Yuen Spreads Gaming Gospel Within Qualcomm

RCR Wireless News
By Mike Dano
May 27, 2005

Mike Yuen's new job is to turn all of Qualcomm Inc.'s 7,600 employees into wireless gamers.

Well, not exactly. But Yuen's new job within Qualcomm does involve promoting games throughout the company-an effort that Yuen hopes will trickle down into Qualcomm's wide range of products, from the company's CDMA chips to its iMoD display technology to its Qchat push-to-talk offering. Yuen is the director of Qualcomm's Gaming Group, a four-person unit tasked with pushing the wireless gaming market through whatever means necessary.

"What we're trying to do is have this cross-divisional effort," Yuen explained, bubbling with enthusiasm. "What we're trying to do ... is put the gaming glasses on and make sure it's good for gaming."

Yuen has been pushing for the greater good of gaming throughout most of his career. With degrees in computer science and business administration, Yuen previously worked in the game development space with the likes of Accolade (Atari/Infogrames), GTE Interactive Media, Hammerhead Entertainment, AMD and NCR. Yuen joined Qualcomm in 2001 to head up the company's BREW developer relations team. In promoting BREW, Yuen helped sign companies such as Microsoft Corp., America Online Inc., Disney, Sony Corp. and others to develop consumer and business content for the company's application download system.

Earlier this year, Yuen returned to his gaming roots when the Gaming Group formed within Qualcomm. An avid gamer both personally and professionally, Yuen said he is currently playing Untold Legends on Sony Corp.'s PSP portable game device.

"It's great," Yuen said of the game. "All you have to do is walk around and fight stuff."

However, Yuen conceded that he's now the proud father of a six-month-old and "doesn't have much time for games anymore."

Yuen sits squarely in the wireless industry's current craze. While ringtones and text messaging have served to boost carrier data revenues, it's gaming that has stolen the industry's imagination. Today there are dozens of wireless gaming players, including several big names like Jamdat Mobile Inc., Mforma, Sorrent and others. Further, several major gaming companies and media vendors like Electronic Arts, Sony Pictures and Disney have launched their own wireless efforts-lending further credibility to the space.

Indeed, research and consulting firm Informa Telecoms and Media predicts the worldwide mobile gaming market will explode from $2.6 billion this year to $11.2 billion in 2010. Market research firm Screen Digest found the mobile games sector has attracted around $412 million in venture capital since 1999, with more than 50 percent of that figure rolling in last year. And research firm IDC found wireless gaming is on track to become the single most valuable content category in the United States, surpassing even the vast ringtone market. The firm predicts U.S. wireless gaming revenues will hit $1.5 billion in 2008.

Such growth carries consequences, however. Screen Digest found that almost 20 wireless game companies were merged or acquired last year, up from only four in 2003.

Gaming is critical to the development of the wireless data market, Yuen explained. Video games have served to drive computer innovations since the early 1990s. Yuen said the computer game Myst spurred the sale of CD-ROM drives in the 1990s, while games like Doom and Quake pushed the market for dedicated graphics cards.

"What's pushing it forward is really gaming-that's pushing technology," Yuen said, adding that the wireless gaming market will have "near PSP quality within a year."

Yuen's enthusiasm for games stands somewhat in contrast to the relatively stodgy demeanor of most wireless executives. Yet Yuen will need that drive and spiritedness to promote his gaming agenda within Qualcomm.

Qualcomm's Gaming Group primarily works within the company's BREW business. BREW technology sits inside a handset and allows users to download and run small, colorful applications. BREW-and to a greater extent Java-are largely responsible for sparking the mobile-gaming industry. The technologies come pre-installed in most new mobile phones, and allow users to download and play games like Tetris, Frogger and others.

Within BREW, Yuen and Qualcomm are working to add additional features and functions including 3D graphics, user interface improvements and a wider range of applications. But Yuen's Gaming Group is looking beyond the confines of Qualcomm's BREW unit in an attempt to improve the platform.

"There's all these separate efforts out there (within Qualcomm) related to gaming, but there's no one thing pulling them all together," he explained.

Specifically, Yuen is negotiating with Qualcomm's BREW partners to tie BREW applications to other media. For example, a game developer like Electronics Arts could promote its new football-themed Xbox game with a scaled-down version of the game for BREW phones. Further, EA could offer special rewards to BREW players that they then could use in their Xbox game. If a BREW gamer beat a particular team, for instance, they would receive a special code that would allow them to download new players into their Internet-connected Xbox.

"There's really interesting ways you can mix those things together," Yuen said.

Yuen's Gaming Group is also working with Qualcomm's chip division to further its gaming cause. Last year Qualcomm announced it would install technology from ATI Technologies Inc. in its phone chips to render 3D content, including 3D games. Yuen said his Gaming Group would push similar deals to improve game play.

Likewise, Yuen said the Gaming Group will work with Qualcomm's new MEMS division, which is promoting its low-power, high-performance iMoD technology for mobile-phone screens. Yuen said the Gaming Group would make sure the screen technology would be suitable for colorful, fast-moving games.

The group is also working with Qualcomm's SnapTrack Inc. business to develop location-aware games, and with Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile TV effort to potentially promote game downloads in video broadcasts. Yuen said Qualcomm could offer a channel within its MediaFLO broadcasts advertising its lineup of BREW games.

Finally, Yuen said the Gaming Group is active within Qualcomm's Qchat business, and that the technology could lead to in-game voice conversations or speedy multiplayer games. Yuen said Qchat push-to-talk technology essentially creates a peer-to-peer data connection among two or more users. Yuen said that connection could allow gamers to talk to each other while playing against each other. Or, since it's a data session, Qchat could be used to improve multiplayer games that would otherwise suffer from the seconds-long delays common to most wireless data networks.

"How do we create a better experience and open that up to the BREW community?" Yuen asked.

As Yuen and the rest of Qualcomm's BREW business gears up for the company's annual BREW developer's conference this week, most eyes will likely be turned to gaming. Carriers across the world have demonstrated users' willingness to pay a few dollars to play their favorite card, arcade and puzzle games. The question now, for Yuen and the rest of the gaming market, will be to figure out how to keep that money rolling in.