July 5, 2001 – When it comes to games, the world's top phone makers Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and Siemens are leveling the playing field.

The four mobile phone makers announced earlier this week they were launching the Mobile Games Interoperability (MGI) Forum, which will work to define a mobile games interoperability specification for network-based servers.

The specification will enable game developers to produce and deploy mobile games that can be distributed across multiple game servers and wireless networks, and played over different mobile devices.

"The mobile games market represents an attractive opportunity to games developers, publishers, and providers alike," said Ilkka Raiskinen, vice president, mobile applications and services, Nokia Mobile Phones. "By supporting open standards and interoperability, we are ensuring that all parties, and especially mobile game players, will benefit....We see this forum as playing a central role in setting up 3G game services."

The MGI Forum will work with appropriate standards bodies to ensure an open environment for developing mobile games, the companies said. It will also collaborate with tool developing companies to develop software development kits and other necessary solutions.

To ensure that the specification meets the needs of all the stakeholders in the mobile games community, the forum is open to all game publishers and developers, game platform vendors, game service providers, mobile network operators, additional device and infrastructure vendors, and service integrators. For more details, contact mgif@mchp.siemens.de.