The expected launch date isn't earlier than 2009

Sep 29, 2008 12:44 GMT  ·  By

Gameloft, a well-known developer and publisher of video games for mobile phones and consoles, announced last week that it was planning to develop over 10 games to run on the Android open-source platform.

This means good news, mobile games fans! Bubble Bash, the game that is currently available for iPhone and other mobile devices, is going to be the first title released for Android by Gameloft - but this will only happen in the first quarter of 2009.

"The momentum and excitement for the Android has been building for some time," says Gameloft CEO and President Michel Guillemot in the press release available on the Gameloft official page. He further explains, "We plan to fully support this platform since it provides another great outlet for an enhanced gaming experience for consumers."

The question that is probably now on everybody's mind is how they can get their hands on the upcoming mobile games from Gameloft. Well, for this purpose, Android Market allows users to buy and download software, in a similar fashion to Apple's App Store for iPhone. Gameloft has announced that the company will release additional “flagship titles” once Android's paid application offerings are launched.

For those of you who are not familiar with Android, here's what you should know: Android is an open source platform developed by Google, which allows developers to access and modify the source-code of the program for free. This means that everybody can get the code and develop their own mobile phone operating system.

Just recently, Google launched the first Android Phone, named G1 and manufactured by HTC. The device is going to become available for purchase on the T-Mobile network starting October 22 in the US. It will arrive in the UK early in November, and will be launched in most of Europe starting with the first quarter of 2009.