Blog > Archive for the ‘Noteworthy’ Category

We know all of you are eager to get started with N-Gage First Access, and we are just as eager to get it into your hands and start hearing your feedback. We have teams of people around the world, literally, working overtime to deliver this experience to you.

Unfortunately, as can sometimes happen in software development, unexpected difficulties can occur. We have been doing an internal run with more than 1,000 global testers this week, and during this process we uncovered an issue we feel we need to address. Overall, the games and service are working smoothly, but because of this issue, we feel we could not release N-Gage First Access before the holidays as planned.

As we work on a solution, we will continue to polish the overall experience, ready more games for N-Gage First Access, carry on our extensive internal testing over the holidays, and prepare for the new year and the new wave of mobile play.

Hey everybody, we are rolling out N-Gage next week!

Those of you who have a Nokia N81 or N81 8GB will have exclusive access to the pre-release version of the N-Gage application and one or more N-Gage games!

At the same time, we’ll open up our N-Gage First Access forums, where you can give us your feedback on the experience, make suggestions, and help us co-create the N-Gage games service.

So be sure to check back next week, when N-Gage First Access begins.

Yes, it’s true! A press release has just been issued announcing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be coming to N-Gage. From the release:

Nokia, THQ Wireless, Lucasfilm, and LucasArts today revealed that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is coming to N-Gage, Nokia’s next generation mobile gaming platform, in 2008.
 
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed casts players as Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice” and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy.  The game’s expansive story is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
 
The mobile version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is in development by THQ’s Finland-based studio, Universomo.  Using Cell Weaver(TM) technology, the game lets the player harness the Force while assisting Darth Vader in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi - and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.

UPDATE: We have posted screen shots, a video, and an interview on the main N-Gage.com website.

The Nokia N95 8GB has begun shipping to selected markets — check out this device page on N-Gage.com for all the juicy details on this multimedia computer.

But as the name suggests, one of the key features is the eight gigabytes of memory built right into the device.

As part of the rollout, and to show off this storage capacity, there is a special version that is coming pre-loaded with a full-length feature film.

The film is Spider-Man 3, the third installment in the Peter Parker saga from Sony Pictures Entertainment. The special version of the N95 8GB with the film preloaded is available in Europe and selected markets in Africa and the Middle East. It also includes Spider-Man goodies such as a ring tone, wallpaper, and a screen saver.

How to start the movie:

Go to Menu -> Video Centre -> My Videos
Select “Spider-Man 3″
The movie will begin automatically and it will play in full-screen landscape mode. The My Videos folder also includes a movie trailer.

It’s pretty amazing that devices like these today have so much memory they can come preloaded with an entire film. Makes you wonder what’s in store a few years down the road — maybe a device with all twenty seasons of The Simpsons pre-installed, or the entire film catalog of Stanley Kubrick.

On your phone multimedia computer.

Greetings from London and the Nokia Go Play event!

The event was held at the Old Billingsgate, a old Victorian market building on the scenic bank of the Thames river. Several hundred guests attended to hear the latest Nokia news, including the official N-Gage announcements. The N-Gage experience area was lively all day with interested journalists, analysts, and other industry guests who wanted to see the N-Gage experience up close.

The N-Gage application was being demo’d in the center stand of the area, and there were three featured game themed areas. Plenty of newly announced N81 devices were on hand to play with.

Guests who played Creatures of the Deep sat in a recreated London bus (upper deck). As they were playing, the surrounding scenery suddenly changed from a London cityscape to a underwater deep sea space complete with sharks.

Asphalt 3: Street Rules featured a serene park bench for game players, who then found themselves suddenly in the path of an oncoming race car.

Those who wanted to try out FIFA sat in a recreated bus stop immersed in the sights and sounds of football/soccer action around them.

Well, now on to the party at the Ministry of Sound where our guest will be treated to a live performance by Maroon 5!

Over and out,
pinkie

Update! Here are some pictures from the Ministry of Sound event party:

Guys, also be sure to check out emo185’s forums posts. He’s got videos and pictures from the event, and talks about his hands-on experience with some of the new N-Gage games. Great job emo!

-ikona

Nokia, the world leader in mobile communications, announced today that they are teaming up with Vivendi Games Mobile, a division of Vivendi Games, to bring the legendary Crash Bandicoot franchise to Nokia’s new N-Gage mobile gaming platform launching this fall.

Crash Bandicoot follows the original storyline where the crazy marsupial must save the world.

Jam packed with action and comedy, the player must take on the role of Crash to defeat the game’s villain and mad scientist, Dr. Neo Cortex.

More information about the Crash franchise can be found at the official Crash Bandicoot web site.

Well they say if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.

Today N-Gage hit the business section of the New York Times, the most prestigious newspaper in the United States, with a meaty article giving the background of the original effort along with a taste of what’s to come.

Key takeaway: according to the Times, “This week, Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, will revive N-Gage as a multiplayer gaming service that will work on its popular line of smartphones.”

The article goes into some detail about the size of the mobile gaming market, Nokia’s share in worldwide handset sales, and other details you’d expect in a business section article.

But it also spends a good deal of time talking about how Nokia worked with the design firm Ideo to design a newer, more streamlined gaming service with broad appeal. The teams traveled around the world, interviewing gamers from Shanghai to San Francisco, to develop the next generation of N-Gage.

The results are exciting, according to those who spoke to the Times.

Tomi Huttula, a Nokia product manager, said, “Today’s phones are so capable. The graphics problem has been removed. And phones today are always connected and you always carry them with you. Phones are now the perfect device for gaming.”

Be sure to read the article now, as after a short time it will go behind a subscription wall.

Direct from the official press release:

Nokia and Capcom today revealed that Capcom will be publishing games on N-Gage, Nokia’s next generation mobile gaming platform, in 2008.  Capcom is the first Japanese based publisher to show their commitment to N-Gage, which makes its global debut later this year, ushering in a new era for games on mobile devices….

“Capcom has been highly successful in the mobile market as a result of the company’s commitment to innovation and faithful conversion of some of the world’s greatest video game franchises. With classic titles such as Mega Man, Street Fighter and Resident Evil, and contemporary brands such as Phoenix Wright, Capcom has captured a wide audience of fans, in terms of age, gender and game playing ability.”

No official word yet on which Capcom franchise or franchises would be coming to the platform.

Not much to add here guys except … wow!

Sharp observers have already noticed that the GC Developers Conference site includes the new N-Gage logo.

Nokia is a sponsor of this year’s GCDC conference, and we gave a keynote speech discussing the next generation of mobile gaming. So it shouldn’t be too surprising that we’d want to unveil our new logo there.

I can confirm that yes, this is the new N-Gage logo. In fact, I can do you one better.

Here is a small, animated version of the new logo (Windows media format, 98kb). Have a look, then tell us what you think!

This isn’t N-Gage-related but I thought it was too cool to pass up. Google released a street level, photographic overlay today, a beta feature that adds street-level photographs to its popular interactive mapping software.

Want to see where Ikona, Redrum, Congested and the rest of the Arena crew live, work and breathe? Follow this link to the Nokia office, click on the “STREET VIEW” button.

Then rotate the camera around until you see the big red brick building with the logo of another, cough cough, prominent gaming company. Here’s a short tutorial that shows you how the service works.

Only a few cities are covered right now, but you can see where this is going, give or take a few years. Lost somewhere? Pull out your mobile and follow the photographs home. =)