Gameloft has announced that the Asphalt series of games has already sold 10 million copies worldwide. The president of the company, Michel Guillemot, said that this was just the first of games they expect other titles in their line-up to break 10 million copies sold. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

Gameloft is giving Nokia's N-Gage service a bit of a brain boost with today's release of Brain Challenge, another entry in the popular brain training casual game genre. The game is now available for N-Gage compatible devices. Check the full article for more info on the game.

 Nokia has announced the initial gaming lineup for their recently opened N-Gage service for mobile phones. Aside from that, the company's also listed some of the other titles they'll be releasing at a later time. More details on this are in the full article.

People in the UK may find themselves carrying their money in a different sort of wallet these days. PayForIt is a new payment scheme designed to buy goods and services up to £10, implemented last September 1, as a means to give consumers an alternative method asides from paying for them directly out of their wallets.

PayForIt is a mobile-based payment system which displays the information of any services and goods purchased and documents the details, specifically the amount and the retailer you purchased the goods or services from, on your mobile. The concept of digital wallets isn't a new thing, however they want to standardize such a payment scheme in the UK and hopefully expand the industry through it.

While this type of payment scheme has had a lot negative feedback in the past, Mike Short, chairman of the Mobile Data Association assures the public that the goal of PayForIt is to restore the faith in such a service. It does not seek to replace conventional payment options but rather offers consumers an alternative form of payment instead.

The companies involved in PayForIt include: I-play, Gameloft, EA, Multimap, Sony Ericsson and Samsung. The service aims to concentrate on payment options for ringtones, train tickets, parking fees, and eventually web shops and sites.

Anuj Khanna, a spokesman for Tanla Mobile, one of the firms administering payments made via PayForIt, had this to say about the system:

Most big brands would not use premium rate SMS to run their services, it's not a good experience, it's not consumer friendly. It's entirely geared at the low value, high volume transaction market.

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has announced that a bunch of leading games publishers have joined forces with 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone to simultaneously launch key games titles over all five of the UK networks.

The following publishers have joined in on this industry first: Electronic Arts, Glu Mobile, Gameloft and I-play. As part of the deal, four games -- Glu Mobile’s Transformers, Gameloft's Guitar Legend, EA Sports' FIFA 08 and an unannounced fourth title -- will be published across all five major service providers.

"We have been working with the network operators on a number of initiatives to grow the market of mobile gaming, and this is work that builds on the official charts we publish," said Michael Rawlinson, ELSPA's Managing Director. "We want mobile games publishers to become more involved with ELSPA so that we can assist them further in this growing and exciting area of gaming."

According to reports from Reuters, the videogame tie-in for the upcoming movie "Live Free or Die Hard" will not be appearing on any video game consoles this summer. Instead, the movie's video game version will be appearing exclusively on mobile phones.

French mobile game publisher Gameloft has secured the exclusive video game rights to the upcoming Bruce Willis action movie. This comes on the hells of Gameloft's recent acquisition of the mobile game rights to DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek the Third".

The game will reportedly feature 13 levels or fights, car chases and puzzles. Players will take on the role of retired detective John McClane in order to foil a criminal plot put into action by Internet terrorists.

We all love the funny green ogre Shrek and his band of heroes. As the third movie is already scheduled for a May 18 release (along with the multiplatform videogame for PS2, Xbox360, GBA, PSP, DS, PC, and Wii), the mobile gamers aren't be left out in the cold either.

Gameloft and DreamWorks Animation SKG teams up to bring Shrek the Third to the handsets. The mobile game will reportedly follow the movie's storyline with all the main characters in attendance. With the mobile version set to be unleashed upon "170 operators in over 75 countries", expect Shrek the Third to grace a handset near you around the same time of the movie's release.

Michel Guillemot, Gameloft's president, had this to say about the partnership:

We are thrilled to partner with DreamWorks Animation to bring the imaginative world of Shrek the Third to mobile gamers worldwide. We look forward to collaborating with DreamWorks to capture the trademark humor and originality featured in the Shrek series in our products.

Well, ready to start another adventure in the kingdom of Far Far Away? Be sure to pack your sense of humor with you.

Are you a Sprint subscriber? If you are, then, today is your lucky day as more video games will be available on your mobile phone, courtesy of publisher and developer Gameloft. The two companies formally announced the partnership today, just a couple of days since Gameloft also announced that more games will be available for BlackBerry smartphone users as well.

"We're excited to present Sprint subscribers with our award-winning 3D games. These are some of the best games from our catalogue and I'm confident that Sprint customers will enjoy playing them as much as we enjoyed making them," mentioned Gonzague de Vallois, Gameloft Vice President of Publishing.

Accordingly, the games will include Real Soccer 3D, Midnight Bowling 3D, and Midnight Pool 3D. These are original licenses and actually part of Gameloft's expanding catalogue of 3D titles. Gameloft admitted that as of late, it's been focusing on making high-definition titles.

Likewise, General Manager of Games for Sprint Joe Ariganello is happy as he responded, "As a leader in mobile innovation, Gameloft consistently proves that they develop some of the top games in the industry. These 3D games will add great value to the assortment we offer our subscribers."

We now wonder what's up with the Driver franchise and Glu Mobile...

Gameloft has added the BlackBerry smartphone to the array of platforms that it develops for and announced the release of marquee titles such as Block Breaker Deluxe, Asphalt Urban GT 2, New York Nights, LOST, Midnight Pool and Prince of Persia The Two Thrones.

The developer has over 150 titles in its game library, all of which will see daylight in the BlackBerry. The first wave of games is already out and more are set to follow. BlackBerry was primarily noted as a business-style phone for professionals but enjoyed a broader following in the late goings, spurring the demand for games.

Gameloft president Michel Guillemot was excited to comment that

given the technology advancements embedded in smartphones such as the BlackBerry Pearl and BlackBerry 8800 and RIM's rapidly growing customer base, we believe now is the ideal time to bring our quality games to this award-winning platform.

He also said that the reliable brand name and worldwide customer interest for BlackBerry's line of products presents a great opportunity for Gameloft to capitalize on. Describing the smart phones as "robust, standard-based platforms,"  the company said that BlackBerry's stable is a great set of tools for work and play.

Gameloft shouts "Driver is mine!" to Glu Mobile, announcing that it has acquired the exclusive rights to develop, publish and distribute games based on Atari's Driver franchise, and that all previous Driver mobile games developed and published by Glu will be off the market on March 31, 2007.

Gameloft expects to launch its game Driver: LA Undercover in both 2D and 3D in June 2007, in time for Ubisoft's release of Driver titles. Ubisoft and Gameloft are sister companies, which may have helped Gameloft acquire the Driver license as Ubisoft also holds the PC, Wii and PSP license of Driver. Last year, Atari itself released the Xbox and PS2 Parallel line skus.

In a statement, Gameloft President Michel Guillemot said that they are excited about adding Driver to their award winning portfolio of games, and that they are confident that they can take the Driver franchise to the next level.

We wonder how the two rivaling game publishers will render the same franchise title?