BBERRYNEWS

So far at the BlackBerry Developer Conference we have seen 3 games for the BlackBerry Storm2 using OpenGL. The first, Need for Speed Sprint by EA, was by far the most impressive. The game uses 10 years and millions of dollars behind EA’s 3D mobile graphics engine and it looks amazing on the Storm2. The others are by Concrete and Sega. Concrete is releasing PBA Bowling for the Storm2 and they have leveraged OpenGL to provide a slick-looking 3D bowling experience. Lastly, Sega gave a quick preview of Super Monkey Ball, which wasn’t demoed on the Storm2, but we were told to expect it.

So what other rich 3D games and content can we expect from the Storm2? Currently, there isn’t much but everything we’re seeing here at Dev Con is telling us that early to mid 2010 is when we can expect to see development take off. The problem lies in that having only one device with OpenGL support may not be enough to convince smaller developers to make great games that use these new features. It’s really easy for a huge company such as EA to make a 3D OpenGL game for the Storm2, regardless of whether the revenue will justify it.

Smaller companies like IUGO, that make incredible iPhone games, aren’t taking advantage of OpenGL for the Storm2, because it’s hard to justify the development costs. The new tools that RIM have announced at the BlackBerry Developer Conference are going to generally help development, but in the end we need more devices supporting OpenGL to make it worth it.

If you’re a Storm2 user and you’re looking for more games that use the features of the device, some larger companies such as EA will be around to satisfy your immediate needs, but early to mid 2010 is when this device is going to get really good.

© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009