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Strong N-Gage Launch Claimed, Figures Disagree
Khyl'Dran writes "According to Gamesindustry.biz, "The first official statement from Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia on the launch of its N-Gage game deck has claimed that the device is sold out at many retailers following a 'very positive' consumer response." However, 1UP have posted US sales figures which reveal "...less than 5,000 units of Nokia N-Gage hardware were sold in the United States in the system's first week of release", after reported sales of 500 units in the UK following launch, and 1UP argue a "...rough comparison [point] would be to the Game Boy Advance, which sold 540,000 units in its first week of availability in the United States."
I don't mean to flame or anything, but I really can't find that this is news. Horrible control, bad press, there was no way for Nokia to get this thing to sell.
This must be one of the most succesfull product launches since the Ford Edsel.
wow, i'm so confused that the crap hardware, and terrible execution of the idea led to a lack in hardware sales? someone please explain!
"Martha Stewart can lick my Scrotum......do i have a scrotum?" -- Sharon Osbourne
As the article mentions, the Atari Jaguar did almost exactly as well during its first week, and I think the comparison is apt. :-)
Many retailers are out of ngages. They were smart enough not to buy it in the first place anyway!
Notice Nokia gave no numbers, so it is possible their initial shipment was very low.
Odds are, the "coolness" of the device might get some sales from people unaware of the problems, just to result in returns days later.
So if a store didn't buy/request any N-Game units in the first place, does that store count as "sold out"?
I was in EB today. The guy said they have only sold 1 and it came back after 2 days.
The real reason is this.
...followed by a devastating failure to attract any attention on Slashdot...
You know, since people are really against the nGage-- and with good reason, as it's an unplayable piece of garbage-- the easiest, fastest, and most efficient way to get it off the market would be to code up a Game Boy Color emulator for it and release it into the wild with a "(c) 2003 Nokia" line in there somewhere. Nintendo would be all over that in a heartbeat...
On a completely unrelated note, the phrase "ngage sucks" or some variant has showed up in my page's search string reports more times than I care to count.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
And I'm sure that a significant portion of those NGages were bought by people who work for video game publications because they kinda had to buy one in order to tell the world how shitty they are.
Perhaps they just have really low expencetions
Likewise no kids going to buy it too much money, nor is a parent going to buy it, more expensive than all 4 systems combined.
you still have to buy games
and while the graphics are supposedly better (i dont see it) you can just look at Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories for the Gameboy advance to see that developers for that system have yet to even use a tenth of its potential (the game has shown to be just slightly lower in quality than the PS2 original!!!!)
in closing Nokia thought they had a bombshell that would blow away the gameboy but in actuallity it was a little to much in cost, a little too few in features, a little too late.
they will be lucky if they can keep their head above water now.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
I'll never get tired of company PR thinking they can lie their way to success.
.01% of your estimated number launch units? "Sold out baby! We have the greatest device ever! No one wants to be without it!" ... I'm wrong, I do grow tired of it. Same BS again and again. But for once it's nice to see a company take it in the ass for this. It's true that people really will buy anything, because people are pretty damn stupid. But this just goes to show that some companies are just as stupid as well.
Got a crappy product? Nonsense! "World leading technology!"
Have a major shortcoming or flawed design? "It's a feature, you fools!"
Gaining absolutely no consumer enthusiasm prior to new product launch? "Gamers are excited everywhere! No one can wait!"
Only selling
Flawed though the N-Gage is, these figures don't mean very much. In the UK, cellphones are subsidised by the telecoms companies - it's much cheaper to buy one as part of a monthly contract than to own the hardware outright. People who want an N-Gage will mostly be upgrading from existing contract phones, so damning on the basis of purchase figures is a bit hasty.
Not that I think the N-Gage is going to be successful - sounds like it's doomed by the portrait screen, awkward cartridge changing and lack of usefulness as a phone. But at 49 quid on some contracts, a lot of people will be tempted to get one as a games console and keep their SIM card in an old handset. (Can you play games and use the Bluetooth without a SIM?)
I love the idea of Bluetooth multiplayer. If Nokia have screwed it up this time, it's not going to be long before somebody gets it right.
The P.A. guys sure called this one...
.. that Nokia's R&D department didn't notice the glaring flaws that make this an undesirable machine while it was in development.
They can either scrap it at this point, release a new model that plays the same games, or make their later phones so they can accept the games.
Frankly, I'd try a version 2 of the phone. It's not an entirely bad idea, but man they should have known better in a lot of places.
"Derp de derp."
...just what Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf is up to. Looks like the ex-iraqi information minister is working for the nokia PR departemnt.
