The former president of one of mobile games first-to-market players, Sorrent, Inc., has announced a new startup. Isaac Babbs says the new company, Atlas Mobile, hopes to carve out a place in the mobile game beat that is unique.

　　The Atlas model is to offer prizes via head-to-head, multiplayer competition over mobile phones. Atlas hopes to soon announce partnerships with high-visibility consumer brands (such as Starbucks, Gap, or Pepsi) and will award winners either products or gift certificates good at the partner's bricks and mortar locations. While no partners were named in today's announcement, mobile gamers who opt in to Atlas' games when they do go live won’t exactly come up empty-handed--Atlas is funding the prize pool itself for the time being.

　　Atlas will bring five games to market before the end of the year, Babbs said. He expects Verizon to be the first carrier to include Atlas titles on its game deck and although Babbs did not immediately identify other carriers committed to hosting the company's suite of games, he did say Atlas was planning on bringing an additional ten games to market next year.

　　Atlas hopes to tap some of the buzz that Web-based play-for-prize sites such as WorldWinner, SkillJam, GameColony.com, and PrizeGames.com have and bring it to the a mobile space.