Nokia N-Gaging digital distribution

Nokia N-Gage owners probably aren't parading their handhelds around town much these days, as getting anything to show off on the system is becoming harder and harder. As Sony's PlayStation Portable and Nintendo's DS have swallowed most of the market share, the catalog of games available for the hybrid cell phone/handheld has dried up.

A quick search on the Web sites of major online retailers Amazon.com and EBGames.com shows very few N-Gage games available, and those that are available are at least a year old and retail for $2.99--a far cry from their original $35 sticker prices.

However, there is one place that N-Gage owners can buy new games--the newly announced Nokia N-Gage online store. The Web site provides digital distribution of N-Gage titles that can be downloaded onto PCs and then transferred to the handheld. Games can be sampled for free, then purchased for 19.99 to 29.99 euros ($25 to $37), depending on the title, and transferred to an MMC card.

There are currently 10 games available from the store, including One, Pathway to Glory, and Mile High Pinball.

In case anyone was wondering, a statement from Nokia says that the company is still developing the N-Gage platform. The company has also said that future versions of its phones will be able to run N-Gage-quality games to "expand the N-Gage platform's rich connected multiplayer experience across a wide range of Nokia's multimedia devices."