World Cup deal has wireless gamer kicking into high gear. (Technology).

JUST in time for this spring's World Cup in Japan and Korea, JAMDAT Mobile Inc. has inked a deal with software publishing giant Electronic Arts Inc. to deliver a World Cup 2002 game for mobile phones.

JAMDAT, a Los Angeles developer of wireless video games, has a two-year exclusive agreement with EA to develop wireless versions of the EA Sports soccer game and its PGA Tour golf game.

Timing is everything on the deal, as it also coincides with the planned rollout of next-generation wireless technology from Verizon and Sprint, according to Mitch Lasky, JAMDAT chief executive.

Lasky claims that the new wireless platforms -- Qualcomm Inc.'s Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s J2ME -- will change the way users play games on mobile phones. The new platforms allow users to download games to handsets rather than play them from a provider's server. The advantage, Lasky said, is reduced download time and lower expenses, since less airtime is required. Also improving game play is the fact that BREW and J2ME-enabled handsets will have bigger, color screens.

JAMDAT and EA will co-publish the wireless adaptations of the games and deliver them in North America and Asia.

Lasky said launching the games this year is advantageous because the World Cup is the single most viewed sports tournament in the world, and Japan and Korea are two of the world's most significant and active mobile data markets.