You play?

Another week, another mobile gaming announcement. Digital Bridges, one of the biggest players in the market, have rebranded themselves as I-play. Apparently their mission is to, "make mobile gaming the world's most popular form of electronic gaming." Hmm. To do this they will be pushing casual games heavily. This makes sense, but a wave of new Tetris clones doesn't fill me with excitement. However the other part of the rebrand - keeping the tech away from the consumer - is a good thing. When mobile gaming gets as easy to use as DS/GBA/PSP then it will really have made it. With Screen Digest estimating that the global mobile games market will be worth $1.7bn this year is it time to ditch the handhelds and pick up the mobile?