N-Gage in the New York Times

Published by ikona on August 27th, 2007 in Noteworthy, Nokia, N-Gage, News

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.