Samsung's latest mobile games initiative in South Korea is called Game Station, and involves hooking your phone up to a TV to play 3D games on a full-sized screen.
I'm currently out in Korea, and had the chance to give the technology a test in Samsung's Anycall showcase store in Seoul. Several games were on show, including a football title, and a crazy 2D beat-'em-up where your character turns into a goat as one of the special moves.
It's certainly easy to hook your phone up to a TV – connecting the TV-out cable switches off the phone's display, transmitting the game on the larger screen instead.
There are reservations, though, about whether it's any good.
The first concerns resolution, as blowing a game designed for a QVGA screen up to a higher res LCD TV means games look a bit blocky (although this may be rectified once phones with VGA-resolution screens start to appear).
The second problem was that the TV-out cable wasn't very stable. Moving the phone around too much made the screen cut out or flicker, which isn't obviously ideal when you're playing an action game.
Still, the idea of TV-out ports being used for gaming is intriguing. Qualcomm, which supports the feature in some BREW handsets, has suggested that this kind of thing is most relevant for poorer countries, where less people own actual consoles. However, the fact that the function is also part of Nokia's plans for its N-Gage platform implies it'll also become common in more developed markets.
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