ID Software moves into mobile

Video game developer ID Software has joined forces with Fountainhead Entertainment to create ID Mobile, which will develop games for mobile phones, Nintendo's DS and Sony's PlayStation Portable.

ID Mobile will be a division of ID Software and will be headed up by Katherine Anna Kang, founder of Fountainhead Entertainment and former director of business development at ID Software.

ID Software has teamed up with Fountainhead in the past to develop mobile games, including Orcs and Elves which won the 2006 Interactive Achievement Awards Mobile Game of the Year.

ID Mobile is currently developing Wolfenstein for the mobile platform along with a follow-up to Doom.

"Worldwide mobile gaming has the potential to eclipse conventional gaming platforms," said John Carmack, technical director and co-founder of ID Software.

"The resource constraints of mobile platforms reward technical and design virtuosity, making it a place where we can leverage the historic strengths of our company."

Kang added that ID Mobile is poised to "shake up the emerging mobile gaming space".

"ID Software is known for doing things that do not conform to the status quo and has led the gaming industry forward through original ideas, technical prowess and the ability to see into the future," she said.

Reports by research firm DFC Intelligence suggest that the Nintendo DS is in line to become the best selling game system ever, and that portable gaming revenues have more than doubled in recent years.

"While mobile gaming has enormous potential, it continues to suffer from a lack of emphasis on quality entertainment, innovation and the fun factor," said Todd Hollenshead, chief executive at ID Software.

"With ID Mobile we will leverage our brands, technical capabilities and design skills to bring award winning content to these exciting platforms."

ID Software signed a deal with Valve in August to distribute a range of the company's popular game franchises on Valve's Steam network.