The growing market for computer games that can be played on mobile phones received a boost today with the announcement by Sony Ericsson of a dedicated gaming handset.

The new handset has a control pad similar to those found on games consoles, and also contains a motion sensor that reacts to hand gestures, much like Nintendo's feted Wii device.

Games such as Bass Fishing, in which the phone responds to a swooping gesture as the player casts a fishing line, and bowling, where players make an underarm movement as they pretend to bowl a ball down an alley, are among those that will be offered for download from the internet.

Operators and games publishers are keen to tap into the market for mobile gaming as an increasing number of so-called "casual gamers" discover the pre-loaded games that come with handsets, such as the enormously popular Brickbreaker on the BlackBerry.

WiiFit: meet the new games mistress

Can you really get fit by playing a video game in your living room? Our correspondent tries out the latest craze to hit Britain

• We test the Nintendo Wii Fit

• Nintendo Wii lifts video game sales by 57 per cent

• Wii will rock you healthier

Related Links

• Broadband deals 'will include unlimited music'

• Sony Ericsson profits plunge 48 per cent

The release of increasingly sophisticated handsets, such as Apple's new 3G iPhone and the HTC Diamond, has improved the quality of phone-based gaming, as has the development of specialised games portals on the internet, such as Nokia's N-Gage.

Sony Ericsson's new handset, called the F305, claims to offer eight hours of game play, and comes with a small battery pack that can be attached to a keyring and plugged into the phone to charge it. The device, which will be released in the third quarter of the year, can also be flipped on its side so that the screen can be used horizontally.

According to Electronic Arts (EA), the world's largest publisher of mobile games, more than 25 per cent of people now play games on their phone, though a much small percentage - between 5 and 10 per cent - are willing to pay for the experience, preferring pre-installed games instead.

In Europe there were more than 100 million paid downloads of games in Europe last year, it said, costing between £2 and £10.

"You're definitely going to see a greater focus on high-end games now that you have a greater number of smartphones with touch screen and accelerometres [motion sensors] inside," Javier Ferreira, a vice president of publishing in EA's mobile division, said.

The challenge, analysts say, will come in convincing people outside the core gaming market to pay for games on their phone, particularly as the experience of using the internet on a mobile improves and owners discover free games on sites such as Facebook and Kongregate.

"The problem is that the majority of the games on phones are still sold through operator portals, and those type of pay services started to fall off a cliff once people realised they were getting hugely ripped off," Mike Reid, director of venture capital at 3i, the private equity firm, said.

He said that traditional publishers would feel pressure from free online games, and that the games industry would increasingly have to turn to new business models - such as advertorial games, in-game advertising, and the sale of 'virtual goods' within games, in order to compete with the myriad titles offered by smaller developers.

EA, which has traditionally sold mobile games on a pay-per-download basis, said that it hoped operators would introduce more subscription services, where phone owners paid a monthly fee to download a fixed number of games per month as part of their contract.

It cited Nokia's yet-to-be-released Comes With Music phone, which will allow the owner to browse and play the entire music catalogue of Universal Records, as an example of the next generation of paid services on mobile phones.

Separately, Sony Ericsson today released details of an 8.1 megapixel camera phone, which will offer a degree of resolution similar to that found on traditional digital cameras. The C905, which will also have GPS, meaning that photos can be tagged with details of where they were taken, will go on sale in the fourth quarter of this year, it said.

Explore Tech & Web

• Personal Tech

• The Web

• Gadgets & Gaming

Times recommends

• Sony Reader could kill off the book
• Make 3D images with your own camera
• Lifelike animation heralds new era for computer games