Nokia N-Gage

i reckon itll die a quick death, but ive been wrong before...
personally i wouldnt touch it with a ten foot pole, but then ive never really been into portable gaming

additionally, one of penny arcade's latest covers the midnight launch

[url]http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-10-08[/url]

I won't get it, I would've, but some downright unfavourable reviews put me off...

I would've thought that it being a game system it would make putting games in and out easy and quick - not so. Also shoulder buttons should've been automatically in there, but they aren't. Also it has had poorish reviews as a phone, so no, I won't be getting one.

I think for the same amount of money I'd rather get a nice PSX system that will come out a bit later, or make my own TIVO like computer system.

if you saw their press release at E3, it was one of the most amaturish presentations i have ever seen. i dont think that they even expect it to do well. just something about making a mobile phone a gaming system doesnt sit well with me.

i actually bought a gba:sp today (just for final fantasy tactics advanced). the PSP may be a very nice contender when it comes out next year.

so to sum up. the ngage is something i wouldnt waste even 5 cents on.

Havent read any reviews or anything on it.
But I still wouldnt get it. As a phone it looks awkard to use and as a gaming system, well I'd rather get a GBA:SP

There'd be nothing wrong with a mobile phone gaming system in my idea, it would work well, if done well, unfortunately Nokia have stuffed it up majorly.

I don?t know about the whole game and phone thing myself, from my experience people are constantly out of power on their mobile phones just through standard use and neglect. Add games to the picture and whoops I?m un-contactable because I got bored and played games.

Pantmonger

If you're in Brissie, head to the city EB in Queen St Mall, as they have one on display. Kinda funky, but I played one level of Pandemonium and my thumbs were crampy. Wouldn't want to be playing it for longer than I did. Screen's larger than I thought, which is a bonus. But really... from my point of view, I'd be using it either as a games machine OR a mobile, not both. Just personal preference.

In the age of shrinking mobiles too, it's fairly big.

Nokia should just team up with Nintendo and cram a few phone components into a GBA SP.

Hmmm... alot of negative responses. The thing that got me interested in it was the multiplayer bluetooth capabilities but then again if I really wanted to play multiplayer thats what my Xbox, PC and Internet connection are for and if I were desperate Internet Cafes. However I would have like to have seen some decent competition for Nintendo in the portable gaming market.

"Nokia should just team up with Nintendo and cram a few phone components into a GBA SP"

They already tried that and failed. So they made the n-gauge instead :P. And nintendo now have teamed up with motorolla to do wireless (not mobile phone) gaming for the GBA
http://www.gamedev.net/info/news/FullStory.asp?StoryID=5521

CYer, Blitz

wow that IS interesting. in an E3 interview with Sigeru Miyamoto, he had great disaproval of Nokia making a mobile phone/handheld gaming device in one. he said that they should be kept as seperate components. it's amasing how money can change people's opinions though.

i definitely agree with Pantmonger's comment about battery power. i couln't see a mobile phone lasting too long when playing red faction on it.

its not that interesting, the only thing the Motorolla add-on will do is enable wireless multiplayer on your gameboy, _not_ make the gameboy a phone/handheld gaming device in one, such as the N-Gage which Miyomoto didn't like.

quote:Originally posted by Aven

he said that they should be kept as seperate components. it's amasing how money can change people's opinions though.

Yeah, looking on it now I agree that a gaming system and a phone should be different systems, and now I guess you can use both on a train etc :-)

Yeah I agree, phone these days have too much crap in them (do you really need a camera in a phone?), making them big and not fit in my pocket properly.

i want to upgrade my mobile, but i dont want to spend $600+ plus so that my phone can take photos and play games. the cameras are horible on them and the gaming systems dont seem much better.

the only thing that i wouldn't mind seeing is that when the PSP is released, it would be nice to have a memory stick slot so that you could listen to mp3s. that would just be usefull.

Yeah, a mobilephone mp3 player would be cool, and you'd know when you have a call even if you're listening to music :-)

Personally I don't agree that cameras should be on mobile phones, even if it will allow face to face communications, because it will allow people to take pictures that aren't so nice of other people. There's a lot of room there for misuse.

Taken from here [url]http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/33405.html[/url]
go there for the full story

"Figures from videogame retailers around the UK are showing an extremely low sell-through of Nokia's new N-Gage game deck in its launch week, with fewer than 500 units sold by the 6000 game stores polled by Chart-Track."

500 from 6000 stores how about them apples.
Pantmonger

the sales figures don't count mobile phone retailers though, however I doubt that they sold that many either.

Made me laugh. looks like i'm not the only person who thinks that it is a worthless piece of crap. the only question i now have is, have they learnt their lesson, and will they discontinue it?

Just think how much money they wasted. The cost of R&D must be huge and then there's the marketing campaign that was simular to the PS2 and Xbox before they were released.

go to www.penny-arcade.com they tear the n-gage to shreds.
You should go there anyway... comics are really funny and tell you the truth about the industry

The two things that the N-Gage had going for it was bluetooth, and that it's a mobile phone as well. They've lost/will lose the wireless advantage since GBA will have that soon, and the PSP will have it also. That leaves the phone capability. But who are Nokia targetting though? I don't think many parents would buy their children one, since it's so expensive compared to a GBA SP, and children (8-12) wouldn't need a mobile anyway, would they?... And younger adults, I would say, are a bit more tech savvy and have read all the reviews about the numerous problems (design, game titles) that the N-Gage has and wouldn't touch it with a stick.
Oh, and I got sick of Tomb Raider quite a long time ago. [;)]

i had an EDGE E3 DVD (unfortunately some bastard stole it :(), that showed the launch of the N-Gage (sooo many homosexual jokes could be made with that). they said that they were not aiming this thing at 'suzy 8 year old' (their wording, not mine), but at the more gaming savy audience. my question is, is that audience REALLY that stupid?

the main problem with it though, is that it was realeased at a really bad time. Nokia just released all their new mobile phone that have LCD screens and all their other crap, and then they try to flog this off straight after it. they should have released it at the same time as all their other phones, so that people would know the choice they had. plus the GBA and GBA:SP are out and have a great selection of games available for them (better then the N-Gage at least), plus Sony have anounced their PSP and there are another 5 or 6 handhelds in developement. they just timed it really badly.

and Souri, as bad as what Tomb Raider is, do you really want to play Tony Hawk on it either? that pretty much tells you the audience they were aiming for. 16 year old males with no hormone control, no brains, and parents with too much money :/

I think its important to look at the N-gage in a slightly different light to the PSP and GBA; Nokia are essentially introducing a new feature to their line up of phones.

The N-gage is really just the first. I'd say that for the next few years, most of Nokia's phones will be equipped with cameras, bluetooth and the same gaming capabilities as the N-gage.

Keeping this in mind, its easy to see what Nokia are thinking. Cameras and ringtones can only go so far and java games are pathetically limited. So, the N-gage is really a long term investment (in my opinion). But after the poor sales, Nokia might reconsider their position.

I wouldn't say Nokia launched at the wrong time; with so many handheld systems looking to launch soon, there is not really anything that could be done.

What baffles me, is that Nokia launched the a mobile phone like a console. Consoles sell well because you buy, plug in, and play. People buying phones are much more restricted by things like how good the phone is, whether it supports particular functions, whether they can get it on the right plan at the right price and whether they are already stuck in a contract...

Nokia would have expected mediocre sales at best.