Nokia N-Gage is out

[Gregory DG]

Saw it at EB today. Looks kinda neat, but I don't see it taking over for the GBA. It doesn't really have a focus... Is it a games machine, cell-phone, radio, or mp3 player? It's all of them.

 

I'll be the cell-phone service it outrageous expensive.

 

http://www.n-gage.com/n-gage/home.html

[christianscott]

eh cant see this gaining much ground, the price point is just too high for casual gamers, hell its more than an xbox. i'm not a massive corp. with marketing researchers but does anybody else see droves of people dropping $300 on an unproven platform with a very limited amount of games? also its going to take a lot of demos to convince people that the buttons are not a jumble.

 

maybe after crushingly poor holiday sales numbers bear out my prediction nokia will drop the price and focus on getting subscribers.

[liveinabin]

Ok guys. What are your ETAs for N-Gauge in Bargain bin?

6 months? longer?

[MegaManFan]

If they had made it just a game console, without the cell phone crap, I might have actuallly bought one.

[Gabriel]

IMO, the high price has doomed it. Plus, when I was looking at the titles available for it on gamestop.com, I didn't see anything either appealing or that I couldn't get on something else.

[Raijin Z]

3DO all over again.

[Brad2600]

I can just picture idiots buying this, and then trying to use it as a cell phone while driving. Can you imagine the visual?

 

Geez.

[Scooterb23]

I'm actually thinking about picking up a couple of games now...just to have them for later when I buy the system.

 

I will get one, my happy place price point on it is about $150...that much because it has a Monkey Ball game with new levels (it appears) and I don't have a portable MP3 player...

[PuddWakkr]

I don't see the $300 prce tag sticking. Most new cell phones cost over $200 but if you get a service contract when you get your phone it only costs $50. I can see this happening. Two year contract and the phone is yours, and that kinda locks you in buying games for it for two years as well. I don't game on the go so this thing is not gonna be in my house but I'm not sold on it flopping out just yet. If they can hit a $50-$100 price tag when you sign up for your cell phone contract I think it could get to be quite popular.

[Ze_ro]

So, is anyone besides Scooter actually planning on picking one of these up? For any price at all?

 

I already have a GBA, and I have no desire to buy a cell phone at all. I might pick one up if I can find one for a really low price ($50?).... but that probably won't happen until the system is completely dead.

 

--Zero

[Gregory DG]

Funny. this article says the N-Gage would be released in October. Either Nokia upped the release date, or my little town in Polk County Florida has become the test site!

[Scooterb23]

Even though I would look stupid (something I'm never afraid of doing...) my cel phone contract is up, and I actually need a new one as well...

[rasty]

PuddWakkr is right IMO, cell phones have a different market than consoles and a different price tag as well.

Lots of people (including me sometimes ) dump lots of $$'s here in Europe (probably over in the US too?) to get the latest cell phones, and the NGage's launch price could actually be considered low compared to Nokia's other phones when they first come out.

 

The biggest flaw I see with this phone is its design and size: I think it pretty much sucks as a game console design, and it's way too big for a cell phone! Nokia could do better.

 

One point goes to Nokia anyway for this

Could be the start of a retro line for the NGage?

Should we care?

 

BTW maybe what Gregory saw was the Nokia 3300, since the NGage was indeed supposedly due out later this year?

 

Regards,

Rasty.-

[Gregory DG]

BTW maybe what Gregory saw was the Nokia 3300, since the NGage was indeed supposedly due out later this year?

 

No, it was definitely the N-Gage. Complete with games: Red Faction, Tomb Raider, Sonic, etc.

[rasty]

BTW maybe what Gregory saw was the Nokia 3300, since the NGage was indeed supposedly due out later this year?

 

No, it was definitely the N-Gage. Complete with games: Red Faction, Tomb Raider, Sonic, etc.

So maybe Nokia realized that they'd better go ahead and release it to see how it goes, instead of wasting a few other millions on ad campaigns?

 

Regards,

Rasty.-

[PuddWakkr]

My gamestop has all the promo stuff on the shelf. Boxes and such. Games don't look too bad. Kind of like early PSX stuff. Still not gonna pick this up. Have no need for a cell phone.

[ventrra]

So, is anyone besides Scooter actually planning on picking one of these up? For any price at all?

 

I already have a GBA, and I have no desire to buy a cell phone at all. I might pick one up if I can find one for a really low price ($50?).... but that probably won't happen until the system is completely dead.

 

--Zero

Eventually...I certainly have no desire to use it as a Cell phone, though. I might wait until it's around $100 or so. Probably.

[ubersaurus]

This line made me laugh...

A Quick History of Retro Games

 

 

1958: Willy Higinbotham devises a tennis game played on an oscilloscope.

1961: Ralph Baer invents the first proper videogame, Spacewar (like an early version of Asteroids).

1971: Nolan Bushnell, Atari founder, makes the first arcade videogame machine, Computer Space.

1972: Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console, arrives. Nolan Bushnell's Pong is a massive success in the arcades.

1977: Atari's VCS is the first popliar console.

1978: Space Invaders arrives.

 

Wow, Ralph Baer must have realized that whole Brown Box wasn't going to work out, so he went back in time and worked on spacewar with some hackers.

[ROBOTRON]

Indeed!