Monty's Gaming and Wireless Outlook - Issue 152

“Few of us can surrender our belief that society must somehow make sense. The thought that the State has lost its mind and is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable. And so the evidence has to be eternally denied.”

These words from the great playwright Arthur Miller must surely ring true to the unfortunate family of Jean Charles de Menezes who was murdered by the British Police last week.

The 27-year-old Brazilian made the fatal mistake of wearing a heavy coat as he left a building the Police were (supposed to be) watching. Amazingly, this would-be suicide bomber was allowed to board a No 2 bus for the short journey to Stockwell station. He was then shot dead for running away from a search. Good work, lads. But next time, surround a suspect BEFORE he gets on the bus. You know it makes sense.

This, of course, is not the first time this has happened. Twenty-two years ago, a young man called Stephen Waldorf was driving his Mini in Kensington High Street when his car was peppered by Police gunfire. Unfortunately for the Police, and especially for Waldorf, it was a case of mistaken identity and he wasn’t the escaped convict they were after.

Waldorf was shot five times, but managed to survive the attack and successfully sued for £150,000, but the Police marksmen escaped conviction on the grounds of self-defence. Consequently, processes were put in place to ensure that an innocent person would never suffer the same fate. Mmm, that worked, didn’t it?

Now we go seamlessly from bombs to Becks. Sometimes there’s just no justice in the courts and no justice in the commercial world. David Beckham must be feeling aggrieved at Vodafone’s decision to dump him from his £1.2 million a year deal. No reasons were given for not renewing his contract, but maybe it’s because Vodafone no longer need the world’s most famous person to be depicted playing mobile games at a supermarket check-out.

According to this week’s report from Informa Telecoms and Media, the mobile games market will be worth £6.4 billion, with 15 per cent of people downloading and playing a game on their handset by 2010. There is currently a debate between operators and publishers over the quality of the games on offer, but there appears little doubt that customers will eventually use their phones to download games.

But what of the price point? Will these customers be happy to pay 5 quid/5 bucks/5 Euros per game forever? I think not and this week’s announcement by MonsterMob that they’ve launched the UK’s first mobile games subscription channel is a taste of things to come. As much as you can play for a monthly fee? Now that should take your mind off the horror.