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Modern Combat 3 Leads Mobile Into Professional Gaming

Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation officially kick-starts the mobile sector's entry into the professional gaming arena thanks to Major League Gaming and Sony Mobile.

When speaking about Major League Gaming, thoughts of "athlete" gamers battling each other for huge cash prizes while playing the likes of StarCraft 2, Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and other competitive titles come to mind. The MLG professional Electronic sports organization itself adds the "pro" in pro gaming. It was founded by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso back in 2002, and broadcasts its competitions across television, ESPN.com and other broadband sites like any other live sports game coverage. Needless to say, simple mobile gaming with a smartphone just doesn't even associate with the term "pro gaming."

Until now, of course. That's right: mobile gaming has matured to the point that it's now entering the e-sports realm. MLG said on Thursday that it has teamed up with Sony Mobile to launch the first-ever competitive smartphone gaming platform: the Xperia Mobile Gaming Arena Presented by Sony Mobile(that's a long name). The game to christen the new pro mobile game platform will be Gameloft's new shooter (clone), Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation, which has been enhanced to support the official mobile handset of Major League Gaming, Sony's Xperia PLAY.

"From the launch of Xperia PLAY, the first smartphone to bring console-like gaming to smartphone, to now the Xperia Mobile Gaming Arena, the first-of-its-kind competitive platform for mobile gamers, we are committed to bringing the best mobile entertainment experiences to our customers," said Peter Farmer, Head of Marketing for North America, Sony Mobile Communications. "Bringing together MLG’s authority in competitive gaming, Gameloft’s blockbuster game titles and Sony Mobile’s immersive mobile entertainment experience, the Xperia Mobile Gaming Arena is sure to deliver a new level of mobile gaming for competitors."

Don't have an Xperia PLAY? No problem. The new arena enables gamers to compete via all mobile platforms including Android and iOS for more than $10,000 in prizes. To participate, gamers simply link their MLG and Gameloft accounts, play a featured Xperia Mobile Gaming Arena title and their ranking is automatically tallied on the Xperia Mobile Gaming Arena leaderboard. Additional competitive titles will be rolled out in the coming months.

"The MLG community thrives on competition and with our new mobile platform, we are now enabling gamers to engage in competitive play no matter where they are,” said Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO, MLG. "With partners like Sony Mobile and Gameloft, we are truly taking mobile gaming to a new level."

Modern Combat 3 (iOS, Android) is the latest in Gameloft's Modern Combat series, and likely one of the best first-person shooters for mobile devices to date. KPR (Korea, Pakistan and Russia) declared war on the United States and has invaded American soil, nuking Chicago in its initial attack. The military action is non-stop across 13 mission in the single-player campaign which includes combat in numerous vehicles and across six different countries. Multiplayer supports 12 simultaneous players and features Battle, Team Battle, Capture the Flag and Defuse the Bomb modes.

That said, Modern Combat 3 is the perfect game to kick-start the mobile sector's entry into the professional gaming arena. "For Gameloft, partnering with strong brands such as the MLG and Sony Mobile Communications to promote a new age of competitive mobile gaming is a very exciting time," said Baudouin Corman, vice president of publishing in the Americas at Gameloft. "Given the millions of gamers that have participated in competitions online and via console over the years, there’s a great future for the online multiplayer experience with the Xperia Mobile Gaming Arena."