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N-Gage to game again

Nokia to launch new free-to-try games service on a range of its mobile phones in November, no "sidetalkin'" required.

The Nokia N81.

The Nokia N81.

Mobile-phone maker Nokia has revealed plans to reengage N-Gage, a gaming platform that it originally launched in 2003. The first N-Gage was a specially designed combination of a mobile phone and a handheld game system, although the latest incarnation of the brand finds itself on a variety of newer Nokia phones, rather than dedicated hardware.

The new N-Gage service will be launched globally in November, and on release will be compatible with the Nokia N73, N81, N81 8GB, N93, N93i, N95, and N95 8GB. Users will be able to download N-Gage via their PC or mobile, and beginning in November the service will come preloaded on those phone models.

Once the N-Gage software has been installed, gamers can browse and try for free any game compatible with their handset. Full games can then be downloaded for between 6 and 10 euros (£4-7, $8-14), and can be bought using a credit card or added to the phone bill. Games to be available include mobile versions of The Sims 2: Pets, Tetris, FIFA 08, and Crash Bandicoot.

There were rumours back in February that the new N-Gage would be revealed at GDC, although those rumours proved to be incorrect.

The first N-Gage handset received an onslaught of criticism. The ill-fated system was mocked for having a design that meant users had to hold the phone sideways in order to make and receive phone calls.

The N-Gage QD, a redesigned model that allowed for more traditional front-talking, followed in 2004, although the launch of the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable shortly after seemed to deliver the final nail to its plastic coffin.

124 Comments

  • atoboleski

    Posted Nov 26, 2007 9:55 am GMT

    I think it's brilliant. The video game industry is one of the fastest growing and most profitable out there. Just like the unreal engine tech is the best for building console game, the n-gage platform is the best platform for games on cell phones. If all they are doing is incorporating it into their existing phones, which it looks like they are, they can't go wrong. The profit will be in the game sales and after market gear vs. the actual phone

  • link631

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 9:32 am GMT

    a phone is to call!

  • mashom

    Posted Nov 3, 2007 12:24 pm GMT

    i hope this work fine with n-gage coming back to gaming.

  • Maester-Slayer

    Posted Sep 25, 2007 10:04 am GMT

    This isn't goign to work, Its probably just Java games again. Which will work on any phone, so Why would I use an N-Gage?

  • iiswheeler

    Posted Sep 1, 2007 3:32 pm GMT

    http://www.sidetalkin.com/page-qd.html

  • playstation_wii

    Posted Aug 31, 2007 5:08 pm GMT

    This will fail again. The screen of a cell phone is way to small to play games like fifa. They're just going to make cell phone games basically, no new system.

  • StarDust666

    Posted Aug 31, 2007 4:43 am GMT

    N-Gage.... what the Hell is it?! games on mobiles... ok Nokia, is the joke over yet?

  • ctg867

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 4:27 pm GMT

    Hey, give them a break. This is smart. Mobile gaming is huge and makes a lot of money, though the N-Gage was a failure, because it failed as a phone, and wasn't a great game player. Now, the N-Gage software will run on good phones, which will accommodate mobile gaming, but the phones won't be made with ONLY games in mind.

  • fitch19

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 2:31 pm GMT

    Dear Nokia,

    Give up.

    However, if you still wish to throw money away, I will gladly take it. Love,
    Your friends at Gamespot

  • AvIdGaMeR444

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 1:45 pm GMT

    N-Gage = beating a dead horse again and again.

  • -SiiLeNCE-

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 9:34 am GMT

    it looks pretty cool; for a phone anyways. i wouldn't buy it for games alone.

  • LIKETOPLAYGAMES

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 9:15 am GMT

    I just absolutely can't wait...I wish you could type in a sarcastic tone...

  • Mooshu92887

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 8:40 am GMT

    MOBILE GAMES ARE THE FUTURE! SRSLY!

  • Osirex2

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 8:14 am GMT

    i hate this phones that include mp3 and stuff but now games. this is ridiculous. if i wanted a mobile game system i would just use my psp. if i wanted to hear my music that is why i bought my ipod.

