Looks like Nokia are going for the gentle roll out of N-Gage, as expected, with N81 owners promised access, a client and at least one new game 'next week'. Let's hope they don't take too long with support for other devices and games - I've got Christmas gaming to do on my clutch of N95s!
Read on in the full article.
what about about us owners with the n95 8gb 😞
Bear in mind, even if you do have an N81 you're only going to get access to one game! 😊
This isn't a launch, it's more like a public beta test, and the blog entry even emphaises that Nokia want people to give them feedback about their experiences next week.
It sounds like the new platform has had testing difficulties, and this kind of massive public test is the only way they can find out if the kinks have been ironed out of the system.
I'm betting that, if you have an N95 with v.20 firmware, you'll be able to take part too. (My thinking is that they don't say N95 because relatively few N95 owners will have installed the new N-Gage- friendly firmware, whereas the N81 has it out of the box.)
I really don't think there is any such thing as "n-gage friendly firmware".
Asking people to install an N-Gage application to access the new service is plausible, but it would be stretching things too far to ask people to upgrade their firmware for the sake of N-Gage.
Most people don't even know what firmware is, and the process of upgrading firmware is far more complicated than the process of installing a free app. The free app method doesn't even require a PC, it can be done by just clicking on a link in the web browser.
If the new N-Gage service does actually require a firmware upgrade on older handsets, most potential customers will just give up at that stage.
I guess this makes sense (its actually very similar to the way they rolled out Maps and Music Store).
I imagine it will frustrate those looking forward to it, but in the grand sceheme of things its not that big a deal.
I suppose Nokia can now say they sort of launched in 2007...
N81 the least gaming oriented new N series phone seems to be getting all the initial gaming related newsflow, which is poor on Nokia's part. No 3D hardware etc...
What they should have done, is to run the beta test among all the handsets. Two announcements have completely left me with a bad taste in mouth. One is Creebies and the other, this one. CRAP moves from Nokia are making me feel, that this venture will be a failure too. And I agree with krisse. If they want us to upgrade the firmware only to use N-Gage, they can surely cut off more than half of the user base at the very beginning. And what is the point in promoting the N81 so much? First N-Gage (though beta) launch, a free copy of Creatures of the Deep after launch. Is it a REALLY BAD phone?
I think, if they leave the non-81'ers hanging over Christmas, that would be... disgruntling and a bad marketing move. There is no better time then the holidays to spend time 'non-productive'.
This has been available for awhile already, but I only recently downloaded.
I must say that this is far more polished than the earlier versions, and this software rendered System Rush Evolution is amazingly close to the hw rendered demo on N95 :icon14: