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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.
So far I've got " a slice of pizza sticking out of your head", "a taco surgically grafted to your head", and "like talking into a banana or Frisbee."
Any others?
You can see a picture of someone using the phone here.
I'm looking for a HEPA media filter for my TV. I'm alergic to reality shows.
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
The Finnish firm said it aims to sell between six and nine million units
OK, who is the wise guy that inserted "millions" into their press release?
... 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
For Pete's sake, GameSpy's been pumping this as the Second Coming for a while now. They even have a section dedicated to the N-Gage--putting it on the same level as PCs and the various consoles!
That's the first article from them that I've heard that questions the feasibility of the N-Gage. I was beginning to think that Nokia offered them some lucrative package in return for pimping their product.
(Don't get me wrong--I like GameSpy. I just wanted to speak out against the injustice.)
This is the real signature
(Beats those shadows on the cave wall, don't it?)
The apparent design flaws are, for the most part, inexcusable. God knows what posessed Nokia to use a vertical screen - I can't recall seeing any games, with the exception of arcade games, run on a vertically-aligned screen. Having to hold the phone's narrow edge to your head to talk is reason enough to ignore the phone function. Beyond that, that orientation means finger prints galore on the screen. And having to take the battery out to change games...that was just a horrible idea.
Nokia is also missing quality games. While the games they've remade or ported are good ones, I haven't heard anything about N-Gage games beyond the launch titles.
The N-Gage has nothing going for it and will probably fail very early on. Better luck next time, Nokia.
Goo goo g'joob.
Some of you are forgetting who we're talking about here. This is a company that's got the money and technical resources to burn on this initial step into the gaming market.
They're going to shower developers with hardware, software, and cash bonuses to bring truly revolutionary games to their platform.
They're going to snap up all kinds of free talent to put together daring and innovative first-party games.
Their integrated online gaming is second-to-none, with the kind of features that Playstation2 and GameCube players only dream of.
And they've got a terribly impressive hardware platform, on which they're probably already building the next generation.
That first step made, they'll crush the competition with the momentum they're gaining every passing week, and then we'll see Sony weeping over poor sales of the Playstation3 and Nintendo having a going-out-of-business sale where they auction off Donkey Kong to the highest bidder.
Yes, just wait. Microsoft and the Xbox cannot be stopped. THEY ARE THE FUTURE OF...
What's that? Nokia, huh? A phone? YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE BATTERY OFF TO CHANGE GAMES?
Sorry, everyone. Wrong thread. Yeah, N-Gage is doomed.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
So Nokia's making model trains now? Is it going to be like the old sport's illustrated shoe phone, except it will be the Nokia train phone?
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.
wait until there are 25 games for it and they'll do that feature. of course, that's given that there will ever be 25 unique games for it.
To sum up (paraphrasing) the atmosphere about it at EB (the only gaming store in the city):
'The N-Gage is coming in early, but we won't sell it before the street date because we'd get sued. We won't sell it after the street date either though, because then we'd get lynched.'
'The marketing and games for the N-Gage are right here, just so you know.'
'Yeah, in case anyone wants to buy one.'
*both laugh*
(Customer) 'What the heck is that thing?'
'That's the Nokia N-Gage. It's a game system, and a cell phone and- screw it, I don't care either.'
In short: No one knows, and no one cares. The local EB has a quota to fill: 24. Think about this. The only thing it has going for it is that you can play against other people. Except that even EB's district office only expects to sell one to every two thousand people. The store's expectations are different, however:
'Man, I can't believe we have to sell 24 N-Gages. We're not going to sell a single one.'
'That's not true, we'll sell one eventually.'
In other words, the (unnamed) employees know that it's not going to happen, and don't honestly care. I played with one (not the games, just the batteryless machine) at EB, and it was neat, and might make for a good 2D game system - but NOT a 3D system, and NOT a cellphone, and NOT a notebook, and NOT an MP3 player, and NOT for $450.
--Dan