  • kori911

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 7:55 am GMT

    Forget N-Gage where are my Zune games!

  • icy06

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 6:58 am GMT

    Playing Mobile games = fail.

  • ftjx

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 6:30 am GMT

    !!CONGRATULATION!! to all you N-gage fanboys

  • Reetesh

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 5:57 am GMT

    Rise of the living dead!

    In a completely different form that too.

  • BobbyDigitalPS3

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 5:30 am GMT

    Well it cost them almost nothing and its going on existing phones which are SO popular in Germany and stuff. Great for casual gamers that dont want an extra piece of hardware.

  • kappareign

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 3:40 am GMT

    theres just no way any mobile phone is going to compare to a DS or PSP... didnt they learn their lesson?

  • nemes1s3000

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 3:09 am GMT

    It's a great looking design, but god knows if it will succeed.

  • smoothn00dle

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 12:56 am GMT

    Nokia's biggest problem is they are no game company, don't have the contents and game consoles. Look at Sony E3 conference, GOW and MGS are coming to Sony mobile phone; PS3 is like a hub for their mobile devices where gamers can log in and out of PS3 using Wifi, download game, music and files. This bypass expensive 3G networking fees. ==============================================
    The demo of Sony phone interaction with PS3 @home. In one stroke, Sony annihilate Nokia game plan before they even started.
    ==============================================
    Nokia's thinking is like this time, they put N-gage as a software platform on exist mobile hardware. Cost Nokia almost nothing. Nokia think they can't loose. Good luck *v*

  • niteowl74

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 12:33 am GMT

    Loved my N-Gage and still use it. "Side talkin" doesn't bother me cause my hands are so big and I can access everything without looking at the screen. Had a smaller phone recently and was always afraid id drop the damn thing cause they're so small and it would be useless. N-Gage can take quite the pounding though. Doesn't sound like I'll be able to use my old games on these new phones.

  • black_ice23

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:14 pm GMT

    just another handheld for the DS to slaughter, sorry nokia myou make great phones but leave handheld and gaming in general to the big boys like Nintendo

  • yboucher

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:06 pm GMT

    Well, you guys just don't know how big the market is for mobile games. Go look at some financial reports for EA Mobile, Gameloft, and others. THEN try to come back here and say that it's useless, failing, and so on. It's ANYTHING BUT. As for those of you who don't know how to read, guess it has to be repeated again : N-Gage is now a SOFTWARE PLATFORM more akin to Xbox Live. NOT a HARDWARE DEVICE. Geez !!!!

  • GhostStalkerX1

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 9:43 pm GMT

    N-gage will fail miserably nokia...give it up and leave hand helds to the Pros.

  • BrendonSilver

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 8:26 pm GMT

    I'll keep playing the DS and PSP. Cell phones are awesome, and they CAN have really fun, good looking, well made games on them. But they shouldn't be handled this way. Games should be developed from the ground up to work, look, & play well on a phone. I hate the N-Gage. Nokia have made some good phones though, they just suck at putting games on them.

  • cheezlarson

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 8:08 pm GMT

    Woa, this is weird. I was just listening to the Hotspot where they were talking about how bad the N-gage was.

  • Bill900

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 8:07 pm GMT

    I feel soooo happy

  • RussianYulia17

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 8:05 pm GMT

    why???

  • SnuffDaddyNZ

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 7:49 pm GMT

    Because people dont look stupid using regular cell phones.....(you do).

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 6:53 pm GMT

    give it up nokia...

  • JonnyNemesis

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 6:23 pm GMT

    Aww, I wanted to be all sidetalkin'.

    Seriously, there's persistinant, and there's just retarded.

  • IC3_MAST3R

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 6:15 pm GMT

    Noooooooooo!

