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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!
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.
Well, you know what they say. Loss is the new profit! Nokia to buy Nintendo in 5 years, paid for in bizarro dollars.
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.
Are you trying to 'dis n-gage'?
The opposite of progress is congress
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.
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.
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
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