Spil Games has taken a leadership role in the HTML5 gaming space, not only globally (see for example the Game Jam together with Google or our HTML5 contest), but also in China. We have been involved in all HTML5 conferences that were organized in Shanghai and Beijing over the past couple of months and we have launched our mobile HTML5 game platform at youxi.cn. The good thing about HTML5 games is that you can play them on every mobile smartphone, so not only on Android (like with Flash games) but also on the iPhone.
I personally believe that eventually HTML5 will make apps obsolete, and it seems more and more people agree with me. See for example this article on Venturebeat from a few days ago: http://venturebeat.com/2011/04/07/how-html5-will-kill-the-native-app/ Of course a lot of the commenters don’t agree, it somehow reminds me of the early days of Flash games where there were a lot of non-believers as well. I still remember that about 5 years ago we were trying to convince the Game Academy in Shanghai to start offering Flash courses, but they didn’t believe it would be important for games. Times have changed, now it’s easy to find Flash game courses in China but nobody is offering HTML5 courses yet.
As part of Spil Games leadership role we actively try to roll out partnerships with mobile social networks. Among others we put HTML5 games on Japan’s leading mobile social network Mixi, where we even had the #1 game in January. In China, however, mobile social game networks for smartphones are not as developed yet, but that will change fast as well.
Yesterday Spil Games launched its first HTML5 game on the mobile version of Kaixin001 (still as an app, HTML5 games can easily made into apps with a wrapper). Play it here! This is a big milestone for HTML5 games in China, because as far as I know this is the first HTML5 game on any mobile social network here. Also other giants like RenRen and Tencent don’t have this yet.
Spil Games worked closely with Kaixin to help develop their mobile API, so we would be able to roll out the HTML5 game with social features, such as high scores. But you can now also post your score in your timeline for all your friends to see (notification) or ask your friends to play as well (invitation).
This is just the beginning of course, very soon we have some other big projects that will go live on Chinese portals. Exciting times for HTML5, I believe this is the beginning of the future!
If you’re in Shanghai and want to be more involved in the HTML5 scene, make sure to attend this weekend’s HTML5 conference. Peter Driessen (Spil Games co-founder & CEO) will give a keynote about the future of HTML5 games and Spil Games’ role in this.