Monday, January 22, 2007
N-gage
The Nokia N-Gage was a mobile telephone and handheld game system based on the Nokia Series 60 platform. It started selling on October 7, 2003 . Attempting to lure gamers away from the Game Boy Advance by including cellphone functionality proved disastrous: the buttons, designed for a phone, were not well-suited for gaming, and when used as a phone, the original N-Gage was described as resembling a taco[1].
In 2005, Nokia announced that it would move its N-Gage games capabilities onto a series of smartphones. These devices and games will be available in 2007. See Future section for more details.
The N-Gage was not as commercially popular as Nokia estimated, having sold, by the end of 2005, less than half of the minimum six million units that had been Nokia's target for the end of 2004 despite asserting that they shipped one million N-Gages to retailers rather than consumers [2]. The poor sales performance can be attributed to the poor selection of games compared to its competitors and its cost at launch; it was more than twice as expensive as a Game Boy Advance SP on release day. Poor sales were also amplified by game media being standard MMC memory cards and as with most consoles piracy did become an issue.
Besides its gaming capabilities, the N-Gage was a Series 60 smartphone, running Symbian OS 6.1, with features similar to those of the Nokia 3650 (it does not have an integrated camera, however). It was able to run all Series 60 software, and Java MIDP applications as well. Its main CPU was an ARM Integrated (ARMI) compatible chip (ARM4T architecture) running at 104 MHz, the same as the Nokia 7650 and 3650 phones.
As of September 2005, it was estimated that Nokia had shipped more than two and a half million N-Gage game decks. The "N-Gage" brand name still had a poor reputation within the gaming media and the few consumers who recognized the N-Gage brand, due to the weakness of the system's first games and the original model's limitations. Many gamers were unaware of the later QD redesign and still consider the N-Gage as a joke (see Penny Arcade's N-Gage Strip). The situation has not improved either with the arrival of the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS handhelds. As of September 2005, Nokia had more than 50 games available for the system.
While the N-Gage didn't have any significant financial successes, it did have a handful of critical successes. Pocket Kingdom: wn the W0rld received a handful of glowing reviews when it was released, and Pathway to Glory was Nokia's first self-published success. These games came perhaps too late to have much effect in improving the perception of the N-Gage hardware itself in the eyes of consumers or press.
In January 2005, UK sales-tracking firm ChartTrack dropped the N-Gage from its regular ELSPA chart, commenting that "The N-Gage chart, though still produced, is of little interest to anyone. Sales of the machine and its software have failed to make any impact on the market at all." Although only directly reflective of the UK market, this was interpreted by some as a serious blow to the N-Gage as a viable gaming platform. Despite this, Nokia reaffirmed their commitment to the N-Gage as a platform, to the point where a new version of the hardware was rumored after GDC 2005.
February 2005 saw Nokia appoint Gerard Wiener, formerly of Sega Europe, to the post of Director and General Manager for Games at Nokia. Wiener steered Nokia away from looking at the N-Gage as primarily being a games console to "this is a mobile phone that is great for playing games on." This strategy, along with targeting niche franchises such as the table-top Warhammer 40,000 series, the Rifts RPG series, and the Settlers of Catan board game, has kept sales of the N-Gage healthy and gotten the platform a modicum of respect from some quarters of the media. It should be noted that this change coincided with the initial releases of the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.
The system continued to be sold in the Chinese and Indian markets.
The last game to be released in the US for the system was Civilization on March 2006 according to Metacritic.com. In November 2006 Nokia released its last game for the N-Gage QD. Combat racer Payload is still available to download for $19.65 from the Nokia Game Shop.
The original phone was considered to have a clumsy taco shaped design: to insert a game, users had to remove the phone's plastic cover and remove the battery compartment as the game slot was next to it. Another 'clumsy' feature was the speaker and microphone being located on the side edge of the phone. This often resulted in many to describe it as if one was talking into a "taco phone"[3] or "Sidetalking", where the user held the edge of the phone against the cheek in order to talk into it. The comfort factor of lengthy calls was also called into question. Despite the criticism, it is thought that the Sidetalking was there for a practical reason: if placed elsewhere, the screen would get in contact with the cheek and become smudged. However, almost all other cell phones have the screen against the cheek when the user is talking. Despite the questionable practicality, gamers were still unwilling to talk in such an awkward manner.
