Keynote: The Next Generation
Gregg Sauter, our head of third-party game publishing, said that Nokia would not be announcing an N-Gage 2 at the Game Developer’s Conference this week, and in fact never will. And then he explained why.
Speaking to a strong showing of developers and publishers in a keynote address, he demonstrated how N-Gage is becoming a software platform tied not to a single mobile but a wide spectrum of compatible devices — and why that is so exciting to game developers and game players alike.
Millions and Millions
He shared some eye-opening statistics to drive that point home:
Globally, Nokia has about a one third market share of mobile phones. Each day, 850 million people use Nokia devices.
Of those, the number of so-called “convergence devices” is rapidly increasing. In 2006, 80 million convergence devices were sold worldwide, half of which were from Nokia. By 2008, that number could grow to 250 million, a hefty percentage of which could be N-Gage compatible.
That is an exciting proposition to anybody interested in mobile gaming: publishers, developers, operators, and of course, you gamers out there. Think about how many people you could be playing with. Think of the volume and diversity of games such a widely-adopted platform could attract.
And while specific devices that will be N-Gage ready at launch were not revealed — after all, some are still in secret development — he did confirm that we are targeting a Fall 2007 rollout.
Summing Up
Sauter also covered the N-Gage application (which you can explore on your own by checking out the “Next Generation” section of this site), and some technical stuff about the SDK for developers. He concluded his presentation by assuring us that, “Nokia has invested a lot in this business and we believe in it.”
The full text and video of Sauter’s presentation will be available on the GDC website soon. When it is, we’ll get you a link so you can see the presentation for yourselves.
Until the next update…
– Ikona out
March 6th, 2007 at 9:55 am
The concept is awesome and I can’t wait to see if my N80 is compatible with it
March 6th, 2007 at 10:00 am
still waiting some new hardware. please show as n-gage platform based cheap and widescreen device.
March 6th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
that is sad to know that a new phone is not on the cards. ..but the idea is correct. . .but i will still prefer ngage to be a sep. brand of phones rather than being a add-on for other s60 phones. . . and those phones will be costly as ever! what kind of a gamer would want that kind of a mobi-gameing console?
March 6th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I’am glad that Nokia decide to not make a new gamers device, but expand their new platform N-Gage in to a number of N-series devices. This will allow Nokia to make the lifetime of the platform practically infinite because while devices are changing, the platform stays on its own just increasing in the functionality. The technical progress of the devices compensates by increasing an application quality (i.e. shader models, millions of polygons per frame and so on).
So the new N-Gage is like a library of games that will grow from year to year no matter how far the graphics progress will come.
Now the only one question I’d like to hear is: when the new N-series device will be release and of course the functionality of this device (i.e. the CPU, GPU multimedia options and so on)?
March 6th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
atleast tell us if the N-gage Qd/classic is compatble or nt?
March 6th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
You know that the price of a mobile gaming phone is irrelevent (scuse spelling). The article above is based on the statistics of mobile phones available out there. People are willing to pay a decent amount of money on cellular phones and they’re not neccessarily looking at buying a gaming phone. As for gameplay I’ve used the N93 and it is wicked, I mean the fold up landscape view D-Pad on the correct side … yeah it’s kinda expensive but it’s worth the money with all of the functions, amazing camera … well S60 freaks know all the functions any how. Anyway I hope Next-gen makes a mark with all of the designer support … it’s time for a change.
March 7th, 2007 at 2:45 am
no n-gage 2!!!!!????
so I’ii not hold ,I think i wii buy a x-box360soon
March 7th, 2007 at 6:42 am
Cmon, NeW NGAGE DEVICE PLZ
March 7th, 2007 at 11:16 am
There wont be any New N-GAGE DEVICE, forget about it!
March 8th, 2007 at 7:31 am
no n-gage2 means i’ve wait for nothing within this 2 yrs! what a waste of time..
March 8th, 2007 at 7:33 am
NDSL is my better choice now!
March 10th, 2007 at 2:19 am
Max n-gage/qd are not compatible
March 15th, 2007 at 6:31 am
i may want a psp now cos it’s so cool
October 13th, 2007 at 9:16 am
This is not fair.N gage has a dedicated fan following unlike any other phone.by creating just another platform Nokia will disappoint fans like us.this will encourage cell phone makers like Seimens,LG and Samsung to make dedicated gaming cells.