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UK Retailers Report Disappointing N-Gage Sales
Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for their article indicating that UK videogame retailers are showing extremely low sell-through of Nokia's new N-Gage game deck in its launch week. Although US sales figures are still pending, "fewer than 500 units [were] sold by the 6,000 [UK] game stores polled by Chart-Track." GI.Biz note that, though "these figures don't include sales from mobile phone stores, which might well be expected to shift a few units of the N-Gage, they still spell out something of a setback for Nokia's ambitions in the console space", since "Nintendo's Game Boy Advance hardware outsold the N-Gage by a ratio of almost 30:1."
Is anyone surprised? This isn't news, this is what was expected. I'm interested to see what the US sales were. I'm guessing less that 20k units nationwide.
hmmmm who would have predictted that...
the new ad campaign slogan can be "Whether talking on your phone, or satisfying your hunger: Hold a taco to your head!"
I never would've guessed that an over-hyped product that runs games at 20fps wouldn't have sold well!
These people need to learn that many consumers have geeks like us as friends who can recognized a truly terrible product and tell them about it.
No sales = dissapointed.
- Sherman
junk junk junk
GMR gave it a 3 of 10... and thats cuz the phone part works.. haha anyone know what crappy game informer gave it? proably an 8 i guess.
The fact that you have to remove the battery to change games is a glaring oversite. I haven't actually done this with an N-Gage but to me that is a ridiculous idea, what was Nokia thinking? I for one won't be buying one of those metal Tacos. ;)
I'm actually very pleased that people haven't wasted their money on a product that (by all accounts) sucks.
It's very reassuring that word of mouth has given consumers the power to whack stupid companies like Nokia with a hefty cluestick.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Looks like the next logical step for Nokia is to sue IBM.
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
"The part that people (including Nokia) are not understanding is that the NGage is NOT a game console!
It's a DAMN GOOD electronics device. It's a pretty sweet cell phone. So far, I'm quite impressed with the MP3/radio features. It also plays some games, with some mixed results. As a gaming console, there's no question that the GBA or even a NGPC (at this point) would be the obvious over an NGage. While it has some very powerful hardware under the hood (Tomb Raider, while controls are as fickle as ever, looks like a pretty damn sweet port of the original), it still shouldn't be stacked up next to the GBA for comparisons.
Think of the NGage as an electronics deivce that plays games, not as a gaming machine that you can use to call your friends. Unfortunately, Nokia and any gaming stores selling it as a gaming device (ie, EB Games or Gamestop) seems to have missed that little detail."
Nokia should be pushing this unit at the ATT&T/TMobile/Verizon/Cingular/etc stores, NOT the EBGames and Babbages of the world. Get the NGage out and let it generate positive buzz. THEN, once your product (product being a cell phone that plays games, not a game system that you can call someone with) is ESTABLISHED, THEN you can roll out the NGage2 in your favorite gaming stores.
GMR gave it a 3 of 10... and thats cuz the phone part works
Heh, I think that dpad.ca says it best here.
Do not read this sig.
You do have to wonder why anyone would buy such an ugly piece of kit that has no killer app games, tries to be a phone too (I have a phone already ta) and results in a huge number of horrible buttons.
When instead you could have a shiny silver GBA SP with fantastic games like Pokemon and Advance Tactics and Mario. mmmmmmmmmmm ... Mario
Come on! I mean this guys were actually paying people to talk wonders about their product and even then they didnt want to!
I think somehow this is a good thing since game companies will finally realize gamers are not tech junkies who would buy anything to have the latest trend, or people who apreciate words like "whoa dude! xtreme 3d gaming " thanks nokia we are not stoned surfers and I think not even "todd" will apreciate your product, actually gamers and techies (according some studies) are slightly faster minded than non gamer types (do to some frame per second response crap) so next time make sure target audience for a phone-game design is not labeled "complete idiot".
On the other hand I hope this doesnt make companies think a functional 3d handheld in a phone is a bad idea, is not, is the execution of the idea what nokia just couldnt handle. a ngage type thingie, might have a place in the industry at the right price and with a propper implementation of games. (maybe teaming with sega, atari or another company with console experience?)
