Mobile phone and handheld game system
This article is about the smartphone. For the mobile gaming service, see N-Gage (service)
The N-Gage ♠ is a smartphone combining features of a mobile phone and a handheld game system developed by Nokia, announced on 4 ♠ November 2002 and released on 7 October 2003.[2] It runs the original Series 60 platform on Symbian OS v6.1.
N-Gage attempted ♠ to lure gamers away from the Game Boy Advance by including telephone functionality. This was unsuccessful, partly because the buttons, ♠ designed for a telephone, were not well-suited for gaming. The original N-Gage was described as resembling a taco, which led ♠ to its mocking nickname "taco phone".[4][7][8]
Nokia introduced the N-Gage QD in 2004 as a redesign of the original "Classic" N-Gage, ♠ fixing widely criticized issues and design problems. However, the new model was unable to make an impact, and with only ♠ 2 million units sold in its two years, the N-Gage and its QD model were a commercial failure, unable to ♠ challenge their Nintendo rival.[9]
The N-Gage was discontinued in February 2006, with Nokia moving its gaming capabilities onto selected Series 60 ♠ smartphones. This was announced as the N-Gage platform or "N-Gage 2.0" in 2007, carrying on the N-Gage name.[10][11]
Design [ edit ♠ ]
A disassembled N-Gage, showing each layer of hardware
The N-Gage is used in a wide physical form with a 2.1 inch ♠ TFT display in the centre with a D-pad to the left and numerical keys to the right, among other buttons. ♠ This kind of design was roughly used before by the Nokia 5510 mobile phone.
Instead of using cables, multiplayer gaming was ♠ accomplished with Bluetooth or the Internet (via the N-Gage Arena service). The N-Gage also included MP3 and Real Audio/Video playback ♠ and PDA-like features into the system.
Besides its gaming capabilities, the N-Gage was a Series 60 smartphone, running Symbian OS 6.1, ♠ with features similar to those of the Nokia 3650 (it does not have an integrated camera, however). It was able ♠ to run all Series 60 software (other than those that require a camera), and Java MIDP applications as well. Its ♠ main CPU was an ARM Integrated (ARMI) compatible chip (ARM4T architecture) running at 104 MHz, the same as the Nokia ♠ 7650 and 3650 phones.
Development [ edit ]
Around 2000, gamers increasingly carried both mobile phones and handheld game consoles. Nokia spotted ♠ an opportunity to combine these devices into one unit. Nokia announced in November 2002 that they would develop the N-Gage, ♠ a device that integrated these two devices. Its original development codename was Starship.[12]
Many of the preloaded ringtones and sounds were ♠ composed by former demoscene musician Markus Castrén, who worked at Nokia during mid-2002. For both the N-Gage and Nokia 7600, ♠ he wrote ringtones in a variety of popular dance genres, as well as creating a small set of sounds inspired ♠ by 1980s arcade games; he chose to compose those in a chiptune style as music in video games of the ♠ time did not stand out as sounding distinctively game-related.[13]
Games for N-Gage used to costR$600,000 toR$1.5 million to develop.[14]
Release [ edit ♠ ]
With a launch price of US$299[4] (equivalent toR$476 in 2024), the N-Gage was not commercially popular.[15] In its first weeks ♠ of availability in the United States, it was outsold by the Game Boy Advance 100 to 1.[16][17] Within 17 days ♠ of the deck's release, popular retailers GameStop and Electronics Boutique began offeringR$100 rebates on the deck's price.[18]
In February 2004, with ♠ the N-Gage failing to make a major impact four months on, CEO Jorma Ollila claimed that the device would be ♠ given until 2005 to be judged whether it was a success or failure.[19]
In January 2005, UK sales-tracking firm ChartTrack dropped ♠ the N-Gage from its regular ELSPA chart, commenting that "The N-Gage chart, though still produced, is of little interest to ♠ anyone. Sales of the machine and its software have failed to make any impact on the market at all."[20] Although ♠ only directly reflective of the UK market, this was interpreted by some as a serious blow to the N-Gage as ♠ a viable gaming platform. Despite this, Nokia reaffirmed their commitment to the N-Gage as a platform, to the point where ♠ a new version of the hardware was rumored after GDC 2005.[21]
