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Nokia Slams GameBoy, Discusses N-Gage
Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for writing up an article discussing Nokia's most recent comments about their N-Gage portable phone/game deck, which launches later this year, and will be at least partly competing against Nintendo's all-conquering GameBoy Advance. Most notably, Nokia boss Ilkka Raiskinen is quoted as saying "GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place."
I think Gabe's post pretty much sums it all up.
"Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit." --Oscar Wilde
But by the same token, if you're out on a Friday night and you "draw" anything out of your pocket to play a game you either:
a) Need to find new friends and/or friends. Period.
b) Need to find a new place to hang out on Friday nights.
c) Should get punched in the face.
d) Are a huge doofus.
e) All of the above.
Cell phone games sure are a neat waste of time, but if I'm going to blow $300 on a portable gaming system it has to blow me, too.
Nokia seems to have learned the wrong lessons from Microsoft's X-Box marketing strategy. They need to remember that the "insult your apparent target demographic" gimmick only works if you're using it as part of a billion dollar campaign to convince regular people that it's socially acceptable to buy your product.
...Is to change the game, you have to open up the back of the N-Gage, take out the battery, and change the chip that's underneath, then replace the battery...
I think I'll stick with my "Cartridges that only a 10-year old would play", thank you. At least then I can play them on airplanes.
in other news:
Shouldn't they pick on someone their own size?
Honey, is that a GameBoy in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Again, a Futurama Bender quote says things perfectly.
"No, THEY look like dorks!! *grumble*" (from "War is the H-Word")
a GBA might be ok, but when you hit 30, you might want to keep your GBA playing in stealth mode.
"GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place."
I used to play with my gameboy a lot back in '89 and played it to death until I got my gameboy color. Back when I was young, it was fine for me to be playing it until it did indeed seem to be a bad idea to draw my gameboy out when I was in high school or with friends as it seemed like kiddie stuff.
I fit the 20-25 age group but now it is cool again to play. People don't give a fuck. Many times they're more interested in what video game you're playing so they can check it out also. Video games have become so commonplace that seeing the new professional, shiny, and slick gbasp in silver makes me look godly. I would think that buying a $300 phone just to play some games seems like a bad idea imho.
I could just imagine my friends say "WTF? you have a gameboy for portable games and its cheaper. You idiot.. you got fucking ripped off".
Sorry Nokia, toting around trendy hardware to show off with poor performance is what's for 10 year olds.
If this is Nokias stance on gaming, then they are already doomed. Not because of the trash-talking to gamers either.
They are making a very similar mistake that past console makers have done, and that is to front their systems and not their library. They haven't learned one of the most *basic* rules for manufacturers in the game industry, and that is that *games* make the system.
(Yadda, yadda... It's been said a 100 times)
I think the majority of the older generation of gamers play their games because they are fun, not because a system is hyped. I have yet to see any real fun games on the N-Gage. I'm 25 years old and I carry my GBA where ever I go. It's a blast, yours is not, I've played it.
If I get one of these (which I won't) I'll have to deal with the following two annoyances.
1. When playing games, people will ask me why I'm molesting my cell phone.
2. When talking on the phone, people will ask me why I'm talking into a gameboy.
I got a GBASP a month ago and it's become part of my standard gear I take with me everywhere I go (cell phone, wallet, keys, pen, GBASP). It's perfect for killing time between meetings, classes, etc. Plus it fits perfectly in my cargo pockets (hey, they finally have a use) and the platinum case makes me feel all bling bling.
It's not stupid. It's advanced.
This is probably going to be just as effective as "John Romero is going to make you his bitch". Complete failure of this project to continue I'm sure. I'm 24 and love my GBA SP, fuck you nokia.
N-Gage piece of trivia for you. To put a new game in this thing you have to remove the batteries. Brilliant!
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;
If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place.
They obviously haven't hung out with anyone at Slashdot on a Friday night.
And if their target market is 20-25, I doubt their ad-campaign is going to be very productive.
"Dude! I need to get an NGage so I can be bitchin!!"
Kudos to you, my good man.
wow, this looks like a total peice of crap! way to go!
"If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place." ... because a crack team of nokia ninjas will emerge from the shadows and beat you down (??!)
