optimized games directly to consumers and help to eliminate the search process,” said Didier Pippel of Khaeon Gamestudio. “Android has emerged as a prominent medium for gaming, and we are excited to work with Qualcomm to give gamers the mobile experience they deserve.”
“We have been able to maximize the advanced Adreno graphics in our premium 3D games like ‘PAC-MAN Kart Rally,’” said Carlson Choi, vice president of marketing, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “Our developers and producers are enthusiastically working with Qualcomm’s gaming team to continue to expand the Snapdragon GamePack by bringing some of the industry’s top franchises to the new platform.”
About Qualcomm
Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) is the world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies. For more than 25 years, Qualcomm ideas and inventions have driven the evolution of digital communications, linking people everywhere more closely to information, entertainment and each other. For more information, visit Qualcomm’s website, OnQ blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.
Chainfire 3d will fix that problem
Where is the Snapdragon GamePack?
Isn’t fragmentation the same thing google is trying to do away with? Either way, this fragmentation will only slow the gaming market down on android and push more of the hardcore gamers over to the iphone. I am a gamer, and I am tired of this fragmentation. I shouldn’t have to root to play the best games. This is like trying to debate whether to buy the xbox or ps3. but instead of 2 console we have several. If google wants all the newest games and apps like the iphone they need to regulate this fragmentation. Otherwise the majority of the amazing games will be stuck on iphone. Look at rage for example. A great game, but won’t see release on android. Google finally starts cutting down on fragmentation, then the manufactures find a way to start it back up. Android is taking another step backwards in my opinion!
Who would want to go from a big bad ass Android with a huge screen to a lil punk ass 3.5″ iPhone just to play a few games that they can’t???
i for one love my epic touch. however, the size of the screen doesn’t matter to as many people as you would think. most of us that check this site out, yes. however that isn’t even 1% of the android users. as much as i love android, I too am sick of this fragmentation. I thought it was getting better with the newer versions of android, however the chip makers are going to ruin what google has been working hard to fix.
This is lame….Google is trying to eliminate fragmentation for Androids benefit, while chipset manufacturers are trying to increase it for their own benefit.
so does android now have sub fragmentation to add to their os fragmentation?
I undrestand each platform having their exclusives. I look at android vs. ios vs. windows the same way i look at wii vs. xbox vs. playstation. having this whole exclusive bullsh!-t on different android devices is like having one model of the xbox360 playing one game, but you can’t play that game on another xbox360. if a chip maker wants companies to use their chips, make a chip worth using at a competitive price. i know this all started with the tegra, however we have to look at why the tegra was host to this service. the name NVIDIA should sum it up. alot of these companies making tegra exclusives because they feel more at home working with NVIDIA products. given time they will port the games to the rest of the crowd. I hate the wait as well, but qualcomm is just crying “ME TOO! ME TOO!”. Either way, this has got to stop. If google wants to see android become the best it can be, this fragmentation needs to end. It’s all the same platform, the manufacturers need to understand that and accept that.