When considered from a video game point of view, the N-Gage was known for its unique screen orientation, a vertical one as opposed to a horizontal one (which is more popular with other handhelds). The reason for this was that the underlying operating system, Series 60, did not support horizontal orientations at that time (only supported since S60v3 ). Some felt this to be a negative feature, feeling that 'unconventional' does not necessarily mean improvement. Possibly due to this screen feature, as well as the public's luke-warm reception to the device, the game library was far from extensive. Despite this, the N-Gage did manage to garner some well known franchises such as Tomb Raider, Sonic, Rayman, Red Faction, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, among others.
From a cell phone standpoint, the N-gage also faced problems. Besides the unusual form factor, in the US it was initially sold primarily through specialty game outlets instead of through cell phone providers, which only called attention to its high pre-subsidy price, lack of games, and curious interface compared to other gaming devices (thanks to the Series 60 interface and unusual face button layout). Once cellphone retail outlets started carrying the phone, which didn't become a widespread practice in the US until well after the release of the N-Gage QD, it still faced problems. The N-Gage and its successor, the N-Gage QD, worked only on GSM networks, meaning that it is incompatible with the then-largest US cell service provider, Verizon Wireless, as well as all of Japan's cell networks. Where N-Gage was compatible with major cell phone networks its popularity varied. It was not well received in Canada and the UK for instance but received a much warmer reception in mainland Europe and in particular Asia where games on mobile phones were seen as much more desirable.
The original N-Gage though still had many benefits to developers and end-users. It had a large amount of executable RAM memory compared to Series 60 devices (the 66xx series) ; it has MP3 decoding in a dedicated hardware chip as Nokia 3300 (other Series 60 devices, including the N-Gage QD, rely on software decoding); it had stereo output from a standard 3.5mm jack plug; and it could be mounted as a USB Mass Storage device on any compatible computer without requiring the Nokia PC Connect software.
Hardware specifications: Weight: 137 g, dimensions: 134 x 70 x 20 mm.
In 2005, Nokia announced that it would move its N-Gage games capabilities onto a series of smartphones. These devices and games will be available in 2007. See Future section for more details.
History
In the late 1990s, gamers increasingly carried both mobile phones and handheld game systems. Nokia spotted an opportunity to combine these devices into one handy unit. They developed the N-Gage, a device that integrated these two devices. Instead of using cables, multiplayer gaming was accomplished with Bluetooth or the Internet (via the N-Gage Arena service). The N-Gage also included MP3 and Real Audio/Video playback and PDA-like features into the system.The N-Gage was not as commercially popular as Nokia estimated, having sold, by the end of 2005, less than half of the minimum six million units that had been Nokia's target for the end of 2004 despite asserting that they shipped one million N-Gages to retailers rather than consumers [2]. The poor sales performance can be attributed to the poor selection of games compared to its competitors and its cost at launch; it was more than twice as expensive as a Game Boy Advance SP on release day. Poor sales were also amplified by game media being standard MMC memory cards and as with most consoles piracy did become an issue.
Besides its gaming capabilities, the N-Gage was a Series 60 smartphone, running Symbian OS 6.1, with features similar to those of the Nokia 3650 (it does not have an integrated camera, however). It was able to run all Series 60 software, and Java MIDP applications as well. Its main CPU was an ARM Integrated (ARMI) compatible chip (ARM4T architecture) running at 104 MHz, the same as the Nokia 7650 and 3650 phones.
As of September 2005, it was estimated that Nokia had shipped more than two and a half million N-Gage game decks. The "N-Gage" brand name still had a poor reputation within the gaming media and the few consumers who recognized the N-Gage brand, due to the weakness of the system's first games and the original model's limitations. Many gamers were unaware of the later QD redesign and still consider the N-Gage as a joke (see Penny Arcade's N-Gage Strip). The situation has not improved either with the arrival of the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS handhelds. As of September 2005, Nokia had more than 50 games available for the system.
While the N-Gage didn't have any significant financial successes, it did have a handful of critical successes. Pocket Kingdom: wn the W0rld received a handful of glowing reviews when it was released, and Pathway to Glory was Nokia's first self-published success. These games came perhaps too late to have much effect in improving the perception of the N-Gage hardware itself in the eyes of consumers or press.
