Temasek invests in US games

Temasek Holdings is making a play for a slice of the booming online gaming business, the sovereign fund is heading a consortium of investors set to pump $60 million into US-based online gaming studio Gazillion Entertainment, says Straits Times.

The privately held firm, which last month introduced Lego Universe, an online game-based on the building block toy, is currently working on a Marvel Entertainment superhero title called Super Hero Squad Online, rumoured to be released early next year.

Gazillion chief executive Rob Hutter, who has hailed massively multiplayer online games as one of the most profitable entertainment sectors in the world, welcomed Temasek's investment “as we enter a key phase of expansion for the company”.

Arm hopes to bring high-performance graphics applications such as 3D imaging and gaming to handheld devices like smartphones while keeping battery life intact with a new graphics processor design, writes PC World.

Everyday multimedia applications like video playback and image recognition draw a lot of battery life, but the company's new Mali T604 graphics processor will accelerate those applications while drawing less power, said Ian Smythe, director of marketing at ARM. The Mali T604 will be able to handle 3D imaging and full high-definition video.

Arm also makes CPUs that go into most of world's smartphones, and the new graphics processor will work in conjunction with CPUs to improve performance.

Analysts say while still relatively underdeveloped, the mobile gaming industry should see rapid growth over the next four years, according to Las Vegas Review Journal.

The market has been slow to develop, according to the research, mainly due to the uncertainty about future regulation of remote gambling and online gambling. Some gaming companies, however, have begun offering mobile platforms in anticipation of growth in the segment.

"We are very bullish on mobile devices' potential as gambling tools," says Simon Holliday, director of H2 Gambling Capital, a consulting and research firm based in London.