So, what's the situation? How bad are things?
At the moment the N-Gage application is only available to compatible phones by a manual download, which naturally reduces the number of people who can use the platform. Some don't know about it, some don't know how to install apps, and others aren't interested though they might be if N-Gage was just a click away.
Nokia won't release figures, but we could make an intelligent guess that the N-Gage application has only been downloaded by 50,000 to 150,000 people. Whatever the true figure, it seems certain to be a mere fraction of the tens of millions who currently own compatible phones.
The solution to all this is obvious: embedding the N-Gage app in phones so that it's there when people buy the phone. That could potentially net the platform millions of users in just a few months, and perhaps tens of millions of users a year, which would be enough to attract lots of third party game publishers and turn the platform into a healthy software ecosystem.
Until that happens, N-Gage is living in the shadows.
Arguably the REAL launch of the N-Gage platform will be when it is built into phones and available to use straight out of the box. When will this happen?
...and so far none of them come with N-Gage as standard.
July? September?
In theory all N-Gage-compatible phones released after the N-Gage app should have it embedded, but embedding isn't that simple. It appears to require a three-month preparation period, so for example if an application is ready in June it won't be included in a phone's firmware until September.
If we take the official release date of N-Gage as mid-April, a three month preparation period would mean all compatible phones sold after mid-July should have N-Gage built in. Unfortunately things aren't THAT simple either! :-)
By complete coincidence, as well as Nokia launching N-Gage in 2008 it has also launched a new version of the S60 3rd Edition platform called S60v3 FP2, first seen in the recently-released Nokia N78 smartphone. Current N-Gage phones all use S60v3 FP1, and that's what the current N-Gage app was written for. In theory FP2 is completely backwards compatible with S60v3 FP1 and S60v3, but for some reason Nokia want to re-write the app specially for FP2 phones, and they haven't finished doing that yet.
This lack of an FP2 version of the N-Gage application means that the N78, which is supposed to be N-Gage-compatible, isn't compatible. It also means that the embedding process, N-Gage's real launch, is now indefinitely delayed not just until the FP2 version appears, but three months after that date.
So, even if the FP2 version of the N-Gage app was finished right now, we'd have to wait until mid-September before the first embedded phones appeared and the new N-Gage platform launched properly.
Against the Clock!
Nokia's facing an additional pressure: it has two major supposedly N-Gage-compatible phones launching soon, possibly before the FP2 N-Gage app is ready.
Most famous is the N96, which combines the dual slider of the N95 with the stylings of the N81, and has dedicated gaming buttons that slide out from under the screen. Even more significant is possibly the 5320 XpressMusic, which also has dedicated gaming buttons but more importantly will be the lowest-priced N-Gage-compatible phone so far, and the best contender for driving N-Gage gaming into the mass market.
No one knows exactly when these devices will be released, but Nokia has stated they'll be available some time in the third calendar quarter, which ends in September.
In other words, even if these phones are released right at the end of September, Nokia only has about two weeks left to get the FP2 version of the N-Gage application ready if it wants to embed it in these phones. Embedding therefore seems unlikely to happen with these phones either.
There will be other chances later, more N-Gage-compatible phones will come with time of course. And the N-Gage application will eventually be added to new firmware versions, so people updating their compatible phones will find N-Gage built-in by default. However, most people don't update their phone firmware, and many N96s and 5320s will probably enter retailers carrying their original N-Gage-less firmware.
This brings to mind the rather depressing thought that the N-Gage platform may not launch properly, in its embedded form, until 2009. That could mean third party game publishers holding back releasing titles until the platform reaches a wider audience, or even holding off developing N-Gage games completely.
Was it meant to be this way?
It seems unlikely Nokia planned to ship so many N-Gage-compatible phones without the actual N-Gage app being built into them. From what we can make out, their original plan was to launch the N81 and N81 8GB at the end of 2007 with N-Gage on board, so that the N-Gage application would have been embedded from the very beginning.
That didn't happen of course, the N-Gage application was delayed time after time, and didn't launch until April 2008, months after the N81's release in November 2007. This not only hurt N-Gage's userbase, it also severely injured the N81 as it removed the phone's main raison d'être of being an N-Gage gaming phone with N-Gage-only gaming buttons.
So, what to do next?
Well, the obvious answer is to pour as many resources as possible into getting the FP2 version of the N-Gage application ready, not just for current N78 owners to download but mainly so that the 5320 and N96 can be sold with N-Gage out of the box before Christmas.
This ought to take priority over absolutely everything else in N-Gage, because the entire N-Gage project depends on being embedded in phones so that it can build a healthy userbase of millions. The size of the userbase determines how much third party software support a platform gets, so all gaming platforms live and die by the size of their userbase.
The alternative, to limp on with N-Gage as an optional application you have to install manually, would mean delaying the real launch until 2009. It would also mean missing out on potentially millions of new N-Gage users just when you need them the most, and throwing away a window of opportunity where N-Gage has no serious rivals.
If Nokia wants N-Gage to be a success, they have to get it embedded in phones as soon as possible. The entire platform depends on this happening, hopefully before the end of the year.
At this point the embedding process is even more important for N-Gage than game development. There's no point publishing great games if no one knows about them and no one can play them.
