If only Nokia had the foresight in early 2008 to scrap the N-Gage idea and focus on an app storeWhile the gaming industry is busy celebrating today over the Golden Joysticks awards, there's one company which is looking at its gaming division with a rather sour expression - Nokia. They've never had much luck with their N-Gage gaming platform, whether it be N-Gage devices which launched in 2003, or just their N-Gage downloads store, but finally it looks like they're set to scrap it completely.
Speaking to Mobile Entertainment, Nokia's director of X-Media Solutions, Media & Games, Mark Ollila said “We are not releasing any more games on N-Gage, although the store - the ability to buy N-Gage games - will remain open until at least September 2010, and the N-Gage service will run through to the end of 2010."
Classic example of a corporation cutting off one of its arms, but letting it bleed slowly until all the blood's dried and crusty? Yes, but Nokia's quick to point out that "The message is that Ovi Store is the place to find and purchase mobile games. It's our one-stop shop for games."
While N-Gage has been struck off the list, Nokia still has high hopes for its Ovi app store. Facing impressive competition from the likes of Apple and Android, Nokia is still "committed to mobile gaming overall", but it's obvious that instead of rolling out a download store purely for games in early 2008, they should've looked further afield and launched Ovi there and then.
But how could they have had the foresight, when Apple's own App Store didn't launch until July of that year?
Available this month on N-Gage are new games including Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Mega Monsters and Powerboat Challenge, joining the fairly well-established titles Creatures of the Deep, The Sims' Busting Out, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.