BEWARE THE NOKIA NINJAS
As long as phones and wireless devices are frowned upon on airplanes a combo device will not work well for the frequent traveller.
it doesn't matter if it includes a "turn radio off" feature. flight attendants can't be expected to understand that or be able to actually verify/believe it.
Hey Nokia, stop competing with another market. Stay in your own industry. Classic nintendo and Gameboy should not be messed with!
"...it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place." GameBoy or not, playing games by yourself in a public place is a sure sign that you are a loser. There is no 'coolness factor' to hand held games, so whip those gameboys out in public and fsck everyone else.
TallGreen CMS hosting
Gabe of Penny Arcade said it best on June 11th. He talks more about how much the device sucks, but specifically about the trash talk he says this, "Your second mistake was in allowing Mr. Raiskinen to ever open his fucking mouth in public. His statement is so absurd that it borders on the humorous. In fact if I were not quite certain that he was serious I would think it was a joke. Not a good idea to take out a game boy in a public place? Does this man even live on this planet? Did he make these comments from inside some kind of protective bubble orbiting the earth, insulated from the day to day happenings of itâ(TM)s inhabitants? If I am out with my buddies on a Friday night and we are waiting in line for a movie or some other event I can guarantee that Game Boys will come out. Not one of my friends is without a GBA. They are practically a necessity at this point. Like bread or water. It is the poor young man still playing snake on his cell phone in the airport that gets the pitting look from our group.
We even strung our link cables across the seats in the airplane on our way to E3 in order to partake in some four player Puyo Pop. Whereas airline regulations will not even allow me to turn on your masterfully designed game system while anywhere near a fucking airplane much less play a game to pass the time. Oh and speaking of great design, having to remove the battery in order to change gamesâ¦brilliant. "
This fits my own sentiments dead on. Almost all of my friends have SPs and you better bet we will pull them out when we are sitting waiting for a table or a movie to start. That is the beauty of my SP, I can play high quality games where ever I happen to be. So I can have a social life without having to sacrifice my gaming completely. I was interested in checking out the N-Gage, but now I feel that out of principle of not contributing to its success I won't. I am your target demo graphic, young geek male with loads of disposable income. Way to go Nokia.
I went to see the Matrix opening weekend, and I counted 5 GBA's in the audience while we waited for the show to start. Since this was a rated R movie, it was mainly comprised of the demographic that Mr. Raiskinen says would be too embarassed to use a GameBoy. So, based on my experience, he's pretty wrong. But I'm not the guy who's trying to sell crappy cell phone/video game thingies.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
1. Come out with a new portable video game system.
2. Insult potential customers
3. ????
4. Profit!!!
Actually, after that comment, I will never buy this poor waste of landfill space!
What, me Tweet?
I visited n-gage.com, but couldn't find the pages with the game screenshots.
Could you help me find them? Thank you.
I am very excited about the names of the forthcoming titles. As many as two or three of them I could not recognize from my gamestop GBA section. I am sure they will be excellent, and even the games that do exist for the gameboy will be much better for the n-gage.
P.S. Last week I saw a really hot chick and I think I might have had a chance with her, but she saw my gameboy SP and ran away. If possible, can you send me an early copy of the n-gage or even a mockup so that I can score the next time I see her?
If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place."
Last Friday night, at 2Fast2Furious (I'm in a war of attrition with a friend to drag each other to the worst possible movie), I pulled a platinum SP out of my pocket and played (original GB) Mario in the cinema, waiting for the movie to start. All the little kiddies playing centipede on their cell phones all leant over to watch, as did the older people on a retro kick.
Granted, I've been 26 for two months now, so I'm clearly passed it.
GameBoys have a level of retro cool that completely transcends just about any other retro fad. They also have a stupidly large library of some of the most simply playable games ever. I'd choose to be seen playing one of those things over the "Please look at me, I desperately need to be cool by sticking flashing LED battery packs on my cell phone" alternative - be it Friday night or any other time.
Yeah, I wonder Why there are no screen shots, oh no I don't, I know why, it's because it's going to be pants.
..and lastly...
Actually from these screen shots it looks half reasonable, but:
1) I bet it's not that good in reality.
