Research in Motion (RIM) has teamed with cross-platform SDK specialist Marmalade to produce a special offer designed to highlight the power of BlackBerry 10 as a gaming platform built around open standards.

With RIM's BlackBerry developer conference season not far away, the firm has invited programmers to register to receive a Marmalade SDK license for the BlackBerry platform as well as a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Once a developer has published an app on the BlackBerry App World storefront, the option to upgrade to the full Marmalade Indie license is then offered for free.

Developers are reminded that they can also use the Marmalade SDK to target other platforms, as the Marmalade SDK offers developers the option to develop natively with C/C++ or create hybrid apps in HTML5, thus targeting mobile devices as well as desktop and laptop computers.

The offer is hoped to show programmers that they can use these technologies to manage content across multiple operating systems. For its part, RIM is hoping that it will deliver what it estimates to be "thousands of new apps" in the lead up to the launch of BlackBerry 10.

RIM VP of developer relations Alec Saunders bullishly states that BlackBerry App World is one of the "most profitable mobile app stores" for developers, with more than 6 million applications downloaded every day. According to market analysis and strategy firm Vision Mobile, BlackBerry developers generate, on average, 4 percent more revenue per app per month than iOS developers and almost 40 percent more than Android developers.

NOTE: Many popular mobile games rely on Marmalade, from "Cut the Rope", "Plants vs Zombies", and "Draw Something" to high-performance titles like "Call of Duty", "Need for Speed", and "Pro Evolution Soccer". Beyond games, the Marmalade SDK sets out to allow developers to build "rich engagement apps" using features such as location, notifications, social media links, camera functionality, etc.