Is Sidetalkin' back? Nokia revives the N-Gage!

[jbanes]

From GameDaily: http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/...000500000000005

 

Nokia to Launch New N-Gage this Fall

 

Ah, and all the memories of tacos and side-talkin' are flooding back in. A report in a Nokia sponsored blog has revealed that the company is indeed planning on introducing new N-Gage technology later this year, and they've already got support from two major publishers.

 

Despite the fact that Nokia's N-Gage was ridiculed for its taco-like appearance and that the phone/handheld gaming device just didn't sell very well[1] for the Finnish company (even with the relaunch of the improved QD model), Nokia is apparently giving the N-Gage another chance to succeed.

 

According to the Nokia sponsored semi-official blog Future Watch[2], by the middle of this year, "the N-Gage experience will evolve into the next generation of mobile gaming." The blog suggests that the new N-Gage will make its debut this September and that two major publishers, EA Mobile and Gameloft, are already backing Nokia's latest effort.

 

"We expect EA Mobile and Gameloft to bring a number of top-selling, award winning titles to our platform between our launch. They aren't the only ones, as throughout the year we will continue to make exciting announcements of other leading publishers adding their titles to our games catalogue," the blog announced.

 

"By early 2008, we expect to have some of the biggest franchises and hottest mobile games included in the N-Gage experience," it concluded.

 

This news comes only days after rumors began circulating on the web that Nokia had begun to show off its new N-Gage technology at a discrete meeting in Santa Monica. Rather than produce another dedicated gaming device, however, it would appear that Nokia is following the plan outlined by VP Antti Vasara over a year ago, which is to include the N-Gage technology in a number of handsets.

 

by James Brightman

 

[1] http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=11198

[2] http://futurewatch.n-gage.com/futurewatch_...f?page=articles

[RARusk]

Mmmmmmm......tacos.....

[Ze_ro]

Frankly, I think N-Gage was a good idea. But instead of making a specific N-Gage phone, Nokia should just market this as "N-Gage technology", which could be incorporated into any phone (as long as the phones hardware was compatible)... sort of like what Phillips and 3DO tried with the CD-i and 3DO (although hopefully it would turn out better). If they did it right, it would basically be to mobile phones as IBM was to personal computers

 

--Zero

[Jess Ragan]

Until cell phones are built with usable D-pads and buttons, they won't be worth a damn for gaming. It's so bloody obvious that I don't even know why I need to point this out, yet nobody in the industry ever gets the hint.

 

JR

[Godzilla]

I love my n-gage, system rush, snakes, atari masterpieces, mile high pinball and many others are great fun. I have the original side-talkin' taco model (cause I like havin' a radio n a mp3 player, etc.) added a movie player (software,) so i can watch star wars on my phone :-) also have a genesis, sms, nes, and other emus on it, and many novels (ebook reader,) just wish it had a normal flip phone form factor.

[Gregory DG]

Maybe if they sell it for $30 with games at $10...

[christianscott27]

I'm assuming that it will be backward compatible with the old software, you know they've got warehouses of that stuff. I got my ngage not too long ago from t-mobile (they at first denied having it) and it came with 5 games, free with plan of course. I enjoy it, its a fun system to use hacks and stuff on. I carry it around at work, sometimes I'll watch some TV on it or play a quick game when theres time to kill. I just wish I could find a free-ware video convertor for it, I keep running out of my divx trials.

 

I'm sorta proud of Nokia for not giving up, in a weird way its like they've got faith in a product thats just a bit ahead of its time.

[Jess Ragan]

How can you say that the N-Gage is ahead of its time when Nokia can't even grasp the basics of handheld design? If you build a pocket game system with a shitty D-pad and buttons, you haven't made a game system at all, but a portable torture device.

 

Praising Nokia for a fundamentally flawed product like the N-Gage makes about as much sense as saying, "Wow, that new Ferrari sure is state of the art. It would be even MORE incredible if it had wheels!"

 

JR

[christianscott27]

Well I obviously like the ngage for starters, of course the free market agreed with you and it tanked. I also like the virtual boy and would say similar things about it. They're not perfect products but they point to new frontiers for gaming that I think would be really cool. The second version of the ngage was a clear improvement over the first and likewise I think this upcoming version will show that they've learned some lessons. It sounds like you mostly have problems with hardware, hopefully those will addressed and we can agree that idea of a gameboy phone is pretty cool.

[Ze_ro]

Whatever ends up happening, I have to say that I have a lot of respect for Nokia for sticking with their products where other companies would have cut their losses as soon as they saw the system was going to tank (Virtual Boy, 32X, etc).

 

It always seems to me that people think it's just somehow 'cool' to rag on the N-Gage, often without having ever played it... Nokia needs to somehow get some good publicity in order to convince people to at least try it out.

