The N-Gage journey so far: "a great learning experience"

Gamasutra recently spoke with Senior Manager for N-Gage at Nokia, Jani Karlsson, about the future of the Finnish company's gaming-phone hybrid.

While it's understandable that not much new information was ready to be released before the Game Developers Conference next month, some of the statements made bore the markings of PR platitudes that stretch the boundaries of believability (even for what we tend to expect from the suits). A sampling of the worst lines given:

• "Well, as we're fond of saying - [the N-Gage journey has] been a great learning experience." [Text italicized for emphasis.]
  
• "And obviously there have been tremendous successes with things like the arena, with the subs base being huge - the largest gaming community there is."
• "It's very interesting to see those [consumer-feedback] results, we always do a huge amount of research to see what the consumers think about our products and actually the original N-Gage got some of the highest rating on any of our devices. People who liked it really liked it a lot - some didn't, but those who did really loved it."
• "Yeah, that is true - especially in the European and U.S. side, there hasn't been so much communication [in terms of public visibility]. Thought [sic] in Asia and in China especially its selling very strongly. It's a shift in focus rather than being quiet.... As we're seeing in Asia and China - there's a huge demand. Perhaps lesser so in the U.S."

The best exchange actually occurred near the end when the interviewer (GS) asked whether Karlsson (JK) could posit a time when the mobile phone gaming device could be offered as an alternative to a PSP or DS.

Here it is:

• JK: I wouldn't compare those two experiences
• GS: Neither would I at the moment.. But we can speculate right?
• JK: Sure we can speculate..
• (PR representation interjection..) actually, no we can't..
• JK: Right. I can't speculate.

Nokia's N-Gage mobile gaming format has certainly experienced its ups and downs, but making these kinds of statements--especially without numbers to back them up or caveats to qualify them--will probably give the company an even worse image (at least with the side-talkin' elite) than if they had simply come out and admitted mistakes in the past. The question remains whether mainstream folks (in the dark about Nokia's gaming machinations) will embrace the platform as a part of their mobile phone service in the future or not. Some straight talkin' might help.

[Thanks, Simon]