N-Gage not n-ticing N-glish gamers

Despite mixed reviews, Nokia has been promoting the launch of the N-Gage, trumpeting in one release that the cell phone/game console is now available in 30,000 stores worldwide.

Presumably, a good chunk of those stores are in the mobile-phone-mad United Kingdom (population: 59.2 million). N-Gage sales in the UK, though, have not been good.

According to the sales-data company Chart Track, fewer than 500 N-Gage units were purchased in British video game retailers in its first week on the market. The report went on to say that the Game Boy Advance outsold the N-Gage at a rate of 30 to 1. Also, no N-Gage title was in the top 40 games sold in the UK that week.

While certainly not good, the UK sales figures aren't as bad as they might seem. Chart Track's figures do not include N-Gage sales from mobile phone stores where the new game console and other Nokia products are sold. However, they do indicate that when British gamers shop at game stores, they are not particularly n-clined to buy the N-Gage.