 

--Zero

[Bill Brasky]

All we need now is for Tiger to re-launch a new Game.com handheld and the circle of life will be complete.

[Atarifever]

How can you say that the N-Gage is ahead of its time when Nokia can't even grasp the basics of handheld design? If you build a pocket game system with a shitty D-pad and buttons, you haven't made a game system at all, but a portable torture device.

 

Praising Nokia for a fundamentally flawed product like the N-Gage makes about as much sense as saying, "Wow, that new Ferrari sure is state of the art. It would be even MORE incredible if it had wheels!"

 

JR

You are so completely wrong that it's silly. They need to build a phone first because they're never going to beat the DS or GBA or PSP. You think their problem was not making a better gaming device. Their problem was that it wasn't that great of a phone. It was a nice little advanced phone, that was totally handicapped by the fact that you looked silly talking on it and you had to remove the battery all the time (and that's just what you like to do with your phone right, remove the battery all the time). They're Nokia, they should build a great phone that is good at playing games, not a great handheld gaming device that kinda serves as a phone. What's their competition in th mobile phone gaming space? Nothing. Do you honestly think they should take on the DS? Ding, fries are ready.

Edited February 12, 2007 by Atarifever

[Zeptari1]

I really loved my n-gage! It's long gone now....

Gezzz... there's even a few games on it i'd

like to see come over to the DS or PSP!

 

Pathway to Glory would be sweet on the DS!

 

ohh the other game I was thinking about came true!

An Elder Scrolls game for the PSP. Too bad I don't have a

psp .. i hope they make a version for the DS!

 

 

Anyways did you guys see this?

 

http://ds.ign.com/articles/762/762076p1.html

 

Nintendo Phone Uncovered

 

-Rick

[panda_racer]

I'm assuming that it will be backward compatible with the old software, you know they've got warehouses of that stuff.

On the n-gage's site it says that it won't be compatible with the old games.

link

to me it looks like the site is saying that the n-gage isn't coming back, but certain nokia phones will be n-gage ready.

n-gage is to nokia phones as itunes is to ipods.

[Jess Ragan]

How can you say that the N-Gage is ahead of its time when Nokia can't even grasp the basics of handheld design? If you build a pocket game system with a shitty D-pad and buttons, you haven't made a game system at all, but a portable torture device.

 

Praising Nokia for a fundamentally flawed product like the N-Gage makes about as much sense as saying, "Wow, that new Ferrari sure is state of the art. It would be even MORE incredible if it had wheels!"

 

JR

You are so completely wrong that it's silly. They need to build a phone first because they're never going to beat the DS or GBA or PSP. You think their problem was not making a better gaming device. Their problem was that it wasn't that great of a phone. It was a nice little advanced phone, that was totally handicapped by the fact that you looked silly talking on it and you had to remove the battery all the time (and that's just what you like to do with your phone right, remove the battery all the time). They're Nokia, they should build a great phone that is good at playing games, not a great handheld gaming device that kinda serves as a phone. What's their competition in th mobile phone gaming space? Nothing. Do you honestly think they should take on the DS? Ding, fries are ready.

 

Tsk tsk... retardation jokes? How tacky.

 

I'm not saying that the N-Gage was, is, or will ever be a viable alternative to the Nintendo DS or PSP. However, if you're going to market a gaming phone, it's a pretty good idea to give it a D-pad and buttons that lend themselves well to, you know, gaming. You don't put a rattlesnake in a banana cream pie. You don't add self-sealing adhesive to toilet paper. You don't submerge a computer in water to cool down the CPU, and you don't make a phone designed for gaming with a stiff directional pad and cramped buttons. How hard is this to figure out? If you're making a product designed to do SOMETHING, it's probably a good idea to make sure that it performs that function well.

 

I think N-Gage fans have an axe to grind with me because I've blown their theory of "you don't like it because you haven't played it" to bits. I HAVE played it. I don't like it. I've explained why, and that's still not good enough to satisfy them.

 

JR

[EmOneGarand]

I'm assuming that it will be backward compatible with the old software, you know they've got warehouses of that stuff. I got my ngage not too long ago from t-mobile (they at first denied having it) and it came with 5 games, free with plan of course. I enjoy it, its a fun system to use hacks and stuff on. I carry it around at work, sometimes I'll watch some TV on it or play a quick game when theres time to kill. I just wish I could find a free-ware video convertor for it, I keep running out of my divx trials.

 

I'm sorta proud of Nokia for not giving up, in a weird way its like they've got faith in a product thats just a bit ahead of its time.

I read on their website they were not gonna include backwards compatability.. what a big mistake.

