You are only as good as your last performance. It's an adage that performers live by, and one that content producers are all too familiar with. It's also the case with online services and content offerings. Irrespective of their future plans for the N-Gage (see here), the next-gen N-Gage platform is still with us. And how good is the platform? Here's why it matters.
Read on in the full article.
it's unfortunate, but n-gage killed itself by putting crappy/bad games into their line up.. had they kept their titles to the best of the bunch, people will still see n-gage as high end...
games that make n-gage account for about 25% of the total titles... the likes of hooked on creatures of the deep, dirk dagger, reset generations, space impact, one to name a few..
while others are ruining the image, when n-gage was 1st launch it was a high grade premium gaming platform, now a bunch of crap games got in the line-up and it's no longer cool...
I don't think that there is a Mr. N-Gage anymore. Only the bravest of fellows would want that responsibility. I'm glad you've reminded us of what Nokia promised for N-Gage. The deserve all the grief they currently get from the likes of EA and journalists like yourself.
Sadly, I think it will soon go from "Iceberg dead ahead!" to "Is there anyone alive out there?". And all this without even a hint of "Paint me like one of your French girls". Sad.
Long ago, Nokia promised that it would a simple process to upgrade N-Gage game licenses when upgrading to a new Nokia phone. Uh... we're still waiting. After going through a month-long hassle to upgrade the first time (when my N95 died and I switched to an N82), I was forced with having to do it again soon after when I crushed my N82 and had to replace it.
I have several games/utilities from small publishers and each of them had no trouble upgrading my license when presented with proof of purchase, my old IMEI and registration code and my new IMEI. The only company that couldn't and still can't manage that process is Nokia with N-Gage games.
As a result, I've abandoned N-Gage. I never got my licenses transferred to my new phone. I don't play those games any more. I don't buy N-Gage games any more either. N-Gage is done.
I still remember the initial titles on the N-gage, the Golf game was 60mb, completely in line with the releases on the old N-gage. The current lineup of 2-3mb games is bound to look worthless. Its all Nokia's fault, they failed to specify strict quality requirements for the games that get published on Ngage
For more proof that NGage is dead try getting some customer support. Or asking for a password reset. Gave up after 10 emails over 6 months. Absolutely shocking.
From a PC gaming background I find it a weird concept that Nokia is somehow to be blamed for bad titles released through N-Gage platform. Shouldn't it be the game developer and publisher who make themselves look bad with a blatant money grab? The consumers should still read the reviews rather than hope everything on the platform will always be worth buying for everybody.
I really wouldn't like them to filter the content that much. Someone's crappy title could still be a small group's cult hit, and if the developer and publisher want to put in the time and resource to bring it out, great!
The real issues with N-Gage, to me, are the customer support issues mentioned here and perhaps the lack of clout in making sure there are good games on the platform in addition to anything else. I mean a steady stream of good games, keeping with the as-good-as-your-last-performance thing. 😉
I remember the Nokia spokes person Rafe told us there will be an easy way to transfer game licenses through n-gage and n-gage was going to take off big time... Both have failed miserably. I wish I didn't waste money on n-gage games with the vast majority worse than java releases. At least with java games you have a much larger selection. I can't even tranfer my licenses over!! 😞
Oh, forgot to tell you guys, transferring games is very easy if you visit the n-gage.com forum and do a search for one of the moderators there. The guy/moderator helps me transfer games I brought for my N95 2-3 years ago into my N97 with no problem.
It's a shame but they didn't let people know how easy it is to transfer games.. just like the way they do silent advertisement in US.
lol
Id have to disagree with the "Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile" being "Really, really bad" on the N-Gage, the original JAVA/Symbian game did have low quality midi-sound dodgey graphics, however the N-Gage version of the game did improve.
the N-Gage edition had 2 minute "MP3-Styled" songs and (on most phones) had 15 songs to play, which is only 15 less than the DS Counter-part (which kills your hand after 2 songs). Not to mention online score boards etc - as you can probably tell im a GH Fan, but i did not like DS or the Symbian version - but i really enjoyed the N-Gage version, nice quick dose of fun at work (espically on Expert) 😃
regarding the "N-Gage" concept in general over the past few months it has seemed to go down hill a little, nothing "exciting" at nokia world, no N-Gage blog poster posting rumours, nice and other interesting stuff.....atm its just a platform "left in the dark" and tbh its getting treated worse than the original platform ever was!
I was a very devoted fan of nokia n-gage i still have my old n-gage device that has wonderful games and you could really tell that the mobile gaming it is at its best ! I had for about an yer a nokia N95 8GB that i gave away recently. i really loved hook on , worms, age of empires, system rush, one and next generation. But all the other games were a big disappointment for me an i think for all the other players out there. And even if n-gage has n-gage arena there is nobody online to play with 😞. Now I really didn't like the iphone but now i have one and i can really say that the iphone has gaming at its best on a mobile. I have tones of games with beautiful graphics, story line etc. And i really enjoy them! And i really hope that one day Nokia will make a n-gage device ( n-gage 3).Until then i will stick with the iphone that has tones of apps, and tones of beautiful games.
Thanks.
N-gage now sucks cause no games and whenever a game comes out it is bad i'd say release many games better than release 1 game rarely i cry as i look at n-gage 1.0 games they are pretty nice and resonable and some of them can beat the current n-gage games in graphics and gameplay :| so i'd say release mm and other games or port old n-gage games like panadomium