E3 2005: N-Gage Update
Nokia announced their future N-Gage plans this week. No new phone, as we had hoped but knew we wouldn’t get. Instead there will be many new phones. Start thinking of N-Gage as a platform, not a unit. This move will allow Nokia to make different phones for different personalities and have them all be N-Gage enabled for some quick gaming.
Think about it, you have a GBA, a DS, a PSP, and a cell phone. Which one of those items are you most likely to have on you at all times? Ok, I realize that question might not work with Portagame’s audience. Let’s try this: which one of those items will an average, ordinary person have with them?
The phone.
Nokia has the right mindset. Get more phones in peoples hands that can support the software, you’ll sell more software. MP3 phones and camera phones went through a same evolution. At first, they were pretty exclusive. The bleeding-edge technod0rks all had them, but they paid a premium to have those features. Now, you can’t go anywhere without some etiquette-challenged mobile user snapping shots that you happen to be in. This is what Nokia is hoping will be the new era of Mobile gaming.
Nokia may also open the doors to third party manufacturers. Imagine an LG or Samsung N-Gage enabled camera phone–now that’s exciting. Not only that, but this business move will put Nokia’s Symbian operating system in front of more developers. The true race here isn’t Nokia vs. Nintendo or Sony. No, Nokia’s battlefield is versus Microsoft. Symbian vs. WindowsMobile (or whatever it’s called now). And Nokia just made a big move.
As a gamer, imagine the next time you sign a contract for a cellphone service, and you get to pick out a new phone. Half of the phones are N-Gage enabled. Would you pick an N-Gage Smartphone over a Microsoft phone? I know I sure would.
Asides from new phones, Nokia also announced a new Games Locker service. This will allow you to download, store, and manage all your games content on your PC. Nokia has tested the waters for this model and has seemingly decent results.
All-in-all I think AllAboutNgage.com stated it best:
Sounds like the other experiment, having Snake on electronic distribution only (no MMC card copies for the public), along with the popularity of 16MB downloadable demos for titles such as “Pathway to Glory”, has proven to Nokia that they can ship games out this way. Add in Nokia’s Preminet system to charge the end-user for the games, and the building blocks for a huge online gaming system become clear.
Yes, HUGE! Nokia is telling the world “Bring it on Fanboys, we’re here to stay!” And for developers, reaching an installed user base in the millions cannot be ignored.
But I also like the buzz I’m hearing from others:
Russell Beattie:
Nokia just announced their plans to support N-Gage Games across their smart phones starting next year, essentially turning “N-Gage” into a brand rather than a specific device. Just like I predicted… W00t! I love it when I’m right. Well, I was right on the details, but my predictions of timeframe still need some work. But that’s okay, I’ve learned a lot more about the speed of handset manufacturers since November of 2003 when I wrote this
NGage Gaming:
For developers, this means less effort spent creating dozens of versions of the same game. We will provide a robust development environment with the first set of tools expected to be available in Q4 2005 and a range of APIs native to the smartphone.In addition, all mobile games available through this next generation Nokia solution will have advanced connectivity features, making connected mobile gaming easy over mobile networks via the N-Gage Arena, Nokia’s global mobile gaming community.
For operators, this solution provides the opportunity to expand their current mobile gaming offering. Nokia is able to offer operators with a modular turnkey solution, including scalable investment options and community management that will assist in driving subscriber revenues.
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ok, this idea of having n-gage games in regular phones is great. Actualy now n-gage games works in nokia 6600, 6630, 7610.. etc (only copied games, not original) but thing about something that is realy anoing. phones such as 6600, 6630.. only have 5 ways joystics.. right?? but to have a good game experience we have to control a 8 way joystic at least. when i play games such as requiem of hell, or king of fighters extreme in my 6630, its frostrating cus i can´t turn at the same time to the left an up at the same time. So the point is that none of the existing nokia phones suport this function, and if this concept og game mobility is to gon with, nokia will have to make new phones.