N-Gage 2 Announced

Team Rocket Elite writes "According to Gamesindustry.biz Nokia's at it again. They plan to make it more like a normal phone and to fix the issues with changing games and using it as a phone. From the article: 'Nokia is planning a major press event on April 14, which will probably feature the first look at the new device.'"

Comments

This soon?

[zaunuz]

Seems to me like thise is the shortest time every between the release of an original and a sequal. Around half a year if i remember correctly.

Wouldnt it be better of improving the old model (fixing issues related to switching games and such) instead of releasing a new version? I bet there are many out there who starts thinking "Damn, and I who just bought N-Gage 1..."

I take it for granted that they will make it backwardscompatible with the games from the current model, so that those who have bought the first one (and are happy with it) dont have to buy the new one as well.

Giving It A Chance

[BigDork1001]

I felt like washing my hands after trying the first N-Gage, I felt so dirty after touching such a piece of crap. But I am not gonna just curse this one to the rubbish pile because of N-Gage 1. Perhaps Nokia will learn from the long list of mistakes it made with N-Gage and actually produce a quality machine. Lets not judge until we actually see the thing

Re:A resounding "meh"

[DrSkwid]

I'd rather have a phone with a really kick-ass internet browser. WAP doesn't do anything for me.

Nokias (and probably all modern Symbians) ship with Opera Mobile, aint that kick ass enough ?

I pay $3 per Mb once I go over my first Mb so it's worthwhile buying a usb bluetooth hub and carry round the drivers on a 3" cd rom / usb stick so you can co-op connected PCs you encounter :)

Re:A resounding "meh"

[StocDred]

This is why eventually Nokia have a good chance of succeeding.

Until Nokia gets games of the same length, quality and polish, they have no chance of succeeding. Just because you're willing to settle, don't assume everyone else will.

But 3 charges me 1c/kb downloaded.

Hiptop. $20/month for unlimited kb (plus all other data services, IM, email, Terminal), and the web browser actually works and looks like a computer screen.

Shouldn't be too hard to fix

[Sentry21]

The N-gage (version 1) was a neat idea, but there were a few flaws. It was a game machine, a cellphone, and an MP3 player, but the cellphone aspect had some flaws. And the game aspect had some flaws. And you know what, the MP3 player aspect may have had some flaws, because I couldn't figure out how you'd get the damn things on there ('It can play MP3s? Really? How do you download them onto it?' 'I haven't got the foggiest idea.')

The N-Gage 2 needs a few things to wsucceed where its predecessor failed so spectacularly. It needs to change games easier. It needs to be simpler to control where possible (using a numpad to control is less than intuitive, so the manual is a necessity). It needs to not look stupid as a phone. Finally, it doesn't need, but should certainly have, hardware 3D acceleration. Keeping in mind we're dealing with basically PS1 ports, it shouldn't be that hard to make a tiny chip to do this, considering how light-years ahead of the PS2 3D acceleration has leaped.

Here's hoping.

--Dan

Nokia should've launched it at CeBIT 2004

[motown]

I don't get it. If Nokia was actually planning to announcce this N-Gage 2 this quarter, then why didn't they do so at the annual CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover this week? That would've been the ideal public launch platform. Nokia is one of the most popular exhibitors there every year.

In fact, Nokia was still marketing the N-Gage 1 really heavily at that fair.

This could very well be an April Fool's joke, if you ask me...

If Nokia was smart they'd partner with Tapwave

[Thag]

If Nokia was smart they'd partner with Tapwave, which has a killer platform in the Zodiac but not enough games. Nokia has games but not a good enough platform. They'd have to add cellphone functionality to the Zodiac, but that's a pretty straightforward problem.