Anyway is too lkate for Nokia now..
Anyone want to take bets on how much before this thing gets discontinued?
p.s. There IS a chance of survival for nokia though, if they made a new model fixing its biggest problems (game replacement and phone holding) and a more reasonable payment plan, they might just might have a slight chance.
A little leading cellular handset company had a long list of shareholders to satisfy.
Her products sold very well until the market was saturated. But then, no matter how hard she tried; she could not satisfy her investors and debtors.
She pulled, and she pulled. She puffed and she puffed. She chopped lines and started up others. Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo!
But no! The company would not return to easy profits.
At last she left her primary market and ventured out alone. Do you think she had stopped working? No, indeed! She was going for help.
"Surely I can find something to help me," she thought.
Over the markets and up to trade shows the little company rolled. Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo!
Pretty soon she saw a fat networking business standing on a sidetrack. He looked very rich and strong. Running alongside, she looked up and said,
"Will you help me get over this dip quickly with my shareholders in tow? The slow road to profit is so long and so steep."
The big networking business looked down at the little handset company. Then he said, " Don't you see that I am through with my own work? I have been all buffeted and scarred and am waiting for my white knight. No, I cannot help you."
The handset company was sorry, but she went on. Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo!
Soon she cam to a second large multinational MP3 player market standing on a sidetrack. He was puffing and puffing, as if he were tired.
"He may help me," thought the little company. She ran alongside and asked,
"Will you help me over this ditch with my shareholders and debtors? Single-digit profits just don't satisfy like they used to."
Then the second big market answered,
"I have just come in from a 4 year long sprint. Don't you see how saturated I am? Can't you get some other market to help you this time?"
"I'll try," said the little company, and off she went. Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo!
After a little while she came to a consumer electronics market just like herself (she thought). She ran alongside and said,
"Will you help me through the downturn with my shareholders and debt? A company this hip should see easy growth even in a downturn."
"Yes, indeed!" said the market for handheld gaming systems. "I'll be glad to help anyone I can. Just make a great system and easy money will roll in."
So the little company started back to where the impatient shareholders had been standing all this time, poking at their PDA devices. The little company aligned itself with what it thought was the market, and headed out.
Puff, puff! Chug, Chug! Choo, Choo! Off they started!
Slowly the company began to move. Slowly they developed hardware and software. As they climbed, the little company began to sing,
"I - think - I - can! I - think - I - can!
I - think - I - can! I - think - I - can!
I - think - I - can! I - think - I - can!
I - think - I - can! I - think - I - can!..."
The little handset company brought in experts from all fields. The little handset company built prototypes, models, and licensing agreements. The little handset company kept hyping away at the market.
I - think - I - can! I - think - I - can!
People came from all around. They pointed at the little company and said "You'll never make it." "Your hardware is inferior." "How do you even put the cartridge in?"
I - think - I - can! I - think - I - can!
The little company ignored the naysayers, and pushed forth. They worked trade shows, padded their game linup, bought sure hits like Tony Hawk and Super Monkey Ball. And they never stopped believing in themselves.
"What do you think you are doing?"
"I - think - I - can! I - think - I - can!"
The worst of the market was behind them. Their stock prices rose and rose! They were going to make it! Their agressive marketing policy and never-say-die attitude was paying
The ______ Agenda
Gentleman, set your faces to stun.
"Derp de derp."
Their marketing in Europe certainly hasn't been too fantastic or informative - I've already seen a few N-Gage games on eBay that people mistakenly purchased believing they were compatible with other Nokia phones, and then couldn't get refunded on.
Blah blah blah "have to take out the battery..." At this point, that's not what's preventing me from getting one. The primary reason I get the consoles I do are the games it runs. And so far, I haven't seen much for the N-Gage that's piqued my interest. I've long since passed beyond my puzzle game phase years ago, Lara Croft doesn't do anything for me, and if I wanted to play a Sonic game I already have a GBA and a GCN.
Beyond that, the only other thing keeping me from getting one is my happiness with Sprint PCS. I have no desire to switch providers, and since a lot of the N-Gage's functionaly seems to be tied to cellular service...
Dear Nokia,
Just about any gamer would have candidly told you why they would be avoiding it and why they thought it would fail.
