N-Gage Opts To Give Away Lara, Not Bury Her

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a press release announcing Nokia has teamed up with Eidos to give away over 70,000 copies of the N-Gage version of Tomb Raider at this year's Sugar Bowl college football game. An Eidos spokesperson oddly opines: "Lara [Croft] has always been the number one video game heroine, and it's appropriate for her to be present at this year's Sugar Bowl where the national champion will be crowned", and insider suggestions that Nokia are pulling an Atari of sorts, in the face of allegedly limited demand for the N-Gage 'game deck' are, of course, fatuous. Meanwhile, GameSpy weighs in with some reasons to like the N-Gage, still suggesting: "Nokia's game deck has a lot going for it, and is in many ways superior to the system that has dominated the portable gaming market for over a decade: Nintendo's Game Boy (now Game Boy Advance)." Update: 01/02 16:46 GMT by S : According to a L.A Times/TribNet article, Tomb Raider on N-Gage sold around 3,000 copies in October, the last stats available to the reporter.

Comments

N-Gage...

[LordYUK]

I've been to EB games on no less than 10 occasions and tried to play the demo system that they have out(and not the same EB everytime either). Not once have I ever gotten a game to work on the damn thing. Its either stuck in some sort of limbo, or in some weird mode, or just plain off.

Now, the GB SP that they display ALWAYS works, and requires no real thought to demo for 20 seconds.

I dont want a handheld that has to be babysat to work. Chances are, if I'm on my GB, I am out and about, and catching 5 minutes of Mario or Pokemon or something. I dont want 3 of those minutes fumbling with the system trying to get it to work.

Thats what I have a PC gaming rig for... :)

Number one video game heroine? I think not!

[gabraham]

"Lara [Croft] has always been the number one video game heroine, and it's appropriate for her to be present at this year's Sugar Bowl where the national champion will be crowned"

I beg to differ: Samus (of the Metroid game series) has been around a lot longer than this goofball of a videogame heroine.

Re:Number one video game heroine? I think not!

[Fortunato_NC]

Yeah, but it's hard to masturbate when the object of your affection is covered by so much body armor. I think we're all aware of the fact that "number one video game heroine" is industry code for "number one character video game geeks imagine while jerking it".

I guess that the reason people forget about Samus is that the Metroid games were for consoles, hence no, "Nude 'Troid" mods for Metroid.

Of course, someone will prove me wrong and post a link to a modded Metroid where Samus is naked...

Re:Number one video game heroine? I think not!

[Anonymous Coward]

"As for Seamus Aran, the fact that she was almost never shown without her suit means that a lot of people don't see her as an heroine."

As, at the time, many people felt about Joan of Arc.

It's the monthly fee dammit!

[Mean_Nishka]

With the handheld game market being mostly kids, I am not surprised N-Gage has failed. Who wants to pay a monthly fee for a game machine? Sure you get phone service with it, but it's priced well beyond most mobile phones a parent would purchase for a kid. Not to mention the fact that the kids who do have phones are typically under contract and in 'family share' plans that don't easily allow for cutting a phone loose.

To make matters even more difficult for success: There is no CDMA version available!! Say what you want about CDMA but the two largest carriers with the most customers (Sprint and Verizon) use it. Nokia immediately severed millions of customers because the system won't work on the biggest networks.

Re:Enough Bashing Already

[XellDx]

Well, sure. As a phone it works. As a game system its a joke. And Nokia is trying to sell a game system, not a phone.