Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Nokia's N-Gage Service To End After 2010

Posted by Soulskill on from the putting-a-suffering-dog-to-sleep dept.

negRo_slim writes "Who knew the N-Gage was still kicking? Well apparently it still is — however, it looks like 2010 will be the end. From the announcement: 'While the N-Gage.com site together with the N-Gage Arena and other community features will remain in operation throughout 2010, the Ovi Store will be the new central place for all the mobile games that Nokia and other publishers offer from this point forward. We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform.'"

7 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. No big deal by Tellarin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is not big news. It is more of a re-branding anyway.

    Nokia is just consolidating all their online offerings under the Ovi brand, in hopes of competing with efforts like Apple's App Store.

    Now there will be one single place for Nokia users to buy apps, be they games or regular apps. Ovi also covers maps, photo sharing...

    Again, nothing to see here. What they currently call the N-Gage platform is not that taco-phone, it is the online selling place and the networking support for games. The new ones will use the service under the new name. That's all.

    --
    -- SouNerd.com
    1. Re:No big deal by stephanruby · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, worldwide Nokia sells four times the number of smart-phones than Apple does. It still has an immense war chest of cash on-hand. And for every iPhone sold, Nokia gets a cut of it anyway. So it's not like Nokia is going away anytime soon.

  2. Not surprised by edxwelch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Only big companies were allowed to make N-Gage games, and that shut out the indies. Also, they tried to implement a very complicated platform on very slow and buggy devices (like the N73).
    Even EA critisied the N-gage platform: http://www.t3.com/news/nokia-n-gage-summit-ea-point-out-the-problems?=37094

  3. Re:You did in the first place? by Etherized · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, it's not N-Gage the device, it's N-Gage the platform.

    A while back - 2 years, maybe - Nokia decided that they wanted to seriously push gaming on S60 phones. I think this was even before the iPhone opened the app development floodgates, but I'm not sure.

    For some reason, they decided that the best name for this brand new gaming delivery platform would be... well, would be the same name as one of their most famous hardware failures of yesteryear. It would be akin to Apple calling the iPhone's browser "Cyberdog" or something equally ludicrous.

    At any rate, Nokia "soft launched" the new N-Gage throughout various markets, finally making it to the US only late last year (Nokia's really ignored the US market in recent years). Of course, by the time this project was starting to ramp up, the iPhone had already proven itself a capable gaming platform and... well, you can guess how well it went over.

    Don't worry, though, if you're a hardcore Nokia gamer. Everything that "N-Gage" the "platform" does will continue to exist, presumably, in "Ovi," which is their new unified branding for app delivery / social networking / whatever else. This is really more of a branding change than anything.

  4. If only.... by SoCalledNotion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now if only they can get the Ovi app store to stop being a clusterfuck. Seriously? Have you seen the damn website? It's horribly unorganized. They may have hundreds of apps available for your specific phone, but you can only view a handful at a time on the page. They really need to improve their interface if they want this Ovi crap to take off

    1. Re:If only.... by Tellarin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not only that, but some apps that would be compatible with your phone simply do not show up. It is slow as dead (at least it was last time I tried).

      Also, what with having to login again every time you click on a link to other part of Ovi? If you go from store to photos, maps, or any other subdomain, you have to login again. Even though it's the same credentials.

      I do think they finally moved in the right direction with the current efforts, but there is still a looooong way to go to make the Ovi "experience" anywhere near useful.

      --
      -- SouNerd.com
  5. Re:Product failure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually, N-Gage gaming "platform" emerged before Apple store, but they were (and still are) dumb enough not to use 10% of its potential. I hope they will score with their "Ovi" platform, whatever it is. So far it does a good job backing up contacts and calendar.
    And for the N-Gage "sidetalking" device -- even though it looks ridiculous to brainwashed by-standers, the concept of 'sidetalking' was one of the most innovative and common-sense in mobile industry -- it did look stupid, but with sidetalkin' you didn't have to grease the screen with the junk off your face. I own e-71 now and still regret it doesn't have the sidetalking feature, so I can use it without cleaning for the next 10 minutes. And for all the others who thing sidetalking was stupid - fuck you, have you ever tried it?! It was awesome! (at least for the user - who gives a fuck about the poseurs?!)