Interview with Gregg Sauter and Peter Nielsen: Talking about Nokia’s new N-Gage platform

Huge, loads of details, check it out over at Develop Mag.

Some things I found interesting:

You mention distribution – is it mostly going to be done through the N-Gage service and via the internet? Is it fair to say it’s mostly digital distribution?

GS: Hmm… mostly. It’s all digital, however, the technology, the platform, and the DRM doesn’t prevent anyone from doing physical distribution either. The majority of sales will be over the air – cellular operators will be a key part of the platform moving forward and we expect the majority of content to go over the air and we also see a fair amount going over the internet which could be through the operator channels. So it’s really up to the publisher in terms of how they want to distribute it – but it’s digital and we have some unique things on the DRM side so it allows for content to be distributed just about any way you want to.

If that’s the case, how sophisticated can the games get in terms of what’s possible or how it might compare to previous games platforms?

PN: Well, it’s as much up to what a publisher or developer wants to do as what is possible. Given that we are focusing on distribution there is a 32MB file limit so, content wise, if they wanted to convert old titles they’ll have to realise that they can’t take all 20 levels of a PSone game across. There’s a similar limitation when it comes to the memory for games – studios will have to squeeze it and make some sacrifices that way. But that is when we look at from a console perspective and moving those games to mobile. If you look at the existing mobile base and what’s out there what can be done now with N-Gage means the complexity can radically go up from what was achievable in the past.

You say it’s a premium platform – does that mean people will have to pay to access it, like Xbox Live?

GS: It’s a bit of a combination between the open mobile phone platforms we have now and a console platform.

It’s like a console platform because it is Nokia (NYSE: NOK)-run and we have a number of community features and there’s the client application that is embedded on our devices. We run the platform, which means an SDK you get from us and our certification requirements to maintain quality – and by quality we don’t just mean game quality we mean ensuring that the user experience is good when they get a phone call or a text message, and that the network runs properly, etc. So it is controlled in that way.

On the other side, at GDC we’ll be talking in detail about the N-Gage application which is embedded in the device. It has all of the community functions and features there in order to communicate with friends, build friend lists, create tournaments and play with your gaming friends. So there is a lot of community built into it – that’s the core of it. At Nokia our ethos is ‘Connecting People’ and that’s what we’re doing for gaming. The way it works is that the minute you have the N-Gage application on you are in the experience and with the community as opposed to this thing that you log onto, which was how we operated N-Gage Arena. Straight away you have access to reviews of games and so on and so forth.

I can’t emphasize enough how much I’ve just scratched the surface of this interview. Read the whole thing.

I’m still a cynic when it comes to N-Gage, it will really have to prove itself at GDC next week.

However the more I read about it, the more I want it to succeed. I can’t explain it.

Another little tidbit: N-Gage games will be written in C++ not Symbian!