EA, Eidos Team For Mobile GamesEA, Eidos Team For Mobile Games

Electronic Arts and Eidos Interactive inked a deal Monday to grant EA Mobile exclusive rights to certain titles in Eidos' catalog.

The deal provides licenses to EA across all existing mobile devices for "Tomb Raider Underworld," "Just Cause 2," "California Games X," and "Minesweeper." EA also gets future options for mobile versions of the majority of Eidos' video game properties for three years.

"Eidos has a valuable portfolio of intellectual property including the world famous 'Tomb Raider' games," said Javier Ferreira, EA Mobile's VP of European publishing, in a statement. "This deal gives EA Mobile immediate access to not one but four high-profile titles, which will appeal to a broad audience on mobile platforms."

The video game industry as a whole is on pace for a record year. As cell phones and smartphones gain more processing power, game developers increasingly are capable of delivering a user experience to mobile customers that's similar to home consoles.

Additionally, companies such as Apple, with its iPhone 3G and App Store, are making a strong push toward mobile gaming. Because of these factors, the market for mobile gaming is expected to balloon to $6.3 billion in 2011, according to a recent report from Gartner.

"As voice revenues decline, mobile operators need to find ways to offset this downward trend, and mobile gaming has considerable growth potential," said Tuong Nguyen, principal analyst at Gartner. "Mobile gaming has evolved from being a bundled freebie to a stand-alone value-added service, as well as a growing source of data revenue for operators and publishers alike."