Sprint is the first carrier to offer Yahoo!’s new games to consumers, the first of which is Yahoo! Poker, a game that enables people on their Sprint PCS Vision(SM) Phones to play against thousands ofpeople playing Yahoo! Poker on their PCs at any time, as well as mobile-to-mobile and PC-to-PC game play. Yahoo! Poker will be available on select Sprint handsets in mid-June.
The Game Lobby from Sprint, powered by M7 Networks, is a virtual mobile community for gamers to meet, recommend games and challenge each other. It is accessed from both the fixed Internet and the mobile web by more than 500,000 members and includes many features:
— Single gamer username across games and publishers
— Centralized listing of high score postings
— Ability for users to manage their identity and determine what information is stored in their profile, such as pictures
— Opportunity to rate and review games
— Ability for users to create a buddy list of other members for challenging and instant messaging
— Option to opt in to receive new game alerts
— Interoperability with other game communities for cross-carrier buddy communication, game ratings and leaderboards
— The new status points program where users earn points for their activities to enhance the fun, competitive nature of the virtual games community
