We had heard the N-Gage would be getting Spore Origins sooner or later, but EA was obviously more interested in getting it onto Windows Mobile and the iPhone first. Still, Will Wright’s latest brainchild is a welcome addition to the N-Gage library; Spore Origins is the first stage of the desktop game, where you play a microorganism trying valiantly to survive in a viciously competitive primordial soup which is populated by lifeforms created by other users and shared automatically online. As you evolve, you add more bits to your creature to customize its defensive and offensive capabilities, often resulting in a unique and bizarre specimen. If you dig it, be sure to check out the full Spore game, it’s a ton of fun. Hit up N-Gage to grab your copy.
Good news for all you Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N-Gage fans looking to get your Nokia N96 hooked up with all the mobile gaming resources of Nokia’s N-Gage platform. First, you’re apparently well ahead of the curve with that Nokia N96 in your hand. Second, Nokia has made good on their promise to offer multiple handsets with N-Gage compatibility in announcing that N-Gage is now available for the Nokia XpressMusic 5320, Nokis N78, and Nokia N96.
We’re sure there aren’t too many of you running around with Nokia N96’s in your pockets, but for those of you rocking the frequently updated Nokia N78, just know that N-Gage is now a go.
No word on the Nokia N73, N93, and N93i getting N-Gage support as of yet. But, here’s to hoping Nokia expands their N-Gage lineup to include older handsets.
Well, talk about nipping controversy in the bud. Just a couple days after Nokia enthusiasts started to get all riled up over having their Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N-Gage games locked to a single handset, Nokia has up and announced that they’ll make sure that N-Gage games can be transferred between multiple handsets.
Nokia previously said that N-Gage titles are tied to the handset through which they were purchased:
“N-Gage activation codes only work on the device where they were first activated. As with any digital media there is a potential risk of piracy and this policy is one of the ways Nokia is dealing with piracy and ensuring partners receive their rightful revenues from its platform. If users need to repair their device, the activation codes will be reissued. Also, if you purchase a new N-Gage compatible device, you will need to purchase your games again.”
But, with Nokia fans up in arms over being forced to re-buy games for new handsets, Nokia has flipped an about face and backpedaled on their previous statement. The games can be transferred through customer service in the near-term, but rest assured that Nokia is working on a long-term solution to make sure that N-Gage customers can play their purchased game titles on multiple mobile phones.
Here’s what Nokia has to say about transferring N-Gage games:
“We have noticed a number of media stories about N-Gage game transfers and wanted to clarify the issue. Due to copy protection, N-Gage games, like most mobile games, are linked to one device. As the value of content increases, a robust copy protection mechanism is essential as it makes it possible for the games industry to invest in N-Gage content.
We acknowledge our customers’ concerns and have been working on a solution that would allow people to transfer purchased N-Gage games to a new Nokia device. We are working with our Nokia Care Centers with an intermediate solution to enable the licensed transfers of games until a final solution is ready to be deployed.
We apologise for the confusion around this issue and look forward to delivering an appropriate solution to transfer purchased N-Gage games to new Nokia devices.”
It’s not clear when, exactly, Nokia will be allowing users to transfer their games, but it shouldn’t take too long.
It’s good to see a huge company like Nokia actually listening to customer complaints and criticism throughout the blogosphere and doing something that helps the consumer. At the end of the day, the customer that purchased the game title deserves to do whatever they wish with the software.
When the VP of Corporate Communications from a company like M:Metrics contacts you, you know you should take a look at what they have to say - that is exactly what has happened in this case!
M: Metrics have some interesting data on Mobile Gaming as a whole, contextualised by the recent “launch” of N-Gage (as Stefan reported on). Stats-a-plenty below:
According to M:Metrics, in February:
48.4 million people played a mobile game
20.2 million played a game they previously downloaded
7.6 million downloaded a new game
These numbers are all up from the same period last year (February 2007),
when:
45.2 million played a mobile game
18.5 million played a game they had previously downloaded
6.8 million downloaded a new game
Among Nokia (NYSE: NOK) owners,in February, 20.1 percent (5.9 million people) played a
mobile game, against a market average of 21.4 percent. Other Nokia stats:
6.2 percent of Nokia owners played a game they had previously downloaded (versus 8.9 percent market average)
2.7 percent downloaded a new game (versus 3.4 percent market average)
“Nokia is currently underperforming in the games market today primarily due
to the fact that the US market is flooded with low-end, free Nokia phones
that came with carrier contracts,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst,
M:Metrics. “Today, N-Series devices are still quite expensive and are not
widely distributed in carrier channels, resulting in low market adoption.
