Over at All About N-Gage, we're wondering when the Next Generation Gaming Platform is going to fully launch? With the initial roll-out of S60 v3 Feature Pack 2 phones not shipping with the N-Gage Client, phones aiming for a large user base, including the currently available N78 and impending N96 and Nokia 5320, and no sign of a compatible N-Gage client, the question is whether these devices will have the client in firmware before 2009.
Read on in the full article.
Sidetalkin'! YEAH
Sidetalkin'! YEAH
Erm... this is the next gen platform we're talking about, not the N-Gage phone from 2003. 😊
The platform is available on ordinary Nokia smartphones, you don't need to buy any game-specific device.
[Again, we can't comment at the bottom of the article itself, so I am having to comment here - is this intentional? It's odd if so, and rather silly if not]
"Limping on" as the article says NGage is doing, is an apt description for the platform at the moment. It's a shame as it is not a crap platform, it's a great platform.
I think the main point about deployment, regardless of when it gets embedded is, SURELY it is worth Nokia pouring loads of time, effort and money into a major marketing exercise to get people to download the NGage client once it's ready? We have seen posters everywhere recently for Maps 2.0 and that requires a similar download. Honestly, how hard and expensive would it be to get people to text a shortcode and receive a link to the download on their phones? Or if the worry is that will cost them data charges, then a very comprehensive set of beginner instructions for even the most non-techy of consumers, to enable them to transfer the client from their PCs to their phones?
It strikes me that the delays, and the lack of marketing common sense, is a result of the standard flaws that often seem to strike big companies at the height of their power and success. Commodore killed the Amiga back in the 80's with such incompetance, Microsoft are utterly incapable of producing good software because of the way their tech teams are structured and managed (and no other real reason), and now Nokia seem to be falling prey to the same sort of "big and crippled by out of control bureaucracy" disease.
If you've seen the iPhone gaming demos, they look excellent, and Android based games look equally capable. Both are very attractive propositions, from all fronts (not least developer support).
You mention the 5320 handset. I would have thought the 6220 Classic will be a much bigger seller, and the 6120 Classic has been huge. Both should have NGage on them at the same time if not before, as the 5320.
If Nokia fail with NGage they will very much deserve to do so and I will have no sympathy for them - and by that I mean consumers en masse should have no sympathy and should very much choose another platform that delivers. And I say that as a Nokia fan.
Very well put ajck, I agree entirely.
However it is slightly odd how its the other way round for maps. The advertising there, but the platform itsself is very badly lacking. Whereas Ngage suffers the reverse, as you said. Bad advertising and marketing, but a good platform.
As someone whos buying a 6220 classic as soon as its out, Id love to see Ngage on there. But at the current time, I have no idea if its *ever* going to be on there. I suspect it will, but I dont know for sure.
...and that immediate response of "N-gage = sidetalking" says a lot - or at least it should to Nokia's marketing department. If, after all this time, that's what the word N-Gage means to the public who pay attention online, then they're on a very steep slope to "educate" the users.
Perhaps, ironically, the whole kerfuffle about games locked to one handset did Ngage a favour?
It got around on so many sites, including the BBC, perhaps it educated many more people as to what it actually is.
Every single person I have spoken to still thought Ngage was a device. Even my tech savvy younger brothers, which is presumably nokias target audiance.
[Again, we can't comment at the bottom of the article itself, so I am having to comment here - is this intentional? It's odd if so, and rather silly if not]
It is intentional, because the items you see on the site's front page are the news items, not the articles themselves. When we've put comments on the bottom of articles, people don't ever see the comments totals climbing.
Also there are various problems with spammers posting on the bottom of popular articles weeks or months after they've been published. It's the articles themselves that end up in the Google index, and the spam rather spoils this.
I think the main point about deployment, regardless of when it gets embedded is, SURELY it is worth Nokia pouring loads of time, effort and money into a major marketing exercise to get people to download the NGage client once it's ready?
With all due respect, no.
Such marketing would be a terrible mistake and a collossal waste of money.
Why spend lots of cash trying to persuade people to install N-Gage, when you can include the app built into compatible phones for free? And why make people jump through hoops when they don't have to?
Embedding N-Gage in phones is a far, far, far more efficient way of doing things and that's where the resources should be poured. Embedding N-Gage in phones means that it would reach people who don't know about N-Gage and those who don't know how to install apps. It would also reach cynics who can't be bothered to install N-Gage but might give it a go if it's already on there.
You don't need to market something at all if it's already in the phone by default. People will see the "Games" icon, click on it and try out the demos.
N-Gage is NOT a games console, you do not need to get people interested in the platform in itself, all you have to do is get them interested in the phone as a whole and include the games platform with it.
If N-Gage is in all compatible phones by default, that means it's just a click away for tens of millions of people. That will never ever happen with an optional installable app, they'll never get even close to that.
Honestly, how hard and expensive would it be to get people to text a shortcode and receive a link to the download on their phones?
Why make it that hard? Why not just have it on the phone already installed, just like all the other standard applications?
Also, I think the proof of the pudding is in the eating: very very few people have downloaded N-Gage despite tens of millions owning compatible phones. Downloading is never going to give N-Gage the massive userbase that embedding would.
You mention the 5320 handset. I would have thought the 6220 Classic will be a much bigger seller, and the 6120 Classic has been huge. Both should have NGage on them at the same time if not before, as the 5320.
Yes, it would indeed be better to be on as many phones as possible. But the point of the article is that it now looks like N-Gage won't be on ANY of those phones, because the FP2 version of the N-Gage application won't be ready in time.
