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New N-Gage Confirmed for this Fall
njkid1 passed on a link to GameDaily's coverage of the new, confirmed, N-Gage. Nokia's ill-fated device is returning, and this time they're already touting some big names attached to the project. EA Mobile and Gameloft, along with other (unnamed) studios are slated to bring new games to the beleaguered handheld gaming appliance. What do you think about this? Will a new N-Gage be able to pull you away from your DS?
I'm pre-not-ordering so I can not-buy it first!
I'm surprised they'd keep throwing money at that disaster.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
New N-Gage Confirmed for the Fail.
I think it's a good prediction for its success though.
no
The original N-Gage was a failure. It combined a bad cell phone with a bad portable gaming system. Unless they have made some major upgrades, I doubt the next generation of N-Gage will do any better.
Modern cells phones are pretty powerful pieces of equipment and cellular networks have gotten a lot faster for data downloads. Why bother buying game cartridges for a dumb phone/game system when you can just download games to your Internet enabled smart phone?
this time they're already touting some big names attached to the project. EA Mobile and Gameloft, along with other (unnamed) studios are slated to bring new games to the beleaguered handheld gaming appliance.
Yeah, I heard they're going to have some smash hits, like Duke Nukem Forever.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
... have a DS, and the damn thing still won't pull me away from it.
I want a 120 character signature! Please can I have a 120 character signature? I really really want one! 120 characters!
Well, you know what they say. Loss is the new profit! Nokia to buy Nintendo in 5 years, paid for in bizarro dollars.
This smacks of someone holding onto this thing as their baby and not letting it die the death it not only deserves, but needs. The N-Gage has been plagued by numerous hardware problems (you have to take the battery out to change the game cartridge -- seriously WTF, mate?), not to mention a lack of, well, anything even with big names attached (Hell, it had a Tomb Raider game, and it still couldn't push units). My impression of the unit, however, is that it suffers from one major fault: teenage consumerism.
A huge segment of the market for cellphones and game consoles are teenagers. Teenagers do not have a lot of money (yet they debuted the device for something like 499 initially), they fawn over the latest shiny (especially cell phones, and so they are often getting new ones), but want to continue to play their games (so they have to luge around an outdated [by their standards] device in conjunction with their new shiny cellphone. They often don't have credit cards (and many do not have parents willing to put a contract on their credit bill) and yet you couldn't use prepaid phone cards with it. I mean, this device couldn't fail more if they purposefully tried!
I've always wondered why I can't plug a Gameboy Advance or PSP into my TV to use it as a portable console. I assume it's because both of those products' have console siblings. I find it intriguing that Nokia wants to put a TV-out on their new n-Gage. If they can come up with a decent design and line up an OK range of titles, I won't hold past blunders against them. (I wanted the n-Gage to succeed, but I thought Gizmondo looked OK also despite smelling the company's corruption all the way across the Atlantic)
HahaHAHaHaHA.
In order to do that, the new N-Gage would have to have two screens and touch sensitivity, and WiFi. But the next generation is supposed to simply be licensing/implementation of N-Gage into several phones, not a single model. I just don't see this happening, period. In fact I don't even see the WiFi thing happening, let alone the rest of it.
It would also have to be a worthy gaming platform in a technical sense, and I didn't get the idea that it was THAT in the last generation, either. Unless they're dramatically improving the platform, it has NO chance whatsoever. I mean these days you can run a pretty badass java midlet on your phone, if you have a fast enough phone anyway.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Regardless of whether you like the XBox or not, Microsoft has prroduced a platform which is viable for game development which is more than can be said about most companies which have entered the market.
Now if you look at how expensive it was for Microsoft to enter the market, and how Sony survived mainly because of Nintendo's and Sega's massive screw-ups, it should be obvious why it is foolish to try to enter the market on your own. Now, it would eliminate the purpose for Nokia to enter the market (to get access to licencing fees) but I suspect the best approach would be to combine efforts with Sony/Nintendo to produce a gaming system/phone; if you had a GBA/DS/PSP phone there would (probably) be far greater consumer interest in the product than a nokia game/phone.
(Just an aside from an Anonymous Coward... I didn't really find that my N-Gage pulled me away from my other versions of gaming, but rather fit itself into corners where I would've been deathly bored, as I didn't have my usual loadout of hardware. A quiet moment on a train, standing in line for movie tickets, unexpectly boring classes, that kind of thing.
:( brain tumors!))
(My favorite feature of it was the nice extra series 60 apps which I turned out to use more than its telephony abilities; the WirelessIRC mobile irc client (which I could dial words at about 40WPM on, with text prediction) and ReadM, the fast and good ebook reader.)
I'd have to respectfully disagree with the reviewer's claims that the QD was a better version; it didn't have the aac/mp3 stereo hardware decoder that original N-Gage did, and the hotswappable MMC slot didn't really make up for that missing USB port and having the antenna pressed up against your skull while using it. (
"N-Gage has been plagued by numerous hardware problems (you have to take the battery out to change the game cartridge -- seriously WTF, mate?), "
I can't speak for the original phone, but the NGage-QD (the newest one) used games cards that slide in the side. It isn't under the battery at all. I bought it because it was a cheap bluetooth phone at the time. It's great for games, but horrible as a phone. It is unconfortable against the ear and the earpiece sound isn't nearly loud enough.
Objectivity.
No way! Never! It isn't possible! (probably cause I don't have a DS!)
The government can't save you.
Nintendo GameCube with Game Boy Player plays almost all GBA games. I would suspect that the PSP can't output to the TV for the same reason that GBA Video titles freeze intentionally on the Game Boy Player: licensors of audiovisual works don't want you copying GBA Video titles onto VHS tapes and selling them.
