Bigpoint.com (http://bigpoint.com), leading provider of browser-based online games, and Orbster GmbH, a company offering location-based games for GPS cell phones on its game platform “GPS Mission“, present an exciting new mission for the online space game “DarkOrbit“.

As an application for the iPhone 3G and 3GS, DarkOrbit can now be played in real life on a cell phone and not just on your home computer, on your laptop or in an Internet cafe. A game, which is played completely online and extends into one’s real life via a GPS application for GPS cell phones, is a world’s first.

This is how it all works: Using the application “GPS Mission Pro“, players can continue to play their virtual games “outside” in real places just like in a scavenger hunt or treasure hunt using a GPS cell phone such as the iPhone. Following the popular geocaching game principle assign virtual goods for their game to a location in their city, for example, Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Times Square in New York, Big Ben in London and many other well-known places. The location of the valuable items will be shown on the cell phone on a map in “GPS Mission” and can be collected. They’ll be credited directly to the game account in the online game.

The story: Players are transported back in time through a wormhole to the year 2009 in a spaceship to find themselves circling Earth’s orbit. As a space pilot of the “DarkOrbit Ground Forces“, the mission for players is to collect stranded goods from Earth such as valuable X-4 ammunition and beam them back to their spaceship.

Under the name “DarkOrbit Ground Forces” the pilot project will be launched in real locations as part of the “GPS Mission Pro” application for the iPhone 3G and 3GS in the following seven countries: Germany, France, Turkey, Poland, the Netherlands, the USA and Great Britain.

The application “GPS Mission Pro” costs €2.39 ($2.99) in an Apple App Store; DarkOrbit players will receive “DarkOrbit Ground Forces“ for free via a promo code. If successful, other Bigpoint games can be equipped with an add-on of this kind.