N-Gage platform nearing relaunch; pre-release available on Nokia N81

by Scott Jon Siegel { Dec 18th 2007 at 8:45PM }

They've certainly been taking their time with it, but Nokia is finally just about ready to re-launch the N-Gage gaming platform for mobile phones... kinda. This week, a pre-release version of the service will become available to owners of the Nokia N81 phone, along with at least one game title available for download.

The revamped N-Gage service offers a consistent platform for mobile gaming, with features like profiles, friends lists, achievements, play history, and others seemingly "appropriated" from Microsoft's Xbox Live service.

Nokia has not been more specific as to when the pre-release service will launch for the N81. The full service is also expected to start sometime this month, but Nokia has also not been more specific with this time-frame either.

Tags: n-gage, nokia, relaunch

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

gonk @ Dec 18th 2007 9:03PM

i dont think this will work on my phone, it just makes calls and does text messages

Jerk Face @ Dec 18th 2007 9:03PM

*cough* *cough* mobile-games-are-gay *cough*

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Dec 18th 2007 9:43PM

Meh, I used to agree but then started playing some. I mean, a lot suck, but games like Pac Man and Assassin's Creed Mobile are pretty fun to play when your stuck somewhere you don't wanna be and don't have a DS on you.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Dec 19th 2007 11:40AM

Mobile games are not worth the price of entry 95% of the time. It took a long time for me to justify buying tetris for 8 dollars on my phone. There's nothing else worth that money on mobile.

And who the fuck buys subscriptions that cost less than half the "buy it once, keep it forever" price?

howl @ Dec 18th 2007 9:06PM

why is this so seemingly easy for Nokia but I always here Sony saying its a long process and its taking them long to get everything together?!!

It really annoys me.

brandon_r87 @ Dec 18th 2007 9:14PM

If it were so easy, I think they would have had some success with the first NGage.

Hashbrown_Hunter @ Dec 18th 2007 10:24PM

I'm kind of excited to see where this goes. This service could end up rivaling Japan's cellphone-gaming market.

With time, of course, but it could definitely happen and I think Nokia is making an extremely smart move.

john paul @ Dec 18th 2007 10:33PM

i would buy it for the phone alone
don't know if i would play games on it though...

Travis @ Dec 18th 2007 10:59PM

Why dear gods, why? haven't we suffered enough?

Yubastard @ Dec 18th 2007 11:05PM

that phone looks sooo awesome! It's incredible what a few buttons on top can do for gaming, I hope this trend continues! *giggles*

t_m @ Dec 19th 2007 1:56AM

Its the controls that matter...

I still use my gameboy micro regularly, even though my phone has a bigger screen, and can power much more graphically advanced games. Why?

Cos no one has released a phone yet that has decent buttons and d-pads for gaming.

(i've also been saying for years that nintendo should license its "gameboy platform" to phone devs, and include minimum specified control requirements. they'd be able to print even more money...

B1gC72 @ Dec 19th 2007 2:33AM

yea cause Xbox Live was the first to do profiles, friends list, play history, etc.
/one could almost drown in the sarcasm

i respect Live as a great service but you guys give it TOO much credit lol. it might have been one of the first to bring all that stuff together in a very user friendly fashion but you cant say somebody is copying Live every time someone has a new internet community platform. PC had been doing all that for years. yes Live simplified it and made it user friendly and across the board but they didnt invent the stuff.

anyway, onto the topic, Nokia had always had their hearts in the right place with N-Gage (i think they had a similar online strategy the first time too) but they just misinterpreted their market. that said, i still dont expect them to do great with this new approach but i think they'll do better than the first time around.