N-Gage reaches million mark

Nokia announced today that it has shipped 1 million N-Gages to retail locations around the globe. This figure represents the cumulative ship-in tally of the N-Gage and the N-Gage QD, not sales.

“Thanks to the enthusiastic consumer response to the N-Gage QD and [to] our latest titles, we’re confident that our success…will continue,” stated Ilkka Raiskinen in a statement. Nokia’s senior vice president of games then went on to celebrate the indoctrination of more than 100,000 Arena members worldwide, asserting that the success of the service “shows that gamers are inspired to connect and compete with other mobile gamers from around the globe.”

Nokia’s N-Gage Arena allows subscribers to compete in N-Gage games via GPRS multiplayer or online leaderboards. Additionally, the service is used as a vehicle for gaming contests and promotions.

A Nokia spokesperson elaborated on the sales figures, telling GameSpot, "This is the number that we've sold to our distributors and retailers, It's hard to give an exact number that are in consumers hands, but I can say that right now there is very little inventory in the sales channels and we are seeing steady reorders from our retail partners."

Nokia hopes to follow up on these successes with a strong holiday lineup of games, including the long-awaited WWII RTS Pathway to Glory and the fantasy MMOG Pocket Kingdom.

In North America, the QD is now available for Cingular and AT&T Wireless subscribers as well as T-Mobile customers.