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Nokia's N-Gage Officially Launches

Posted by simoniker on from the not-a-glowing-report dept.

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.

2 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. They're not going to succeed because ... by snowtigger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... they have missed the most important feature: Changing game

    Changing a game in a GameBoy is a matter of changing cartridge. Sounds easy and natural, doesn't it ?

    Changing game on a N-Gage a means removing a cover, opening the phone and changing some internal component. I think you even need a screwdriver to do this.

    People have been complaining about this from the start and Nokia still doesn't seem to care. Good work ...

    1. Re:They're not going to succeed because ... by memph1st0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You still have to remove/replace the cartridge and turn it on/off. But then, you have to do that with a GBA, too!

      yes, but see, i don't try to talk to people or wait for calls on my gameboy advance. the gba also does not have boot sequence to run through since it is simply loading cartridge runtime data.

      i don't necessarily agree that changing the game is the most important feature they screwed up. i think their design team was so absolutely pitiful that they managed to screw everything up on an equal level. i have both a background in both the geek and design worlds, and i just can't wait to watch this thing bomb.

      sorry nokia, no matter how much $ you pump out to the media to to support this thing, and $ to developers to make games, if they don't make any money off of you in the end, you're screwed. and anyone with some common sense isn't going to buy this piece of garbage. really, just look at, the product design does nothing for the senses. when i see an ipod, or a gameboy advance, i instinctively know that something interesting and useful is in my hands. good physical product design is one of the most important and first steps of development after the idea stage, and without a good foundation there, you're screwed. ok enough of my ranting. go nokia!