N-Gage Endures As First-Party Games Readied

Thanks to GamesAreFun for its round-up of updated news relating to Nokia's N-Gage 'mobile game deck'. According to the piece: "Inconsistent sales in some areas have prompted GameStop to shift their [U.S.-based] N-Gage inventory; while the N-Gage is being pulled from 450 GameStop locations, this inventory will be moved to locations where sales have been stronger for Nokia's unit." However, it seems Nokia "remains positive about their future in the game industry", and Nokia's Ilkka Raiskinen argues: "We are getting invaluable feedback... Our hardware cycles are different to what the games business is used to and our strategy is clearly to have more devices." This has led some to believe more N-Gage-like hardware may debut soon, and in the interim, GameSpy has previews of Ashen and of Operation Shadow, two original, first-party published N-Gage titles.

Comments

Target

[nicksthings]

Not only has Gamestop "shifted" it's N-Gage inventory, but Target stores have apparently stopped selling N-Gage units altogether. Or at least they will be (I haven't been to a Target since I was given this info). Word is all that stuff will be going back to Nokia on their dime. Sounds expensive.

If N-Gage Gets Replaced....

[cableshaft]

I don't really care. I'm digging mine. I haven't owned a portable device I could develop games for since the TI-86. It feels like junior high all over again :). And this time I can play NES and Arcade games too, while I'm learning how to develop for the device.