Being first to market has its rewards. Just ask JAMDAT CEO Mitch Lasky. Back in 2000, Lasky took leave of his none too shabby position of vice president of worldwide studios for Activision to cofound one of the first mobile gaming publishers around.

　　Lasky took his gig well before Verizon touted mobile games in its outdoor billboard campaign and before the sector had much going for it beside the supremely simple Galdiator (which is, interestingly, the game that put JAMDAT on the map).

　　Today, JAMDAT announced it had secured a substantial round of financing from aggressive VC firm Benchmark Capital. In a statement, the two companies announced that they had closed an $11 million Series D financing round. Benchmark will secure a seat on JAMDAT's Board of Directors as a result.

　　Benchmark lists a number of recognized high-tech companies in its portfolio, including Ofoto, Ebay, and Friendster.

　　In a statement, Lasky said the funds would go toward "building scale on a global basis" for JAMDAT. For its part, Benchmark partner William Gurley legitimized the investment by stating, "From our experience, a disproportionate share of value is created by the market leader in rapidly-developing markets like wireless entertainment."

　　GameSpot spoke with Lasky this afternoon shortly after the funding news was made public:

　　GameSpot: You talk about "building scale on a global basis." Can you break that down a bit? How will we see that implemented at JAMDAT, operationally?

　　Mitch Lasky: Acquisitions of key assets, intellectual properties, and development talent, along with expansion of our European and Asian distribution capabilities.

　　GS: What are the keys to generating demand for a mobile entertainment application? Is it merely a function of the carrier's subscriber numbers or is differentiation in the product itself important?

　　ML: What I would consider our best products from a quality standpoint also happen to be among our best sellers. So I think that product quality is a strong driver. Marketing is also important. We are ramping up our own marketing efforts to supplement those of our carrier partners.

　　GS: What can you tell me of the lessons JAMDAT has learned over the past three years? Have the wants of the consumer changed over that time? Has the JAMDAT biz model changed over the past three years?

　　ML: I'd need a lot more space than you have to list all the lessons we've learned over the last three months, let alone the last three years. We actually just went back and looked at our investor pitch presentations and business plans from 2000 and they are remarkably similar to our current ones. So we are still in the business we wanted to be in back when we started.

　　GS: Do you feel there is still an unfound or unrealized killer app for mobile that has yet to be created?

　　ML: I think it's a misnomer. The mobile gaming category itself is the "killer app." But if you are looking for the Myst of mobile gaming--the product that stands symbolically for the new business--our JAMDAT Bowling title is it. JAMDAT Bowling has sold over 1.3 million units and had a total of 2.2 million downloads, including demos. It was the number one download last Christmas, and it's likely to be among the top downloads this Christmas. That's as close to a killer app as you are going to get.

　　GS: Bowling is that big?

　　ML: It ain't sexy, but it's huge.

　　GS: Thanks, Mitch.