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The N-Gage Will Rise Again
The New York Times has an article up this week talking about Nokia's third attempt to get their N-Gage brand into the minds of gamers. This time it's a service, not a device, and the company is betting that branding mobile games will be a better tactic than their previous attempts. "The Ideo and Nokia executives concluded that users mainly want to play against their friends and, at the very least, they want to know the skill level of their opponents. As a result, the new N-Gage permits users to see what games their friends have on their phones and whether they are online. They can also see how many points a person has earned in the game, as well as how much time they devote to solitary play versus group play. The researchers also asked players what their greatest frustrations were. High on the list was buying a game that turned out to be disappointing. In the new N-Gage service, customers will be able to sample games free before buying them. The selection will lean toward the casual side of gaming, with soccer and fishing titles and the popular puzzle game Bejeweled, among others. Nokia has not yet discussed prices."
I think that the N-Gage brand is already firmly entrenched in the minds of gamers, but for all of the wrong reasons. I know that as soon as I read the title, the first thing that came into my mind was "not again". Anyone who bought an N-Gage when they first came out is probably still very bitter about how that all went down, and most people, I'd venture, will at least remember what a mess the whole thing was.
I don't know why Nokia is so dedicated to the brand, but they seem determined to get every cent possible out of it. Though at this point, I think they might as well just start trying to sell rebranded industrial waste as a child's toy. It seems to work pretty well for most places...
Request: ECM unit, 1000 km fullerene cable, 1 tactical nuclear weapon. Reason: Birthday party for foreign dignitary.
To rise again, wouldn't it had to have risen once before?
They *did* fix that problem, you know? The N-Gage QD added an actual card slot, did away with side-talkin', smoothed out the look, and dropped the price substantially. (I've heard of several people who managed to be at the right place at the right time to get their N-Gages for almost nothing.)
The real problem is that the concept was ill-advised to begin with. There's no real evidence to suggest that consumers want their gaming devices combined with their cell phones. Even worse, the portable gaming market has a high percentage of younger adults and children who are even less interested in getting an overpriced phone for gaming. To top things off, the N-Gage was graphically underpowered from day #1. It wasn't quite as bad as the Game.com (pronounced "Game Comm"), but games like Tomb Raider pushed its 3D capabilities to the limit. Nokia also failed to follow up with a more powerful device after the introduction of the Nintendo DS.
As if things weren't bad enough, Nokia never knew how to market the thing. They kept trying to sell it as a phone rather than a game system. (On the few rare occasions that they even promoted it.) In result, the market ignored them.
Nokia should really just stop with the N-Gage and look at improving the controls on regular phones instead. Cell phone gaming is absolutely horrendous at the moment, yet no one in the market seems to be doing anything to fix it. Go figure.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
"..attempt to get their N-Gage brand into the minds of gamers... with soccer and fishing titles and the popular puzzle game Bejeweled, among others."
Gamers rejoice! Finally the games we've been waiting for!