* No groundbreaking games. Nobody cares about Tomb Raider anymore. 3D games can work (or, more accurately 2.5D games like the amazing Doom 2 Gameboy Advance port), but for the most part 2D games are much easier to play on the move, doubly so if they are turn-based.
* The design is clunky. Certain aspects are too small (screen), others just bad (buttons, loading carts).
* Wrong media format. SD cards are horrible. And you have to "load" the game from the cart on to the machine to play it. Ugh. No thanks. Compactflash is about the smallest size that you're not likely to loose, but Gameboy Advance carts are about perfect and feel very robust.
* Price. Nintendo is the one to beat. Remember the Atari Lynx? The Sega Game Gear? They were more powerful than the Gameboy, but hugely overpriced they never sold.
* Advertising. Oh. My. God. Total misfire. Like an adult trying to gatecrash a teenager's party, Nokia was trying too much to be "cool". XTREME pictures of guys playing NGage on skateboard while stuff explodes behind him. The kids roll their eyes and move on.
What the NGage totally missed was the understated coolness of their sucessfull competitors. The PS2 being a menacing black futuristic monolith. The Gameboy SP is a super slick portable gaming theatre.
I'm wondering if the NGage was a pet project of a Nokia exec who refused to listen to criticism and change, or to let it die. Kinda like the Xbox controller disaster.
Our store hasn't sold a single one yet, and it is hard to get customers interested when, ahem, the 'interactive unit' kept crashing and is now permenantly stuck on the white screen of doing-nothing-at-all. It doesn't inspire confidence.
[insert witty quote here]
Its not just the Hardware, the software sucks too.
This review of an N-gage game from gamespot says it all..."Oversights" seems to be the word of choice to describe the N-gage...
There really isn't much to say about Puzzle Bobble VS other than that it is a complete and utter mess. Puzzle Bobble seems to be one of those games that would be incredibly difficult to mess up, but the N-Gage version of the game proves that even the simplest and most street-tested gameplay concept can be ruined by a few key oversights. These oversights make Puzzle Bobble VS an awful product that isn't worth your time or money.
how about we see the numbers from places that actually sell phones?
the internet buzz on this thing sucks, but not everyone is on the internet.
It's the size of an original Game Boy Advance.
It needs about 2x the pocket space of a Game Boy Advance SP.
It has a tiny screen, about 2/3 the size of a Palm device, half the size of a GBA-SP.
It's complicated. I fiddled around with one for a while trying to work out how to make a game start, then gave up.
It's bigger than any other phone on the market, and you'll look a complete tool if you try to use it as one, so good luck selling it at phone stores.
You have to take it apart and hold a bunch of small, easily lost parts and screws in your hand while you remove the battery, just to change game cartridge.
It's $300, meaning you could get a GBA-SP, a tiny mobile phone with organizer built in, and still have just enough money for a refurb iPod, instead of buying this monumentally ill-concieved toy.
The mystery to me is how Nokia ever allowed the thing to get to market.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I may be missing something here, but if I design and manufacture a device with a specific purpose in mind, and then add-on other features, the true nature of the device is whatever the heck I say it is.
Nokia says it's a gaming device. That's what they designed it to be. But at the cost, it just doesn't compete with anything on the market.
There are plenty of other ways to satisfy your gaming/audio/video/cell phone fix, most of which have a bigger screen and don't require partial disassembly for changing games. A Palm-device with a cell-phone attachment springs to mind, for instance. And for $300, you could easily get a mid-to-high level model and a few snazzy gizmos to boot.
The N-gage is not going to generate positive buzz, no matter which audience it gets pitched to. I'm honestly surprised that EBGames has seen fit to showcase demo units in their stores, although it does work as a great deterrant to wasting large amounts of money.
Actual quote: "Wow, I was going to get one of those things. Dude, that screen sucks!"
Hopefully, this will once and for all prove that you simply can't buy good press and have it work for any lasting period of time.
I await the Zodiac.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
And everybody who is surprised by this, raise your hands!
[crickets chirping]
Thank you.
The local EB sold one! First in their district! Go 872!