The FP2 N-Gage app has to be finished three months before a phone's release if they want to build it into that phone, and as the 5320 and 6220 are both out within the next three months it looks like Nokia have run out of time.
Incidentally, the 5320 is launching for a much lower price than the 6220 or 6120, that's the only reason I said it will be a big seller.
The cheaper a phone is, the bigger its sales tend to be, with the cheapest phones making up almost all mobile phone sales. If the 5320 is the cheapest S60 phone so far, it may become the biggest selling S60 phone so far too. I don't know if that will happen, no one knows, but it's a distinct possibility.
Whatever happens, it seems likely that the 5320 and N96 will sell in the millions and N-Gage desperately needs those millions of people to have it on their phones. The only way that can be guaranteed is if N-Gage is built into the firmware.
and by that I mean consumers en masse should have no sympathy and should very much choose another platform that delivers.
You're talking about N-Gage as if people actively choose it as a gaming platform. People don't do that with phone games, they buy the phone for other reasons and the games are a bonus.
I've used this analogy before but here it is again: choosing a phone for its games is like choosing a television for its teletext, virtually no one does this, even if they find teletext a useful feature. Other features are just far more important.
If, after all this time, that's what the word N-Gage means to the public who pay attention online, then they're on a very steep slope to "educate" the users.
That's why I wouldn't bother educating them, I'd just stick the app on the phone and let people notice the "Games" icon themselves. N-Gage is intuitive enough for a mass audience if it's on a phone, it's just a question of getting it on the phone in the first place.
Games consoles advertise because they need to get people to buy the hardware, but people are buying N-Gage-compatible phones anyway so there's no need to do that.
It's also worth noting that soft game launches on N-Gage can be just as effective as publicised game launches on a console platform, because everyone who owns a phone with N-Gage on it would automatically see all new games listed in the showroom. This isn't a platform that requires publicity.
Incidentally, for what it's worth, I wrote a long article last year about why Nokia shouldn't use the "N-Gage" name for the new platform, for exactly the reasons Ewan and others outlined here. It's a spoilt brand, people associate it too much with a particular device, and there's no advantage to it. Well, they've made their decision so there's probably no point moaning about it now.
But perhaps they should have called it Nokia Games, to go with Nokia Maps and Nokia Music?
what? I like sidetalkin'
I have a profound concern about the potential lack of sidetalkin' support on this new platform, and I sincerely hope that will be rectified in a forthcoming patch.
My live sucks 😞
Krisse,
Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I was not advocating the downloading and the marketing exercise as an alternative to embedding. It's obvious that you're absolutely right, embedding is much better for all the reasons you state. I was instead focussing on the lament of the article, that of all the millions who don't already have the client on their phones - a number that will swell vastly if Nokia miss the shipping deadline for the next round of NGage-compatible phones as the article suggests.
My suggestion for downloading and a mass-marketing exercise was as a way of hoovering up (indeed, the only way) these millions who missed the embedded route, rather than just washing our hands of them and giving up. Maps has followed the same dual pronged attack - embedded and downloadable. Why not NGage for goodness sake, a far, far "bigger" product for Nokia?
> very very few people have downloaded N-Gage despite tens of millions owning compatible phones.
Yeah, because a.) The client isn't available yet on their handset, b.) They're not or won't download for all the reasons given (availability, awareness, difficulty etc). Hence my suggestion for marketing to *these* people and helping *them* to download. Nokia can only win there. The alternative is just to forget them and say "oh well, all these people missed the boat". Daft. It is a huge potential market.
OK, fair point about the 5320 - I thought it would be about the same price as the 6220 Classic, which will already be very cheap for an S60 phone. Well that's great news if the 5320 is cheaper - any idea of the prices of them both?
Alex
I think every developer who chose developing for NGage instead of all the s60v3 phones is soon realising that tying themselves to a ship that sank before leaving the bay was a big mistake.
ask IDreams whether Creatures of the Deep or Skyforce sold more in the same period and you'll see what a good choice it was to commit to NGage2.
Girrrrrrrrly bitch...
C'monnn FP2 N-Gage-compatible phone...??? You can Play Ngage in anyyyyyy S60v3 even in Nokia N71 and non N series like e65, e62 and all of them...
I have play ngage in 6120c, N73, N80 (yeahhh even this one) e50 just for say some of them...
all you have to do is hac** k the Nokia mobile and that�s it!!!
Just check on youtube 😉
Does anyone know what game that is, on the screenshot above?
is it just me or does the N-gage platform not support the new firmware for my N82. I had successfully installed the app months ago and bought a game System Rush evolution just to test if the things works and it did, not a particularly awesome game but I paid for it. a week ago I tried playing the game and it says 'game not found on memory card' I tried playing any of the other trials I had downloaded, none worked same error msg. I redownloaded System Rush didn't work same error. I removed all games, the n-gage app itself, redownloaded the app and then the game, and just as I finished installing the game Discover n-gage shows up, I mean WTF.
and all this on the day that NOKIA finally mail me my activation code for Mile High pinball for being part of the first access program.
I read something on their site that says only firmware 1.11 for the N82 is supported. If that's true and I will lose compatibility with Nokia's own apps by upgrading my firmware then just forget it. You've lost all your credibilty as a software company.
Nokia, I don't want play with you anymore.
It's sad to say but come july 11th when Ehem Apple release their App store, Nokia are really gonna feel how far behind they are on the software part of their phones.