RIM To Make It Easier To Make Games For BlackBerry

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry phones, on Monday announced plans to make it easier to create games and other software for the phones.

At the BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco, RIM said it would support OpenGL, a standard for development of 3-D applications and games. It is providing a beta version of an OpenGL software development kit for download.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a competitor to the BlackBerrys, already supports OpenGL and has become a popular platform for game developers.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company also said it will provide a tool to make it easier to developer graphical user interfaces for Java-based applications.

It is also setting up a services to help developers integrate advertising in their applications and charge for premium content. The software development kits for those services will be available next summer, RIM said.

RIM shares rose $2.84, or 4.8 percent, to close Monday at $61.56.