In November 2005, Nokia admitted that the N-Gage failed, selling ♠ only one-third of the company's expectations. The product was discontinued from Western markets in February 2006, but would continue to ♠ be marketed in India and parts of Asia.[22] Nokia did continue N-Gage promotions at E3 2006.[23] The last game to ♠ be released in the U.S. for the system was Civilization in March 2006 according to Metacritic.[24] In October 2006, Nokia ♠ released the last game for the N-Gage QD, combat racer Payload.[25]
As of August 2007, it was estimated that Nokia had ♠ shipped more than two million N-Gage game decks.[26] The "N-Gage" brand name still had a poor reputation within the gaming ♠ media and among the few consumers who recognized the N-Gage brand, due to the weakness of the system's first games ♠ and the original model's limitations.[27] Nokia had more than 50 games available for the system.[28]
Sales [ edit ]
There is some ♠ disagreement in sources about the actual number of N-Gage decks sold. Nokia initially claimed 400,000 sales in the first two ♠ weeks the deck was available. However, independent market research firms Chart-Track and Arcadia Research claimed that the N-Gage had sold ♠ only 5,000 decks in the United States in that time, and 800 decks in the UK. German Magazine GamePro talked ♠ about 15.000 sold units by mid 2004 in Germany.[29] Critics suggested Nokia was counting the number of decks shipped to ♠ retailers, not the number actually purchased by consumers.[30] Nokia later admitted this was the truth.[16]
In 2004, Nokia claimed in a ♠ press release that it had shipped its millionth deck, represented as a company milestone despite falling short of the company's ♠ initial projection of six million decks by the end of 2004.[31] However, this number shipped does not give a reliable ♠ picture of the actual sales of the deck.[18] Nokia ultimately shipped 3 million N-Gage decks by 2007.[26]
Reception [ edit ]
Pocket ♠ Kingdom: Own the World received a handful of glowing reviews when it was released, and Pathway to Glory was Nokia's ♠ first self-published success. These games came perhaps too late to have much effect in improving the perception of the N-Gage ♠ hardware itself in the eyes of consumers or press.[32] Nokia had projections of at least 6 million sold decks in ♠ three years instead of only 3 million.[33]
Devices [ edit ]
N-Gage Classic [ edit ]
The original phone's design was considered awkward: ♠ to insert a game, users had to remove the phone's plastic cover and remove the battery as the game slot ♠ was next to it. Another feature was that the speaker and microphone were located on the side edge of the ♠ phone; this often resulted in many describing it as talking into a "taco phone"[34] or "Sidetalking", or simply that they ♠ had one very large ear, because the user held the edge of the phone against the cheek in order to ♠ talk into it. Usual for a phone, but unusually for a game system, it had a screen taller than it ♠ was wide, with a size of 2.1" and resolution of 176 X 208, giving an aspect ratio of 11:13; at ♠ the time most televisions were 4:3.
N-Gage QD [ edit ]
N-Gage service [ edit ]
The new N-Gage, also referred to as ♠ N-Gage Next Gen or N-Gage 2.0, saw a change in concept as Nokia explained to the world during E3 2005 ♠ that they were planning on putting N-Gage inside several of their smartphone devices, rather than releasing a specific device. In ♠ August 2007, the new N-Gage platform was finalised and was released in April 2008. It was compatible on many Symbian ♠ S60 smartphones. The service was discontinued in October 2009.
Software [ edit ]
Before the launch of Nokia's first in-house N-Gage title, ♠ Pathway to Glory, a one level demo of the game was released to journalists to allow them to sample the ♠ game, and understand the concepts behind the turn based wargame. This demo was subsequently placed on the N-Gage website as ♠ a free download. Undaunted by the 16 MB download size, fans jumped on the Pathway to Glory demo. The success ♠ of the download paved the route for future titles. On June 6, 2006 Nokia announced that people also could buy ♠ the games digitally.[35]
There are 58 full titles available for N-Gage, but only 56 of these saw North American releases. The ♠ titles that were not released in North America are: Flo-Boarding (Germany and UK only) and Sega Rally (Australia and Brazil ♠ only). All but three of these titles (Payload, Snakes, Virtua Cop) were available for retail purchase. These are:
Along with those ♠ listed above, one more game was bundled with the N-Gage (on the Support CD): an exclusive version of Space Impact ♠ Evolution X, that was later made available to Symbian S60v2 phones.
See also [ edit ]
