Nokia Hangs Up on N-Gage
Life goes on, right?
Mobile phone giant Nokia has admitted in a recent interview that the N-Gage platform - a combined handheld gaming and mobile phone device - has not been a success.
One of the company's top bosses, Antii Vasara, told Vnunet, "N-Gage is still being sold but it was not a success in the sense of developing a new category... we learnt that people want to play games on all devices. As such, we are integrating the gaming software into Series 60 phones."
Vasara confirmed that there are no plans to develop any new versions of the N-Gage, which was redesigned into a smaller, cuter iteration last year, called N-Gage QD.
The N-Gage was first revealed in 2003, but a prohibitively high price tag and so-so line-up of software titles has kept gamer reaction to the machine lukewarm at best over the last couple of years.
Nokia did say, however, that gaming is still a growing phenomenon in the world of mobile phones and devices, and that by 2007, gamers should expect more exciting and sophisticated games to be playable on their phones.
Adam Doree
Kikizo.com