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Nokia's N-Gage Officially Launches
Thanks to Reuters for their article summarizing the "mixed response" to today's launch of Nokia's N-Gage 'mobile game deck'/phone hybrid. According to the piece, "The Finnish firm said it aims to sell between six and nine million units between now and the end of 2004 as it seeks to break the grip on a market dominated by Nintendo's GameBoy", but many are less convinced, with CNN Money suggesting "N-Gage might sound great on paper, but it's a disaster in execution", an earlier San Jose Mercury News piece criticizing the N-Gage as "...a hopeless muddle - lacking in quality games, too confusing in regards to service plans, too expensive and crippled by a series of stunningly bad design decisions", and GameSpy advocating a "wait and see" approach, although they also have the inevitable contrarian view.
See subject.
They've covered the N-Gage in detail, making fun of it since it was announced, and this pretty much sums their position:
"I really wish that these media outlets would stop pretending the N-Gage is a real game system."
(that quote was in response to this article about the worldwide N-Gage launch and the 'parties' at different stores)
They also have this insightful comic.
-Trillian
"I think you even need a screwdriver to do this."
My God.
You haven't actually seen an N-Gage yet, have ya?
I'd heard all of the bad comments, all of the "What the f were they thinking?"s, and then I actually went down to EB the other day and asked about it, and the guy showed me how to change a game.
Yes -- you have to remove the back cover and the battery. These are two steps you don't have to do with a GBA. But they take all of 1.78243 seconds to accomplish. Really. Snap, pop.
You still have to remove/replace the cartridge and turn it on/off. But then, you have to do that with a GBA, too!
It is almost, but not quite, as complicated as wiping your ass.
Screwdrivers, indeed!
I played today Super Monkey Ball and Tomb Raider... SMB isn't all evil, even if the field of view is too tight and controlling the ball is sometimes quite difficult, TR has quite massive control problems, so I can say it has bdeen ported with a good degree of fidelity...
I live in Switzerland where it retails for 99 francs (~70$) by signing up a new contract, so if I were to get a new cell phone I suppose I would possibly give N-Gage a chance, it still a cell phone after all, while keeping the GBA for the serious gaming stuffs.