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Johannesburg - Telecommunications group Vodacom has launched the world's first location-based multiplayer game to combine actual map data with virtual geography.
The game is called Legends of Echo and is developed by Vodacom subsidiary The Grid.
Vincent Maher, portfolio manager of social media for Vodacom South Africa said Legends of Echo uses Vodacom's location-based services (LBS) to determine a player's physical location. From their location, players can then explore their surroundings or move (virtually) to anywhere else in South Africa to interact with other players - in real time.
Maher added that the game was designed to be played on cellphones and is available to subscribers on any cellular network, not just Vodacom.
Legends of Echo was designed and developed by a local team at Vodacom South Africa working remotely with outsourced international programmers.
Project manager Nic Haralambous said that the game is free to install and play, but does use the phone's data connection, which is billed accordingly. Players will also be able to buy items in the game world with airtime, but limits are in place to make sure that there are no unwelcome surprises.
"We have also decided on an age limit of 16 for Legends of Echo," said Haralambous.
He said that the aim of the game was to become a 'Legend of Echo' by battling other players for positions on the game's leader-board. There are no computer-controlled enemies in the game, players interact only with each other.
Haralambous explained that players can buy and create items, sell these to other players for virtual currency and set up a virtual home-base in the Echo online world.
He said that Vodacom plans to market the game with advertising on television, at cinemas, on radio and via social media like blogs.
International IT research and consulting firm Gartner predicted that the global market for mobile gaming will reach $6.3bn in 2011. It added that mobile phones were fast replacing other computers as a preferred gaming device, especially for teenagers.
- Fin24.com