  • packernation31

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 5:15 pm GMT

    worthless

  • xgalacticax

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 5:09 pm GMT

    i still have the original ngage which i have replaced with the N95 but i have to say the ngage suffered from lack of creative developers and hence made me use it as nothing more than a phone and an mp3 player. i must say, its a very good mp3 player and even gives better sound than my N95. anyway, with a ps2, xbox, psp, ds and a wii already in my room and an xbox 360 to join them soon with halo 3, i doubt ill have time to pay any attention to ngage games in the near future. they should forget about it unless some decent games are coming for the ngage.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 5:08 pm GMT

    Face it. The N-Gage failed. Why can't you understand that Nokia?

  • Mysticgamer2000

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 3:23 pm GMT

    At least it looks like an I-phone ripoff rather than a taco this time.

  • rasterror

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 2:55 pm GMT

    At least it was better than the Nintendo Virtual Boy if anybody remembers that.

  • Pazy160

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 2:32 pm GMT

    I still say yay! Ngage was a great system. I will so get this!

  • shiben

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 1:55 pm GMT

    god ngage sucked! my thumbed acked for 1 week after i played a game for just 1 hour.

  • albedos_shadow

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 1:23 pm GMT

    This is the single funniest thing I have read... ever.

  • TheUnionFrag

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 12:32 pm GMT

    N-Gage failed because you had to keep an old phone in one of the fastest moving sub-industries of the technology world. This might succeed considering that a) their market share has increased and b) a LOT more people will have access to N-Gage stuff considering that new Nokias are very popular.

  • V-Nine

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 12:25 pm GMT

    Have to give them credit...they simply wont give up no matter how much this project fails.

  • screenblast

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 12:12 pm GMT

    The N-gage platform now is not what it was when Nokia attempted the gaming market with the original N-gage in 2003. The N-gage platform now is just that, a platform. It's a gaming service for compatible phones, namely the N-series. It's basically a better and more refined version of downloading and playing java games for any java enabled phone. The N81 mentioned in the article is a phone, not a new N-gage hardware. So if you're thinking that Nokia is just simply releasing a new n-gage, you're wrong.

  • MegaJynx

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:49 am GMT

    The concept could work, it's not requiring for users to by certain type of hardware (a la, the sidetalkin' N-gage), instead it creates a platform that can run on a variety of cell phones. Seeing almost everyone now has cell phones, it's a market that is already established and ready to go. My only gripe is that they are currently limiting the new N-gage platform to just Nokia devices, and I know that in the US, not too many people have or want Nokia cell phones right now; if they were to allow the platform to span across a variety of cell phones, it would probably be a slam dunk.

  • axia_777

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:44 am GMT

    ROFL!!!!!!!!! N-Gage? More like N-Crap. This will CRASH AND BURN just like the TWo other incarnations of N-Crap. Why does Nokia even try? It is just a fat waste of money. And to yboucher: N-Crap did horribly in Europe and Asia too, both times it came out. They did not buy just like we Americans did not buy it. It is crap, pure and simple.

  • VenDaler

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:41 am GMT

    sounds like a regular gaming service on a phone.

  • yboucher

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:37 am GMT

    To all of you saying "people don't even have those devices in the US", stop being so damn self-centered is what I say. Nokia (and any other company) is going where the money is. If Americans are too cheap to get high-end phones, they'll definitely be too cheap to buy into this new platform as well. You can bet that this is mostly targeted at Europe and Asia.

    Furthermore, it's no coincidence that this news is released at the end of GDC China (which i attended in the past 3 days). But hey, how come Gamespot didn't even MENTION there WAS a GDC taking place in China right now as we speak ? It's funny enough, considering Nokia, Sega, EA, Ubisoft, Epic, Nvidia, were all there, and I'm not even mentioning how much % of the games you play are actually coded and textured in China without you knowing it.

    But oh well, I guess it always all comes back to self-centeredness.

  • ahyumifan

    Posted Aug 29, 2007 11:32 am GMT

    they forgot to mention one important fact so let me rewrite the first sentence of this thread. "Mobile-phone maker Nokia has revealed plans to reengage N-Gage, a gaming platform that it originally launched in 2003, and fail miserably next year."

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