2) Slagging of GBA SP owners by suggesting they are uncool 10 year olds is market suicide (have they not heard of the 'GBA:SP - For Men' campaign all over London?)
3) You take the battery out to change games? *boggle*
4) Looks like a brick, and I can't see it being comfortable.
5) It's been hyped for over 6 months, but they still have no actual in game screen shots on the web site.
6) They plan to unthroan the Gameboy SP how? With magic pixie dust?
If the Atari Lynx and the Sega Game Gear couldn't do it, this phone doesn't have a chance (the only advantage it has is wireless play and we know that GBA BlueTooth adapters are en route).
Nintendo may have screwed up their last two consoles (N64 - pants, GC - good, not enough games) and the GBA (backlight) but with the GBA:SP they have an excellent system with a huge back catalog of games, and one that is capeable of running quality SNES and Megadrive conversions. I don't even see Sony beating them now (not after how big they've said the screen is going to be).
I wish they would make offical blank ROM carts though, carrying games is a pain and they are soo cool. I'd love to be able to pay and download games via the net (getting hold of popular carts like SF:Turbo and Golden Sun:LA can be a pain as every man and his dog want's to get them it seems).
"GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place." Uh, yeah but pulling out a big, goofy looking phone and playing it is?Gameboy has become a common sight among 20-25 year olds and beyond. Hell, I'm 32 and I play my GBA every day during breaks at work and the only response I get is, "What game is that? Cool!"I take it to baseball games to play between innings or when the game is getting ugly (and living in San Diego I get to see my fair share of ugly baseball games). Again, not a shameful or mocking look to be had.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. -Plato
I'm 28 and play my GBA on the train to work every day. No one has dared come up to me and told me I was immature.
I hardly think a 10 year could play all the games. Heck my daughter (who is 9) cannot play (functionally and maturity) all the games we have.
Don't see me letting her play any mortal kombat games in a hurry.
"GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place."
hmm, well a) you'll never get the chicks playing video games while they're around, so this is bad juju for nokia also and b) i'd guess 1 in 5 guys of university age (20-24) own a GBA of some sort... it's not exactly like playing video games is a demasculating activity, seeing as how pretty much all guys play some sort of video game at least once a month in the dorms, ect.
moox. for a new generation.
"GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place."
I must say, Scandanavia is the last place I'd expect Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf to pop back up...
This thing looks remarkably like the classic GBA. So what's this do to make it appealing to older people who don't want the *gasp* horrible embarassment of pulling out a portable gaming device in public? What're you going to do? Pull it out, getting scornful looks (according to Raiskinen) and then explain that no, it's not a GBA, it's a Nokia N-Gage (TM) which appeals to older audiences? Then, thinking realistically, they're either going to be confused or they're still going to look at you the exact same way they did. Of course, Nokia executives probably think their reaction will be to say "Whoaaa, cool, dude! Let's go skateboarding!", but then Raiskinen might think of the typical gamer as a skateboarding, trash-talking, rough-n-tough kind of guy. Something tells me that that's not close at all.
I'm 27 and I play my SP in public. I'm not the only one. I see other adults playing them regularly on the subway.
You should check out Nintendo's campaign in Europe. Young attractive couples half naked in bed playing gameboy. (possibly not safe for work)
the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
"So, uh, what's up?" "Well, last night, I picked up an N-Gage.." "N-what?" "N-Gage. It's like a cell phone and a handheld gaming platform rolled into one. Don't get the wrong idea, though - the Game Boy is for the kiddies. N-Gage is for more of a, shall we say, mature audience." "Yeah, well, whatcha got for it?" "I've got Tomb Raider, um, Sonic... er... Pande..mo..nium...." "Get outta here."
Actually, no, I don't read Penny Arcade. I personally can't stand their style of humor. However, feel free to mod my post down.
When I was at E3 and actually asked them "how do you change the games?" they, very reluctantly, told me. Hence why I was able to make this post. Considering that this is "public" knowledge, as long as you know to ask, I am not surprised that other sources have also used the information.
Thanks for playing!
GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place.
Nokia, I am not afraid!!
Gamesindustry.biz also wrote a nice little article about the pros and cons of the N-Gage at first sight.. Check it out here.
