Do you remember the Nokia N-Gage? It’s only four years ago that it bombed on the market, followed a year later by its even less-remembered successor, theN-Gage QD. It was billed as the hot, all-singing, all-dancing item, the iPhone of its day, but it never took off. Guess what…it’s back. This week Nokia will revive the N-Gage, butthis time as a multiplayer gaming service that will work on its popular line of smartphones. Owners of phones with N-Gage software will be able to play against friends, as well as take part intournaments, sample new games on their phones, and play titles from major publishers like Electronic Arts. According to Tomi Huttula, a Nokia productmanager, time might have caught up with the N-Gage.
“Today’s phones are so capable. The graphics problem has been removed. And phones today are always connected and you always carry them with you. Phones are now the perfect device for gaming.”
The original N-Gage was bulky and awkward –you had to take out the battery to put in a game cartridge, for instance. It was no surprise that it received the nickname Frankenphone. Althoughtwo million N-Gages were sold, Nokia stopped making the model in 2005. But the world has changed in the last two years, and mobile gaming has become an important market, with about 25% ofmobile phone users in the US and Western Europe playing at least one game a month on their phones. According to estimates, the market for mobile gaming will be over $8 billion by 2010. Nokiahas teamed with design firm Ideo on the new N-Gage, and some fresh ideas have emerged. Users can see what games their friends have on their phones, whetherthey’re online, and well as some playing history. The N-Gage will also display shortcuts on its main screen to avoid plowing through menus. The focus on the phone will be the casual,rather than the hardcore, gamer. Nokia plans to re-introduce the N-Gage this week, with games arriving this fall for the Series 60 smartphones.