In January 2005, UK sales-tracking firm ChartTrack dropped the N-Gage from its regular ELSPA chart, commenting that "The N-Gage chart, though still produced, is of little interest to anyone. Sales of the machine and its software have failed to make any impact on the market at all." Although only directly reflective of the UK market, this was interpreted by some as a serious blow to the N-Gage as a viable gaming platform. Despite this, Nokia reaffirmed their commitment to the N-Gage as a platform, to the point where a new version of the hardware was rumored after GDC 2005.
February 2005 saw Nokia appoint Gerard Wiener, formerly of Sega Europe, to the post of Director and General Manager for Games at Nokia. Wiener steered Nokia away from looking at the N-Gage as primarily being a games console to "this is a mobile phone that is great for playing games on." This strategy, along with targeting niche franchises such as the table-top Warhammer 40,000 series, the Rifts RPG series, and the Settlers of Catan board game, has kept sales of the N-Gage healthy and gotten the platform a modicum of respect from some quarters of the media. It should be noted that this change coincided with the initial releases of the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.
The system continued to be sold in the Chinese and Indian markets.
The last game to be released in the US for the system was Civilization on March 2006 according to Metacritic.com. In November 2006 Nokia released its last game for the N-Gage QD. Combat racer Payload is still available to download for $19.65 from the Nokia Game Shop.
[edit] N-Gage Classic
The N-Gage browsing Wikipedia using the Opera browser
The original phone was considered to have a clumsy taco shaped design: to insert a game, users had to remove the phone's plastic cover and remove the battery compartment as the game slot was next to it. Another 'clumsy' feature was the speaker and microphone being located on the side edge of the phone. This often resulted in many to describe it as if one was talking into a "taco phone"[3] or "Sidetalking", where the user held the edge of the phone against the cheek in order to talk into it. The comfort factor of lengthy calls was also called into question. Despite the criticism, it is thought that the Sidetalking was there for a practical reason: if placed elsewhere, the screen would get in contact with the cheek and become smudged. However, almost all other cell phones have the screen against the cheek when the user is talking. Despite the questionable practicality, gamers were still unwilling to talk in such an awkward manner.
When considered from a video game point of view, the N-Gage was known for its unique screen orientation, a vertical one as opposed to a horizontal one (which is more popular with other handhelds). The reason for this was that the underlying operating system, Series 60, did not support horizontal orientations at that time (only supported since S60v3 ). Some felt this to be a negative feature, feeling that 'unconventional' does not necessarily mean improvement. Possibly due to this screen feature, as well as the public's luke-warm reception to the device, the game library was far from extensive. Despite this, the N-Gage did manage to garner some well known franchises such as Tomb Raider, Sonic, Rayman, Red Faction, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, among others.
From a cell phone standpoint, the N-gage also faced problems. Besides the unusual form factor, in the US it was initially sold primarily through specialty game outlets instead of through cell phone providers, which only called attention to its high pre-subsidy price, lack of games, and curious interface compared to other gaming devices (thanks to the Series 60 interface and unusual face button layout). Once cellphone retail outlets started carrying the phone, which didn't become a widespread practice in the US until well after the release of the N-Gage QD, it still faced problems. The N-Gage and its successor, the N-Gage QD, worked only on GSM networks, meaning that it is incompatible with the then-largest US cell service provider, Verizon Wireless, as well as all of Japan's cell networks. Where N-Gage was compatible with major cell phone networks its popularity varied. It was not well received in Canada and the UK for instance but received a much warmer reception in mainland Europe and in particular Asia where games on mobile phones were seen as much more desirable.
The original N-Gage though still had many benefits to developers and end-users. It had a large amount of executable RAM memory compared to Series 60 devices (the 66xx series) ; it has MP3 decoding in a dedicated hardware chip as Nokia 3300 (other Series 60 devices, including the N-Gage QD, rely on software decoding); it had stereo output from a standard 3.5mm jack plug; and it could be mounted as a USB Mass Storage device on any compatible computer without requiring the Nokia PC Connect software.
Hardware specifications: Weight: 137 g, dimensions: 134 x 70 x 20 mm.
