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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 was in EB today. The guy said they have only sold 1 and it came back after 2 days.
it's not totally crap.
granted it's not totally awesome handheld gaming system, but that's not all it is.
but it's a nice 'connectivity device', for staying on irc while you're on move, reading slashdot & etc and the occasional game. i know few people who have bought it, but none who have bought it because of it's games! the reason they have bought it is that it is tha CHEAPEST series60 phone(gb/gbc/c64/spectrumzx emulators, irc, opera & etc make up a lot of it's usability), it's a whole lot cheaper than 3650 and only lacks the camera in utility department(which isn't that vital) has more mem and is more fresh. also it's the cheapest phone that has a mmc slot so it is practical to haul few tens of mbytes of stuff with you(books&etc). anyways, the irc&instant messaging aspect is something of a sleeper still.. once the teens start utilising it instead of sms messages these newer phones will start to fly(granted, these are available on almost any j2me capable phone, but believe me, they're much more usable on series60 phones than on the simpler phones that lack multitasking & etc).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
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.
Nokia would have down better to bundle it with an archive CD of compatible Series 60 software from somwhere like my-symbian.