j2me games: marketing and sales

[dzima]

Hi!

A friend of mine has developed a nice J2ee game. We want to sell it  but we have absolutely no experience.  I mean I have general marketing/sales exp. and knowledge but I don't know this market and its distribution channels.

Can someone please share some usefull info or provide with links to related resources? Thanks you!

[Jeff]

You mean J2ME, yes?

Let me give you a brief intro.

(1) J2ME distribution is absolutely controlled by the networking providers (the cell phone companies.)  So you need to make a deal with one or more of them.

(2) The US cell phone companies today by and large want to limit their engagement to large publishers/destributors. So if youwant to get into the US market, you need one of them  to pick up your game in order to get it in front of the cell phone companies.
(I'm not sure where Europe and japan are but wouldnt be surpised if its similar.)

Some folks you might want to try: THQ, Sorrent.  There are probably some others other people wil lchiem in with.

[LamLawrence]

Dear dzima,

My company is going to market J2ME games in asia countries. Are you interested in detail discussion with us on that? If you wish, please send email to game@innonetz.com.hk

Thanks
Lawrence

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[blahblahblahh]

(2) The US cell phone companies today by and large want to limit their engagement to large publishers/destributors. So if youwant to get into the US market, you need one of them  to pick up your game in order to get it in front of the cell phone companies.
(I'm not sure where Europe and japan are but wouldnt be surpised if its similar.)

I'm sure that's correct in the US, but Europe is still years ahead. It still varies from network to network (and you usually need to look at each separately) but anyone can publish a game, assuming the game is good. Bit of a business mistake on the behalf of the mainstream games publishers - a lot of people have been making a lot of money while they've been sleeping .

[shareme]

they also left out that in US like Europe publishers are slowly wising up to the fact that if they cooperate with mobile operators and offer free certification they get more games developed for their catalogues..

For example Cingular in the USA offeres free certification due to its partenrshipwith Cellmania

http://cingulardeveloper.cellmania.com/documentation/j2me.jsp