[Jess Ragan]

It would be impractical to implement. They'd have to not only make the hardware backward compatible with the old-school N-Gage, driving up production costs, but they'd have to include a slot for the older games, chaining the new phones to the abandoned MMC memory card format.

 

JR

[mos6507]

Until cell phones are built with usable D-pads and buttons, they won't be worth a damn for gaming. It's so bloody obvious that I don't even know why I need to point this out, yet nobody in the industry ever gets the hint.

 

JR

 

Amen. They should also have real graphics accelerators in them and the ability to use USB peripherals.

[mos6507]

How can you say that the N-Gage is ahead of its time when Nokia can't even grasp the basics of handheld design? If you build a pocket game system with a shitty D-pad and buttons, you haven't made a game system at all, but a portable torture device.

 

Praising Nokia for a fundamentally flawed product like the N-Gage makes about as much sense as saying, "Wow, that new Ferrari sure is state of the art. It would be even MORE incredible if it had wheels!"

 

JR

You are so completely wrong that it's silly. They need to build a phone first because they're never going to beat the DS or GBA or PSP. You think their problem was not making a better gaming device. Their problem was that it wasn't that great of a phone. It was a nice little advanced phone, that was totally handicapped by the fact that you looked silly talking on it and you had to remove the battery all the time (and that's just what you like to do with your phone right, remove the battery all the time). They're Nokia, they should build a great phone that is good at playing games, not a great handheld gaming device that kinda serves as a phone. What's their competition in th mobile phone gaming space? Nothing. Do you honestly think they should take on the DS? Ding, fries are ready.

 

I guess I'm dating myself but I think it takes more getting used to seeing people talk with their hands down using a bluetooth headset (even though I do this myself) than it does seeing someone sidetalkin. Cell phones come in so many shapes and sizes these days I don't know why anyoen gives a damn what orientation the phone is in. I bet there is even a phone built into a shoe like on Get Smart.

Edited February 13, 2007 by mos6507

[christianscott27]

I did kinda wonder about the mmc cards, but theres no reason the games from the first gen couldnt be played in some other way over the new system. I could see something like a small fee to download the old games. Actually that might be the way to go for the platform as a whole. Get out of the physical software business and have everything available for download. Theres no good argument for having removable, breakable, loseable game chips in a phone.

[panda_racer]

I could see something like a small fee to download the old games. .

that's kinda what they're doing.

 

Due to the evolution in underlying technology, our next generation N-gage ready mobiles will not be compatible with our existing, first generation N-gage games. However we are bringing a wide range of content to the next generation mobile gaming platform, including select N-gage franchises.

[Atarifever]

 

 

I think N-Gage fans have an axe to grind with me because I've blown their theory of "you don't like it because you haven't played it" to bits. I HAVE played it. I don't like it. I've explained why, and that's still not good enough to satisfy them.

 

JR

Just so I can be clear, could you tell me if you played High Seize, Pathway to Glory, Pathway to Glory 2, Rifts, Warhammer, Worms,and Pocket Kingdom? You keep talking about stiff controls, and those are the best games and could be played with a computer keyboard for all the importance a responsive d-pad has to them. Also, gven that the N-Gage's real innovation is playing turn based games online ANYWHERE (i.e. on the bus, in the woods, in the backseat of a car, in Burger King, in a line for a movie, etc), many of those are also the real important N-Gage games. I mean, I like other games on the system a lot, but I'm just saying that the real future for mobile gaming isn't Splinter Cell.

[Atarifever]

I'm assuming that it will be backward compatible with the old software, you know they've got warehouses of that stuff.

On the n-gage's site it says that it won't be compatible with the old games.

link

to me it looks like the site is saying that the n-gage isn't coming back, but certain nokia phones will be n-gage ready.

n-gage is to nokia phones as itunes is to ipods.

Wow, is this news to people? Nokia said it very clearly in 2005.

Edited February 13, 2007 by Atarifever

[Gabriel]

 

Just so I can be clear, could you tell me if you played High Seize, Pathway to Glory, Pathway to Glory 2, Rifts, Warhammer, Worms,and Pocket Kingdom? You keep talking about stiff controls, and those are the best games and could be played with a computer keyboard for all the importance a responsive d-pad has to them. Also, gven that the N-Gage's real innovation is playing turn based games online ANYWHERE (i.e. on the bus, in the woods, in the backseat of a car, in Burger King, in a line for a movie, etc), many of those are also the real important N-Gage games. I mean, I like other games on the system a lot, but I'm just saying that the real future for mobile gaming isn't Splinter Cell.

 

Is Pathway to Glory 1 a turn based title? I was under the impression it was an action title.

[Atarifever]

 

 

Is Pathway to Glory 1 a turn based title? I was under the impression it was an action title.

Nope. Take a look; it's an awesome turn based game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCpIX6m0jls