Adobe Launches Flash Player 11, Air 3 to Support 3D Games

Adobe System on Wednesday released Flash Player 11 and Adobe Air 3 software, which will enable 3D gaming on mobile devices.

The app will work on several platforms including Apple iOS, Android, Mac, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Windows and connected TVs.

The company claims that Adobe Flash Player 11 and Air 3 hardware acceleration engine, called Stage 3D, is 1,000 times faster than Flash Player 10, which empowers the company to create console quality games with ability and animation of onscreen objects.

While companies like Apple and Microsoft want to keep away from third party plug-ins such as Adobe Flash Player for Web browsing, in favor of HTML 5, Adobe pushes the software for gaming into mobile devices. Adobe Flash is banned from the Windows Phone and the BlackBerry smartphones as well. Windows 8-backed mobile devices will be based on HTML 5 platform.

Adobe, however, believes that Flash will remain integral to the Windows desktops.

We expect Windows desktop to be extremely popular for years to come (including Windows 8 desktop) and that it will support Flash just fine, including rich Web-based games and premium videos that require Flash. In addition, we expect Flash-based apps will come to Metro via Adobe AIR, much the way they are on Android, iOS, and BlackBerry Tablet OS today, Danny Winokur, general manager for Adobe platform, wrote in his blog.

I do agree with Adobe's critics that Flash in the browser on phones and tablets doesn't always provide the best experience, even on the mobile platforms that do support it, such as Android and QNX [used in BlackBerry tablets and planned for use in future BlackBerry smartphones], said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis. But Adobe doesn't make money selling Flash; it makes money selling tools. On the PC browser, Flash is still the most common runtime environment for casual gaming, video, and graphical Web sites, and Adobe's tools can be used to create, manage, and help monetize those efforts.

Flash Player 11 and Air 3, the company's biggest releases in two years, will be available in early October.