N95 And N82 Next For N-gage

[just got me n95]

N-Gage boss: 'We're not scared of the PlayStation phone'
Bullish words from Jaakko Kaidesoja


Product: N-Gage (next gen platform)
Manufacturer: Nokia

by Stuart Dredge

It's only fair to ask Nokia whether Sony's rumoured PlayStation phone is a threat to N-Gage, and Nokia games boss Jaakko Kaidesoja dealt with the issue head-on today, at an N-Gage press event in Lapland.

"I'm not scared about anybody," he said. "The real question is how do they [Sony Ericsson] do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can they do the multiplayer and online stuff? We've been doing this for two years and it hasn't been easy."

In a candid briefing, Kaidesoja also addessed the issue of the N-Gage First Access being hacked to work on other handsets. You might think Nokia would be unhappy about it, but you'd be wrong.

"We knew people would crack it," says Kaidesoja. "Cracking a sisx file isn't that hard, so of course we expected it. And it's good to get feedback on the First Access application even from people with other handsets."

The UK is one of the top two or three countries in terms of people downloading the First Access application, apparently. Good work, fellow Brits!

As we reported last week, the full commercial launch of N-Gage is still set for the coming weeks. Kaidesoja says there'll be 6-8 games at launch, meaning there'll hopefully be two additional titles to the six already released for First Access.

That's if they make it through Nokia's certification process in time, though: "It may be that we launch with six titles, and then two more come the week after, and two more the week after that," he says.

The N82 and both N95 handsets will be next in line for the commercial launch, but bad news N73 owners: you're going to have to wait a while.

"We promised the N73 earlier, but we found some memory issues, as it has a lower memory spec than other devices," says Kaidesoja. "That gives some headaches, but we'll deal with that, and will release for the device during the second quarter."

Kaidesoja addressed head-on the issue of whether the launch titles from third-party publishers are ambitious enough – Tetris, Block Breaker Deluxe and World Series of Poker: Pro Challenge are hardly making the most of the platform, for all their charms.

"Whenever you have a new platform, you don't fully show its qualities," he says. "When you look at the EA stuff and Block Breaker Deluxe, it's not fully exploiting the SDK and all the capabilities it has to offer. But we are developing the SDK all the time, and during the second quarter we will see more innovative stuff."

So, will there be a dedicated N-Gage games handset? "There are no plans to release, but no plans not to release," said Kaidesoja, hedging his bets expertly.

"Broadening the device base is an obvious choice. We have tried with the N81 to have some ergonomics for gaming, and I don't think we are perfect yet. We haven't ruled it out, but we are not planning it either."

However, Nokia is working on making N-Gage games work with touchscreen handsets – Nokia will release several this year.

"We are working with the application to make it adaptable for the touchscreen environment," said Kaidesoja.

"There will need to be games that support touchscreens. They won't necessarily be there on day one [when the touchscreen handsets launch], since you have to have nine months development time, and it has to be in the SDK. But we will get there."

[mariokarter]

Lets be realistic here, a slider PSP phone with a, b, x, y, sholder, and numeric buttons would kick the crap out of nokia's Ngage platform. That said I don't think it will hold a candle to Nokia's flagship device on the whole (it likely will be a dumb phone without gps and a 3.2 camera).

[just got me n95]

Originally Posted by mariokarter

Lets be realistic here, a slider PSP phone with a, b, x, y, sholder, and numeric buttons would kick the crap out of nokia's Ngage platform. That said I don't think it will hold a candle to Nokia's flagship device on the whole (it likely will be a dumb phone without gps and a 3.2 camera).

======
true i prefer a phone that does a bit of every thing , allows me to play games..watch sky tv.. surf..have a 5mp camera.. i will stick with nokia

[NAVVARR]

Sony is forever promising that their device is going to be 'THE' device to own.. then they unveil some overblown heap of garbage -waaaay overpriced- and underspecced.


-Its a bit like a the PS3 being outsold by the Wii and xbox360

-its also a bit like the PSP being outsold by the Nintendo DS....

-so- i don't see Sony producing anything that Nokia can't do better. -just like apple i-phone tries to appear to be a world beating phone when again in reality its embarressingly underspecced.


So -i can see why Nokia ain't that worried.

[mariokarter]

As long as they made the PSP phone the true succesor to the PSP, and mostly stationy and not so much ericssony, then it would work. This way it will just be like your regular PSP, appaeling to videogamers, but with a bonus mid range phone. If the make the PSP phone a side project that is outperformed by the real PSP, then it will get little support from game studios who won't develop two versions of everything for 2 sony mobile platforms.

[Mr G]

I have it (Ngage) working already on My N82 and on my N95 before i sold it.

[AngusG]

Excellent... I'm not a hardcore gamer but I'm curious :)

[dayene]

just checked my phones and no n-gage yet...can't wait to get it for show off. :)