Take To The Streets for some GTA Style Car Jacking

[Ewan]

UK Publisher Tag Games has been working on a GTA styled mobile game for many months, and now Car Jack Streets is available for download. Given that the Tag founders were part of the original design team for the first Grand Theft Auto, it's no surprise that this is an addictive little mobile game, that makes best use of the smartphone environment. Ewan's full review can be found here.

Read on in the full article.

[Tetlee]

Ooh, this looks great, I've been wanting to go back to the quirky top down GTA's of old(GTA IV was a disappointment for me personally), this should fit the bill nicely until ChinaTown Wars gets released on the DS next Spring.

The download link is't working at the moment, or is it just a case that there isn't a demo trial for this game?

[Ewan]

Not aware of a demo unfortunatly, just the retail version.

[Hooligooner]

Can't find the price anywhere?

[Tzer2]

Gosh, that is a bit odd, no price marked anywhere on the site. That can't be good for sales.

And does that mobile purchase number work in all countries or just some?

[Tzer2]

I've dropped the publishers a line regarding price and availability, will post any reply in this comments thread.

[Ewan]

UPDATE: Some of you are worried on the pricing and availability on Car Jack Streets, so we got in touch with Paul Farley at Tag-Games. Here's his reply:

In terms of price then it’s £5 and can be downloaded direct by texting “GANG” to 80010 in Europe. Outside Europe you’ll need to check with your carrier. The game launches in North America on all major carriers from March 2009.

Hope that helps reassure you all.

You can of course play the original Grand Theft Auto which is massive using an emulator on the phone.

[rcadden]

Looks great, but it's completely silly that anyone outside of Europe has to wait till it hits their carrier. I get incredibly sick of companies who *only* release apps/games on carrier decks. Can't they do both? Heck, both Handango and MobiHand are great outlets that can handle the transactions and delivery, for those of us with unbranded handsets who can't use our carrier decks, or don't wish to.

[Tzer2]

Looks great, but it's completely silly that anyone outside of Europe has to wait till it hits their carrier.

It's possible that the financial terms offered by US networks are more tempting than trying to market and sell a game directly.

I agree that networks have way waaaaaaay too much power, but if that's the reality then developers simply have to live with it. :-(

What's really needed is legislation that bans handsets from being locked. It wouldn't stop cheap handsets, you can pay for non-locked devices (cars, fridges, TVs) in installments too, it would just allow people to switch networks easily and so promote proper competition. Many countries have already done this successfully.

Heck, both Handango and MobiHand are great outlets that can handle the transactions and delivery, for those of us with unbranded handsets who can't use our carrier decks, or don't wish to.

True, but they don't have a built-in presence on handsets, people have to somehow hear about retailers in order to visit them. Experienced phone users would know, but how many casual phone users have even heard of Handango?

Don't get me wrong, I would much prefer to see all games sold to everyone through retailers, but once again the captive audience of network-locked handsets with custom firmware is perverting market forces so consumers are denied proper choice.

Also, I've heard a lot of developers moaning about the terms offered by some retailers (naming no names...). In some cases the retailer actually gets most of the price of a game, with the developer only getting a minority of the total price.

[rcadden]

I can appreciate that it might be financially better to sell through the carrier, but why does that seem to be exclusive? Is there some clause that the carriers are pushing that says the same game can't be sold through off-deck means?

I don't mind if it's listed on carrier decks - by all means, whatever the dev needs to do to get the $$ in, knock themselves out. I'm just annoyed/frustrated that they don't seem interested in even making an offer to the educated among us who don't use branded phones.

Sadly, the download link reports "...not available for this handset" when I try to get it for my E71.

Same here for the E90. "...not available for this handset"

[Tetlee]

Damn, that is a silly purchasing restriction. Was going to buy this for my N93, looks superb for a fiver, but while my phone is a UK handset, I currently reside in Argentina so think purchasing over the air will be out the question for me.

Looks like I'll just have to wait in the hope they add an option to download to PC.

Same here for the E63. "...not available for this handset"