We take a look at Nokia’s upcoming revival for their mobile gaming device.
When the N-Gage was released in 2003, Nokia claimed it would be a major rival to the Nintendo GameBoy. On paper, it would have been hard to argue against this. The N-Gage not only played games but it also acted as a fully functioning mobile phone. It appeared to be a great multi-tasking gadget, and with Nokia being the powerhouse of the mobile phone manufacturers, failure didn’t look likely.
However, from the very start no one appeared to take to the N-Gage. To say the N-Gage was unsuccessful is an understatement. During the first few weeks of release, some sources state the GameBoy was outselling the N-Gage by 100-to-1. This was partly due to the control buttons on the phone not being suitable for gaming, the aesthetics of the product were terrible and to talk to somebody you had to tilt the phone to your ear so it looked as though you were pushing a giant taco into the side of your head.
Five years on and Nokia is giving its N-Gage brand another go under the new name of N-Gage 2.0. But this time there is a wide variety of mobile phones which support the platform instead of one dedicated phone. At present, the N-Gage service is available on a variety of Nokia smart phones including the N95, N82 and N81 with other models expecting to become compatible in the near future.
Visitors to the N-Gage website can download the new software to their phones and Nokia predicts there will be around 30 games available by May this year. Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Glu Mobile have been signed up to produce N-Gage games and its five launch titles have all received good reviews from the press.
Most importantly, the price of a game is much less compared to other handheld platforms with N-Gage titles expected to sell between the £6-£8 mark. The service also lets you try the game before you buy, so you can sort through to find the titles that are perfect for you.
N-Gage 2.0 looks as though it could be on to a winner. It’s low priced games and ability to be played on a wide range of Nokia phones improves its chances of being a success. However, the previous N-Gage looked like a winner but proved to be a failure. Whether this new service will be a success is yet to be seen.
Jonathan Ellison
[This is an edited version of an article that was originally published in Platform Magazine - Volume 16, Issue 11]
Tags: mobile, n-gage, nokia, technology
