Update: Nokia Develops Portable Game Player
Mark Hachman
On Monday, phone maker Nokia announced plans to develop the N-Gage, a portable device that combines the functions of a phone with a portable game player.
Look out, Nintendo--Nokia wants a piece of the action.
On Monday, phone maker Nokia announced plans to develop the N-Gage, a portable device that combines the functions of a phone with a portable game player.
Few details of the device were available, including price. The n-Gage should be introduced early next year; the Reuters news service incorrectly reported that the N-Gage should be in the market by February. Instead, the phone will be officially announced in February 2003, and shipped later in the first quarter, according to Nokia representative at the company's U.S. offices.
Although Nintendo Ltd. dominates the handheld gaming market, the Nokia spokesman said the company didn't plan to challenge the company directly. "It's a little different idea here, with the idea being that we're not as much a dedicated game platform as much as the idea of connected gaming."
For example, a Nokia user might challenge his friend at the bus depot via a Bluetooth connection, or engae in online play via the phone's GSM network. The phone will support music playback of some sort, the spokesman said.
While Nokia said the N-Gage will be supported by major content providers, Sega Entertainment said it would develop games for the platform, and touted the collaboration as a partnership. Other content providers are expected to join; Nokia likely will not develop its own games for the device.
"It is our pleasure to join hands with Nokia for their innovative project," said Tetsu Kayama, chief operating officer of Sega Corporation. "We promote a multiplatform strategy to supply content to all type of hardware globally and we believe that Nokia and us will create the new-genre of mobile games."
According to this collaboration, Sega will develop games for the Nokia N-Gage mobile game deck, that will run on the Nokia Series 60 platform and the Symbian OS. The branded outbox games will be available separately on memory cards.
Aside from Nintendo, hardware makers have had a difficult time establishing a lasting market for portable game players. Sega itself floated a handheld color video game console in 1991, the Game Gear. Although Sega fielded roughly 140 titles for the platform--which ran on a 3.58 MHz, 8-bit Z80 embedded processor-- the Game Gear was forced to compete with the NEC Turbo Express, the Atari Lynx, and the Nintendo Game Boy.
"Games are an exciting way to communicate and connect with a larger community of like minded people," said Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president of Nokia Mobile Phones. "Rich mobile games, combined with connected near distance multiplayer gaming over Bluetooth and wide area gaming using cellular networks, opens the door for totally new gaming concepts. Mobility will add a whole new dimension to innovative and creative games concepts and will provide opportunities for the games and telecom industry alike."
Over time, the Nokia spokesman explained, the company has added entertainment functions to a device which has been primarily designed for communication. "Instead of squeezing a game onto a phone, we wanted to squeeze a phone into a game (player) and see how that goes," the spokesman said.
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