Star Wars & Halo Games Coming to Mobiles

Ready to give your thumbs a workout? Mobile games based on "Star Wars: Battlefront" and Microsoft's "Halo" franchise are coming mobile phones.

Just when you were starting to think your mobile phone was a refuge from hostile aliens, explosions, and Yoda’s talking backwards strange, two companies have announced deals to bring games based on Star Wars: Battlefront and Microsoft’s Halo franchise to mobiles.

Microsoft Corporation has entered into a three-year deal with French mobile game maker In-Fusio to develop mobile games and other mobile products (like wallpapers and ringtones) based on Microsoft’s Halo franchise. The arrangement doesn’t come as a complete surprise: Halo 2 is one of Microsoft’s strongest titles (racking up $125 million in its first day on sale, and the franchise is under development as a feature movie) and In-Fusio already develops mobile games based on Microsoft’s cite>Zoo Tycoon 2 and Age of Empires II.

Similarly, THQ Wireless said it would be developing Star Wars Battlefront Mobile, a multiplayer game with sales expected to begin in the U.S. on November 1, 2005, exclusively via Cingular’s mobile network. The game is being built in conjunction with Singapore’s Mikoishi, a game services and production firm with expertise in multiplayer mobile games.