It was returned a few days later, the radio didn't work. First one sold was defective. No problem, exchanged for another one, and he left happy.
Still, way to go Nokia.
--Dan
I've got one of the latest DoCoMo phones, a P505i
NGage screen: 176x208x12bit
P505i screen: 240x320x16bit (wife's is 22bit or so) + mini backscreen
NGage games: Tries proper games, pretends to be Gameboy
P505i games: Lots of simple games, ideal for idle minutes on trains
NGage storage: MMC, dismantle to insert
P505i storage: mini-SD included in price, remove small rubber cover to access
NGage camera: Err...
P505i camera: 310,000 pixels (wife has 1Mpix+), two lenses
NGage audio: Polyphonic
P505i audio: 48 voices
NGage case design: Bloody stupid
P505i case design: Like a phone
NGage users: 500 or so
P505i users: Over 1 million if you count the other 505i models
NGage price: 150 to 400 euros
P505i price: about 100 to 200 euros
To change games I have to nearly disassemble my entire phone to change it? And I'm supposed to do this on a bus or a train? This is an idea that shouldn't have made it past lunch!!!
This is a product that shows Version 1.0 - They better have 2.0 on the way because they've got 2-3 months before the developers are going to jump ship.
What they've done is found a great way to "Dis-NGage" their entire prospective market. I have a cell phone, I have a GBA - I'd love an excuse to have my gba with me all day -
But an NGage is no GBA.
You have to be kidding right? Having no sales would have been as expected. Have any sales would be just plain lucky. Disappointing is not an outcome they should have been expecting at all. I hope these outlets selling the N-Gage are selling them on consignment.
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
N gauge is perfect for setting around the christmas tree.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
and there was a teaser poster campaign.
The Advertising line is show some crappy venue and add the tag line "here's where I got killed" or "here's where I got my revenge" to show off the multi-player bluetooth aspect.
They feature no actual game footage iirc.
Probably because Tomb Raider on your phone isn't going to make anyone part with their cash.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
...at $15 dollars, just like the Virtual Boy.
The ______ Agenda
Actually, Game Informer did a head-to-head comparison with a taco supreme. Citing a lack of final hardware, they declined to declare a winner... but the taco looked like it was coming out on top.
The ______ Agenda
The only thing disappointing about these figures is the fact that they've even sold 500. One or two would be excusable, but there really can't be 500 people stupid enough to actually want one of these AND that have the money to purchase one.
--Moo.
I live in Dublin (admittedly, not in the UK, but mighty close geographically) and I've recently seen adverts for the n-Gage at bus stops, etc. But I haven't a clue what it's about. I think Nokia's done a dreadful job raising awareness of what the thing is, and why I might want it.
Yeah, I never would've guessed they'd sell that much! Nokia Tacos Takeover Shameless self plug
I recently bought a GBA SP, just before N-Gage was launched in the UK.
For a while, I wondered whether I'd made the right decision. I still haven't seen the N-Gage running any games, so I can't really comment on my first hand view of what the quality is like.
I won't be buying one though. Why? A few reasons:
- the UK ad campaign is terrible. They are selling it as a "lifestlye" item and, in my experience, gamers hate that shiat - at least, I do;
- the design is pretty awful looks wise;
- I have a mobile phone already and don't need another one;
- the library of launch titles is pretty weak - there's no game comparable to SMB, Metroid, Tactics Ogre, Zelda, etc. to make it a must-have, like the GBA; and
- it's being sold in phone shops. I would rather chew my own arm off than voluntary walk into a mobile phone shop to buy a games console, portable or not.
It's really disappointing that it isn't a whole lot better - and it needs to be as the only people who are going to buy it are gamers. Nobody would choose an N-Gage over a standard mobile handset if all they wanted was a phone. The cost alone is prohibitive (unless you take out a airtime contract with the purchase).
The GBA is good, but it would be really nice to see some real innovation in the handheld market. Perhaps we'll have to wait for the PSP.
I'd really like to see a handheld with a bigger screen, even if it means battery life goes down. I can intermittently use my GBA SP for 3-4 days before needing to recharge it. I'd be happy to take something that needed recharging daily, and get a better visual experience.