It's sad when choosing an installation directory on your own qualifies you as an "advanced user."
I work at a Target store in WA state. We sell the Nokia N-Gage. Well actually, "sell" isn't the right word. We have them available for sale. Since it's debut, we haven't sold a single one. Only two people have even inquired about them: a 10-year-old kid who was only interested in it for it's .mp3 playback ability, and another kid whose mother didn't want to spend $300 on something that small.
I think that everyone here knows the downward trajectory that this item is about to take.
:) Several websites praising this great product that the sweaty masses didn't appreciate will appear, as will several hacks and hardware mods.
They'll cut the price in the next few weeks to $199, or offer a rebate to get it to that price. It'll still fail to sell, but they'll wait for the Xmas rush to find that out.
Since so many gamers spend the Xmas dollars in January, they'll cut it to $99. You'll get it for free with a 1 year contract from Voicestream and Cingular, too.
By next summer, it'll be $49 from compgeeks.com and other liquidators, and sell out immediately
Jonathan
Will it do better or worse than the Virtual Boy?
SAILING MISHAP
...it was worse than I orgininally planned it to be. Sonic-N or whatever it's called is just a Sonic Advance ripoff, maybe some differences but not many for the ten minutes I played it. The thing has the worst controls ever, and if you aren't watching where you're playing your hand you're going to start hitting buttons that don't control the game. It's poorly designed, /probably/ hogs batteries although I can't confirm that, and just...ugh.
the Political Inquirer
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
but my chest hurts from my inability to stop laughing at the sheer incompitence of corporate America/Finland when it comes to making a 'cool' product. I think penny arcade got it perfectly right here.
The Gameboy has been around longer than most gamers, I can't see why people are always comparing the N-Gage with the Gameboy (Advance SP). All these comparisons seem weak in light of the fact that most retailers simply shun the N-Gage. (Two posters and a binder with a couple pages of infomation is weak comparing to a wall of Gameboy displays, posters, and prop-up displays)
When you only have one for sale, you tend to sell out. Atleast the could be honest about its failure like Sega was or they can take the Nintendo route and forget they ever made it.
The only reason the GBA didn't sell more than half a million units during launch week was because that was all that Nintendo had shipped!
ok ok ok.
5,000 units vs 540,000 units. not a fair comparison for a few reasons... 1)Price - not only is the unit itself more expensive, but to get it's full functionality (remember, it is a phone) you have to have add service to a cellular carrier. How many 13 year olds out there have cell phones and/or are going to be able to convince their parents to get them one they can play the latest greatest games on? Few. It's going to take longer for the older, cell toting gamers to catch on. The kids always want it here, now, this weekend, "I've been saving my allowance" whereas the older buyers are wondering if in three months there's going to be a price break.
2)Nintendo had a loyal following already, riding the sucess of Gameboy (and Gamegirl) and Gameboy Color. The Gameboy idea had already struck home, years ago. It was practially a household name before it sold 540,000 units in its first week. Whereas the Ngauge or whatever its called (see, i don't even remember how to spell the thing)is a completely new idea. Care to pull up figures on how well the Original Game Boy sold during it's debut week? Not 540,000 units. I don't think this is going to replace the Gameboy as favorite handheld ever, but don't write it off just yet.
For a cool phone, check out the Danger hiptop. Built in SSH client lets you run emacs on your phone! Seriously. Or log in and tweak your web server. Anything. Surf the web. And I mean the real web. Get email from multiple POP3 accounts.
Games? Yeah, it has those too. And a full keyboard which is quite useable.
I saw an N-Gage display at my local Gamestop store today and couldn't help playing with it. It had two N-Gage devices, which I was able to link together via the built-in Bluetooth (either they didn't come connected, or someone fudged it up).
There was only a single game installed - some racing game (I guess - I never actually got it past the main menu) called Pandemonium. It had a multiplayer mode, but when I tried to host a multiplayer game on either N-Gage, the game would exit back to the games list.
I guess it's got some bugs that need to be worked out. I was never interested in it anyways - I'd rather have a cell and a GBA SP.
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
Hmm.. I think is possible to do a pretty efficient demographic study on "not very smart people/magazine writters/not very tech savy tech geeks" with money to burn, simply by reading Ngage sales numbers.
I wonder if they got their emails or addresses, when they got their device? if they did they will be receiving an email or phone call like "Hello proud custommer! do you want to be happy? now you can! to reach happiness send $100 to evergreen terrace 1242 Springfield USA the power is yours"
Re:Obligatory Penny Arcade Advertisement
.. sold during firs 2 weeks.
Nokia yesterday claimed to have sold 400 000 units to date. If so then it blows away the doubters.
ook ook