As reported twice on Blizzplanet, the mystery behind Blizzard’s Mobile Division remains veiled beyond the Battlechat trademark. It is still unknown if Vollee and Blizzard may bring World of Warcraft to mobile. I have been predicting this for many months after finding out one of the Vollee partners was Activision. Now ActivisionBlizzard. Vollee CEO Martin Dunsby will be at the Virtual Worlds Expo on the “Mobile Virtual Worlds: Leaving the Personal Computer Behind” panel, at the Los Angeles Convention Center held in room 406 AB on Sept. 3 at 2:30 p.m.
Redwood City, Calif. – Sept. 3, 2008 – Vollee, the 3G streaming services provider, announced today that its mobile open beta application for Second Life®, the 3D virtual world platform created by Linden Lab®, has been downloaded by users in over 98 countries, across more than 253 mobile operators’ networks for 70 supported handset models.
The Vollee technology is the first of its kind to stream a high-end PC experience to mobile, including popular massively multiplayer online role playing games and persistent worlds. The company’s mobile application for Second Life, launched in June 2008, was the first to offer access to the complete virtual world via a mobile device, allowing Vollee’s registered users to explore, interact and communicate on-line.
“We were able to bring Second Life to mobile in a way that Residents all over the world, from Afghanistan to Venezuela, have flocked to,” said Martin Dunsby, CEO, Vollee. “Extending the online experience seamlessly to mobile is the future of PC applications, and our technology allows for this in a way that not only appeals to the existing communities but also drives new adoption as well.”
The company’s VolleeX technology adapts applications for screen size and key layout, and then streams the original application to mobile devices. Vollee’s interactive video streaming platform optimizes compression to minimize bandwidth requirements and also leverages the 3G mobile networks in such a way that users can easily and smoothly navigate the application. Vollee’s technology is also extensible to fast paced, high quality video games previously impossible on mobile.
To download the free Second Life mobile application and view a complete list of supported handsets, please visit https://www.vollee.com/secondlife.
About Vollee
Vollee enables an interactive PC experience on mobile. By hosting unmodified PC applications on powerful servers, adapting them intelligently for mobile handsets and then streaming them over 3G networks, Vollee allows users to access MMOs and rich virtual worlds such as Second Life or play console quality games on mass-market handsets.
Vollee delivers its groundbreaking service through patented tools that radically change the return on investment for IP owners to bring their content to mobile. Vollee dramatically reduces the time to market as applications are adapted in a matter of weeks without touching source code, and increases deployment reach as Vollee enables just about all 3G and Wi-Fi enabled handsets to run these rich PC applications.
Vollee has already announced partnerships with some of the leading Intellectual Property owners such as ActivisionBlizzard, Linden Lab, Codemasters, and Encore Software. For more information, visit www.vollee.com.