However, among those toting high-end Nokia devices on the Symbian operating system, 30.8 percent played a mobile game, indicating that mobile gaming is a popular activity on these phones.”
It will be interesting to see in a year’s time, how N-Gage (which is currently limited to very recent Nokia NSeries devices) has affected the stats - will it be measurable, one wonders - probably, if Nokia have anything to do with it!
If you want to check out M:Metrics’ site, you can go here.
Mobile gaming is about to get a little more exciting. At least if you own one of Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s N-series devices (N81, N82, N95) that will play nice with Nokia’s N-Gage gaming platform.
Until now, Espoo has limited the fun of N-Gage gaming to beta testers with Nokia N81 handsets. In return for making the N-Gage plunge early, Nokia soft-launched the N-Gage platform on the Nokia N81 only. But, Nokia announced today that they’re bringing the Nokia N-Gage “First Access” beta trial to an end on March 27. And, to commemorate the long-awaited end of the N-Gage beta, Nokia is offering a free download of the Mile High Pinball game, along with 1000 community points, to anyone that takes the time to fill out a survey.
Now, all you N-Gagers out there take note. The ending of the N-Gage beta means that the final version of the Nokia gaming platform is due out shortly. Unfortunately, that means all your high-scores and gaming data will be reset, putting early beta tester on a level playing field of sort with the rest of the N-Gage community. Any games purchased during the “First Access” beta will be valid, but may need to be reinstalled when the final version goes live.
A final release date wasn’t mentioned, but we should see Nokia N-Gage going live in the coming weeks. We know, the wait is almost unbearable at this point, but it’s almost over. In the meantime, head over to Nokia’s N-Gage website and sign up for SMS notification of the final N-Gage launch.
Glu Mobile have announced their initial line-up of games for the N-Gage platform this year. Two of the titles are based on films (Speed Racer, and The Dark Knight), and there are also ‘Super Slam Ping Pong’, and ‘Super K.O. Boxing!”.
Comment: it’s great to see titles coming to the N-Gage platform - if you’ve tried the client out on your N81 (or other S60 device if you found the install file), then you’ll know it’s shaping up nicely - what we want now are some meaty titles that we are going to come back to time and time again - right now I’m still playing Tetris (I still can’t get over the EA logo on the front of it!), and an up-the-screen shooter - bring me 3D and SFX!
Pocketgamer has been busy, working out which handsets on the market have the best 3D performance - of course, this is a somewhat subjective measure, because as anyone familiar with benchmarking knows, if you give a processor a task it excels at compared with others, it is bound to win! Anyhoo, the test in question here is “OpenGL ES 1.0 processing” - which is one of the industry graphics standards.
The results come from Hungarian company Kishonti, which specialises in measuring the performance of mobile devices. It uses it’s GLBenchmark to run the graphics on the handset, and generate a rating. And to re-iterate, this is a specific 3D test - so it doesn’t follow these are the best devices for 3D gaming, or other tasks - nonetheless, the results are interesting!
The full list is below, but in short, Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s NSeries is all over the results - withe the N93 coming out surprisingly as the winner (!). Also in there are some Dell PDAs (a bit unfair methinks since they are quite a bit larger, and not phones!), but also the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Z8. Actually I am not surprised the Z8 is there, given the hardware they managed to stuff in to it - it really dpes deserve the moniker given to it of “Media Monster”
How does this all relate to gaming? Does it all? Well kinda, but as we know from the days of Nintendo and the SNES, well-written games that take advantage of specialist hardware (with albeit very slow CPUs) will still be excellent. Wow, the SNES, now there’s a blast from the past!!
Nokia will be sponsering, for the third year in a row, the Leipzig GC Developers Conference. Diarmuid Feeny, Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s Games Business Manager says:
“With the arrival of our new N-Gage platform later this year, GCDC 2007 is at an important time for us.”
“We are proud to be a platinum sponsor for the third year running as well as the exclusive sponsor of GCDC Night.”
The show is from August 20 - 22. We’ll be keeping a close eye.
Symbian France took a picture of a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95 hooked up a plasma television showing off the new N Gage platform. It looks like Nokia is trying to take the best of XBOX Live and make a mobile version of it. What do you think?
Good news for all you Nokia (
Mobile gaming is about to get a little more exciting. At least if you own one of Nokia (
