Helio Details Mobile Gaming Plans

By Geoff Duncan April 26, 2006

Helio, the youth-oriented mobile company headed up by Earthlink founder Sky Dayton which aims to bring advanced 3G mobile technology (primarily from SK Telecom) to the U.S. market, today unveiled part of its mobile gaming strategy.

“We have created a unique gaming experience that shows off the high resolution screens and advanced capabilities of our devices, while tapping the potential of the 3G network,” said Sky Dayton, Helio’s CEO. “We built the service from the ground up to not only let our members discover and play great games, but share them with each other through gifting and begging, both firsts in the US.”

According to Helio, the mobile gaming service will offer innovative ways for users to share, assess, and even rent games, as well as offer a wide slate of 2D, 3D, and multiplayer offerings which leverage multimedia capabilities in the company’s initial mobile devices, the Hero and KickFlip phones. Users will be able to “gift” games to another Helio member, or (in turn) “beg” another Helio member to purchase a game for them. The service will also feature a game rental service, where users can try out any title for a low price before purchasing a full-price permanent download.

The Helio game catalog will offer individual game ratings in conjunction with IGN.com, as well as video preview of in-game action from each game, free “cheat codes” for purchased games so users can get past that annoying boss level, a “wishlist” function for keeping track of games you want to buy later, and a a download locker from which users can re-download purchased games if their original copy goes missing.

Helio plans to offer games in eight broad genres

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