Publishing J2ME games

[kokigfc]

Hi all!
This is my first post in the forum, but i've already read some posts and i really enjoyed it. :)

I'm developing a game in J2ME for mobile phones, but i don't know where could i publish them. So, someone knows something about publishing J2ME games?

Regards,

Gustavo.

[Michael Flad]

Your first step should be to support as much devices as possible - one problems with quite some distributors is, that they didn't give additional versions for new/added devices much a high priority - there are exceptions but in general it's better to support most popular devices at the initial release.

You should then search for distributors for all the territories because you'll never be able to put your game on each distribution channel/portal by yourself because it's just much additional work and the bigger channels (Carriers) won't talk to us small developers at all.

Don't give exclusive distribution rights for big territories (a single state/country may be ok, or if they, in addition to the typica royalties, pay you some good amount of money as an advance)

I've learned it the hard way - by accepting an exclusive deal for Europe for a game we only had support for Nokia devices at that time. The end of the story was - they weren't interested in new ports, they didn't push the game because we supported only a fraction of the handsets available and we were bound to that company for 2 years. In addition the game sold pretty well in the USA so chances are, it would have sold in Europe too :(

[the2bears]

Your first step should be to support as much devices as possible - one problems with quite some distributors is, that they didn't give additional versions for new/added devices much a high priority - there are exceptions but in general it's better to support most popular devices at the initial release.

I disagree. Have 6-8 versions if you can, choose the latest phones targetting the carriers in the market you're after. Go for a broad range of handsets, ie. 2-3 Nokia, Moto and SonyEricsson and others. Don't go for all the ports until after you've a publishing deal and you know where and how the porting will be paid for.

Bill