10 years old draw mobile phones out there pockets, and I have seen more than one late-twenties draw a GBA while commuting to work in the train.
WARNING: Not a sincere recommendation.
This should be a good news to the Slashdot community.
Nokia provide free development kits for their mobile phones (have a look at developer.nokia.com). OK, it may be just java (not C++), but for people programming for fun, this is more than you will ever get from Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft/Xbox, who require you to go through a certification process (impossible for an individual).
From their web page:
Nokia N-Gageâ game deck supports two different game styles: downloadable titles and rich games distributed on MMC cards. Downloadable titles for Nokia N-Gage game deck are developed in Javaâ MIDP in the same way and with the same tools used to develop downloadable games for any other Series 60 Platform device. Our Step by Step Guide to mobile game development will get you started. You do not require authorization to develop downloadable games for any Series 60 Platform device.
Decide for yourself
If the product quality of the N-Gage is anywhere as poor as that of the 9110i Communicators I see Nokias' handheld gaming history being a short one.
The Communicator is a nice concept, but horribly implemented.
I've seen plenty of 9110i and all had the same problems. Apps crashing, caller lists getting nuked, phone crashing. Best one always was when the diplay looked like normal, but the phone actually crashed internally.
Hmmm, strange no one called today...
One had to reboot that thing once a day at times. To do so, you removed the battery.
So I wonder if the remove-battery-to-change-game concept is a neato feature to prevent phone crashes through preventive rebooting.
If the N-Gage is the same, I'll stick with my GBA SP.
As I'm in my thirties, I guess I am not in the target group anyway.
On the other hand, the Communicator was the only tech device I ever owned which would prompt a woman (you know, humans of that other gender) to chat me up when she saw it...
"Our advertising ranges from the subliminal to the liminal to the superliminal."
"Superliminal?"
"Hey you! Join the Navy!"
"Okay"
Does anyone else see similarities between Lt. L.T. Smash's advertising tactics and Nokia's.
"Hey you! Don't buy Gameboy. It's uncool."
"Okay."
"Hey you! Buy N-Gage. It's cool."
"Okay."
It's so simple it's genious. They'll make bags of money.
"If the good lord had intended us to walk, he wouldn't have invented roller skates." -Willy Wonka
Definitely not the GBA-SP. My wife was very concerned about my "image" when I told her I was getting a GBA (for use as a special "controller" for the gamecube, don't have any GBA games and don't really plan on it). However when the GBA-SP arrived she said: "Oh. Well that looks kinda neat. Can we get the old Mario games on that?"
MORTAR COMBAT!
...now quit bothering me, this 24 year old is in the process of dominating Golden Sun:The Lost Age.
---
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
"GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place."
And pulling your small phone out of your pocket to play a game on while you are out on a Friday night is somehow more 'adult'???
It was an advertisement for Gamegear, SEGA's answer to Gameboy. Where is Gamegear now? For that matter, where is SEGA?
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
I just read most the comments and completly agree with everyone. Nokia's going to have a very hard time with this one. First off have any of you seen games on this device. The frame rate was terrible, it looked like slow motion. Plus what gamer really cares what others think. I for one am 28 and have no problems pulling out a my GBA-SP in public. Not that I carry around all the time but If I have to go somehwere where I have to wait in line (like the DMV) I bring it and I have never had any problems. If anything the person next to me usally asks either what game I'm playing or if they could try it. Nokia better wake up. At 100$ the GBA-SP market is going to be very hard to break into.
I couldn't wait until I was 20 to be able to afford to buy games whenever the hell I felt like it. Been in my 20s for a few years, and been enjoying the GBA most of that time. And in my late 20s, I'll get the newest gameboy incarnation, all the while thinking about failed gaming systems like gamegear, neogeo pocket, and this nokia crap. And I still won't have the slightest hesitation about playing the thing wheerever/whenever I want without any shame.
Then again, I am pretty shameless as it is.
aside from this thing looking like a bronzed kidney with buttons, i think nokia needs to wiseup to the market... i'm not sure that even sony has got what it takes to enter the market in a meaningful way. we'll see. way to alienate consumers nokia.
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away