Am I the only one who sees "N-Gage" and thinks "N Gauge" as in model railroading?
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
You can't "run a pretty badass java midlet" if your mobile phone network operator doesn't allow the use of code not signed by the network operator. (Such restrictions are more common in North America than in Europe.) Good-bye shareware. Good-bye hobby development.
It's not that someone couldn't develop a portable console that could compete with the Nintendo DS. It's that nobody seems to have the sense to do it right. Nokia doesn't have a history in game development, which is a huge deficiency if they intend on entering the console market. If they could establish a tight-knit relationship with some developer that may help, but that's very unlikely.
The fact that Nokia has mentioned they're looking to EA Mobile and Gameloft to develop games indicates that the N-Gage is already doomed. Let's ignore for a minute the fact that EA generally develops crap. Gameloft makes some good-looking games, but they don't always play well and too much of their line-up consists of licenses. The biggest issue here is that these companies both have experience with mobile phone game development. I doubt they have the skill set necessary to develop games on the level of what's seen for the DS or PSP. No one is likely to see the N-Gage as anything other than an overgrown mobile phone.
So Nokia will likely cram the N-Gage full of features. They'll give it the usual overdone Nokia design treatment that looks outdated within a weak. It won't appeal to their target and will likely confuse everyone else.
The problem ultimately is that the N-Gage is driven by a desire to cash in on what looks like a burgeoning market. It's driven by money. If their motivation was to do something that was truly compelling, if they had a goal of outdoing the competition I'd say they might have a chance. But instead, they're just doing what anyone else might have done, offering nothing new, and hoping buy on to this thing.
"Will a new N-Gage be able to pull you away from your DS?"
No, but what I'm wondering is if it can surpass the PSP. Who's the biggest loser?
Nokia is a very profitable cell phone company. They can afford to take several cracks at this to get it right. Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and bring something new to the market. They do make pretty good phones.
i have no idea why this is being reported now. i've seen the new n-gage already, in fact, i saw it well over 6 months ago at e3 when they first unveiled it. Nokia had a large lounge where you could sit and play the new n-gage(s) (and the old one, ha), although i rarely ever saw anyone actually PLAYING the damn thing. contrary to popular belief, the new n-gage actually looks quite cool. they are a number of different models, but they actually look like cell phones this time around and have graphics that are better than the DS's but not quite as good as the PSP's. i think if they market it as a phone with advanced gaming capabilities this time rather than a gaming system that can also be a phone the n-gage can achieve some level of success.
But does it feature sidetalkin
Is this an announcement or a threat? I've seen wars started over less.
Do the tools work on IS-95/IS-2000 (aka "CDMA") phones as well? And do they work on phones sold with a prepaid plan, or do I need to agree to pay $720 over 24 monthly installments? And how much does the cable used with the tools cost?
But seriously, who is that actually a problem for? I know it's not an issue on T-Mobile or Edge Wireless.It's a problem for people who are on the "CDMA" network of Sprint or Verizon because they get unreliable coverage from the GSM network of Cin^H^H^H AT&T or T-Mobile in the locations where they use the phone.
FATHER:
Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands.
God spoke to me.
Nintendo has in the past licensing their technology to 3rd parties like the Twin Famicom (made by sharp) the iQue or more recently the Panasonic Q. Why doesnt some smart phone manufacturer license the tech from the GBA and put that on a phone. I have to admit if I was looking for a phone with gaming capability I would surely take one with literally thousands of games in its library over one that has a chance of support for maybe a dozen games.
I've seen enough episodes of X-Play to see "N-Gage" and think of their version of Patrick Stewart.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Whoa! I don't know about the DS, but this might be even cooler than the Gizmondo!
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
There will be no new N-Gage phone. All future Nokia smartphones will however be compatible with the future N-Gage platform (it may not even end up being called N-Gage).
a ge_Future_Watch_site_launc.php.
So, you won't have to own a special N-Gage phone. Any Nokia smartphone will be able to play these games. Bear in mind that Nokia sold 9 million (if memory serves) smartphones is 2005 alone. And some of the phones that are already being sold (such as the Nokia N93) will be able to play these games.
MP3-player sales are dropping, because everybody already has a cell phone that can play MP3s. Will the same happen to the PSP and Nintendo DS? Unlikely, but it's an interesting thought.
For more information: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/4685_N-G
-Enfors-
One of the issues I think NGage had was that it had a cell phone screen on a gaming device. Portrait is great for information displays but not so great for gaming. My brother had one and I couldn't stand playing most of the games because it was too hard to see anything.
I remember thinking, "Oh, cool, Tomb Raider." Except it was a pain to play since I couldn't get a good look at my surroundings without facing the direction. He also had a Sonic game. You could either have bars on the top and bottom (like a letterbox movie) or play the game with the screen rotated. Sounds real comfortable, you know, navigating with a controller with a hand above the screen and jumping with controls under the screen.
The big disappointment for him was the lack of shooter games. It would have been the perfect platform for it. These are action oriented low-involvement games (if you've got a save feature) that would have separated themselves from the rest of the cell phone game world... which is a GOOD thing.
All those giants behind a new NGage... I'll bet we still won't even get 1943. T-T
More Twoson than Cupertino
I wonder why Nokia would attempt to enter this market again. It failed pretty badly last time. What kind of idiot buys this stupid crap? Oh... that would be you. :/
Why would you keep it? Taking it back sends a message to the company. It also helps other consumers from making the same mistake when they take the thing off the shelves.
I bought it because I collect handhelds. When I bought it, it had already failed. It cost me about 100US$. But thanks for needlessly insulting me, anyway.
I have low self esteem, so needlessly insulting people on the internet is the only thing that makes me feel good about myself. Meh. I guess it's a better hobby than buying junk.