What a year for FISHLABS! All of our mobile games were showered with awards. German and international online magazines gave top marks by the score to Powerboat Challenge™, Rally Master Pro™, Gladiator – The Mobile Game, and Snowboard Hero™. As a result, FISHLABS led the international charts for the best mobile games in 2008. Not bad for a small company with just 30 employees. Naturally, we were tremendously pleased with all of this recognition and are very proud of it.

Unfortunately, none of this guarantees that high quality and innovation will earn back the expenses of the costly production of such mobile games on the open market, to say nothing of making a profit – the purpose of every professional company. There are a number of diverse reasons for this:

• Even high-quality mobile games are offered at a relatively low price
• Mobile network operators keep at least 50 % of the revenue
• Distributors help themselves to up to 25 % of the end-user price for the more or less simple task of passing on the mobile game
• Mobile games are marketed like ring tones – the name of a mobile game is the only distinguishing feature, the customer only learns about quality and innovation after the purchase
• There is no effective copy protection for mobile games. They are downloaded illegally over the Internet in huge numbers – there are roughly ten times as many illegal downloads of our mobile games as legal (and that is just those that we are aware of)

All of this would not be so serious if these problems had not been known for years. Unfortunately, almost nothing has changed in this regard, and we do not expect there to be fundamental changes in the market for mobile games in the future. Mind you, by this we only mean the market for mobile games which are sold by network operators and Internet portals.

New sales channels for mobile games

In 2009, FISHLABS will rigorously pursue other methods. Above all, we will, for the time being, not develop any new Java mobile games for sale via network operators and Internet portals.

With the long-awaited sequel to our best-known mobile game, the space shooter and trade simulator Galaxy on Fire™, we will rely entirely on the new marketing concept which we successfully introduced with Rally Master Pro™: Galaxy on Fire™ 2 will be available for free download directly from our website and a few selected partners. Anyone who wants to can download the game to their PC to save the mobile transmission costs. In any case, Galaxy on Fire™ 2 can be played for a few hours (!) absolutely free. Only in the later course of the game must the game be unlocked for 100,000 myFISHLABS credits. In western countries, the purchase of a myFISHLABS Credits Gold Package for 5.97 Euros is enough for this. We have also taken great care that myFISHLABS Credits are priced lower in emerging markets in accordance with their purchasing power and that the most important payment systems of each country are available. 

Copy protection for mobile games with extra benefits

In order to adequately protect Galaxy on Fire™ 2 against piracy after the free playing period, the mobile game uses an online connection to our OCEAN™ server to check whether the individual player is authorised to use the paid premium area of Galaxy on Fire™ 2. This check occurs only once per game session and the one-time 10 KB data transfer is minimal, in order to keep the cost to the player as low as possible. The game security data are kept in the phone’s memory until the game is ended. Thus, Galaxy on Fire™ 2 will even work in the underground, so long as there has been a brief connection to the OCEAN™ server beforehand.

Of course, honest users consider copy protection to be an imposition. Why should honest buyers have to accept difficulties or even extra costs for a product they have paid for in full? The answer is simple: because this product and other like it in the future will not exist if it is too easy to obtain a free (illegal) version and the manufacturer cannot make a profit from their product.

But our copy protection also has its good side: above all, download fees do not apply. Depending on the mobile phone contract, that could be up to 15 Euros for a large mobile game like Galaxy on Fire™ 2. Furthermore, we offer up to two cross upgrades. Thus, players can start playing Galaxy on Fire™ 2 on one mobile and keep playing even after changing to another model from a different manufacturer (!) for the second time. The saved games are stored on the OCEAN™ server with every authorisation and loaded as needed. Even without changing mobiles, this is a useful function, for example when your mobile receives a firmware update. And at the same time, all premium players are entered in the international high scores table.

We can’t wait to see how Galaxy on Fire™ 2 and the new sales concept are received in the market. Even if data flat rates have not yet been widely established and we will probably lose some users in the short-term, online connectivity in mobile games is the future and FISHLABS is always one of the leaders!

With that in mind, game on and a successful 2009!

Fishlabs has done it again and brought home yet another Airgamer award, this time with Powerboat Challenge™. Our latest mobile game earned 93% from the testers at the leading German online magazine for mobile games. We now also have a hit in the sports mobile games category among the top 5 mobile games.

Besides the extraordinarily high-quality graphics and the excellent playability, the folks at Airgamer particularly liked the enormous game depth which Powerboat Challenge has to offer. Airgamer’s summary says, ‘Wet streaks of lightning in 3D with a wealth of variety and an outstanding look!’

The evaluation in detail:

• Graphics: very good
• Sound: very good
• Controls: very good

Pro

• Detailed 3D graphics
• Extensive career mode
• Racy feeling of speed
• Precise controls
• Numerous upgrades

Length of game enjoyment: long

Difficulty level: easy to hard

Dominik Hirsch, mobile phone game tester at Airgamer summarises:

‘Exclusively good marks are rare, but Fishlabs has earned this. The graphics set a new (Java) standard for mobile phones. This is primarily due to the very authentic water depiction and the brilliant feeling of speed. But even in scope and variety, the watery frenzy never compromises, and the style system, boosts, and upgrades will give you the need for speed and gaming!

There’s power in there!’

We have nothing to add to that and would like to thank the folks at Airgamer for this terrific evaluation. You can read the complete test at the following link:
http://www.airgamer.de/handyspiele/test/zeige/powerboat-challenge.html

What a day for us - The German Developer Award 2007 goes to FISHLABS: Blades & Magic is the best mobile phone game of the year! Again, we have been proven to be the leading developer of premium 3D mobile games. This is another terrific accolade for our entire team and is the crowning conclusion to a very successful 2007.

As the only 3D mobile game, the action role-playing game Blades & Magic won over the jury, consisting of 30 industry-experts, and beat out the competition. This is also an important signal to the entire mobile games industry that complex 3D games are also able to thrill so-called core gamers on mobile phones.

Achim Quinke, Project Manager of Gamecity Hamburg, is also excited about the Award: “The award impressively underscores Hamburg’s leading role in the field of mobile games. With the Hamburg prototype sponsorship and our numerous services, we will be able to support innovative game developers even more strongly in the future.”

Blades & Magic is a graphically opulent, 3D action-RPG with up to 10 hours of playing time,which sets new standards for mobile phone games. In the role of Bryn, a young warrior of the Grimblade clan, the player must survive numerous quests and learn powerful spells and abilities in order to be able to use them wisely in battle in the lifelike world of Blades & Magic. The fantastic story of Good and Evil gives players the choice of making their way as a fearless fighter or a powerful mage in order to free the land of Auronia from the demon lord Balrazhul.

Get to the dedicated mobile game site of Blades & Magic

Submerge into plenty hours of 3D gaming fun. You might expect to to do that in front of your PC or your gaming console. However, FISHLABS gives you the game to do that on your mobile phone! The 3D action game DEEP: Submarine Odyssey is so innovative it was nominated for the Sony Ericsson Content Award. The submarine adventure created by FISHLABS made it to the top 5 mobile games!

DEEP – Thrilling 3D Action on Your Mobile Phone

With Deep we took the basic premise of our highly acclaimed Galaxy on Fire several steps further to create a never before seen amount of freedom in mobile gaming. The goal was to create a mobile game that gives players the feeling that they can do whatever they want to at any time they please. Be it fishing, hunting down pirates, producing and trading goods, upgrading one’s ship or continuing the main story line. The world of Deep was designed to keep players captivated and motivated for hours and hours.

Get to the dedicated mobile game site of DEEP