Nokia Closes Vancouver N-Gage Studio

I'm shocked? Really. As a Nokia user, $6 -10 dollars for games that are only worth about $2, which don't transfer over to a different phone if you happen to upgrade or need to buy a new one. Truly this is stocking news.

@J.K.Jerome: I'd imagine because it does nothing to distinguish itself from any old Java game any other cell phone can run in the minds of consumers. I doubt the vast majority of cell phone purchasers use N-Gage compatibility among the requirements when shopping for a cellphone let alone knows what it is. Tying it to the failed initial unit certainly wouldn't help in the minds of the gaming public the service looks to appeal to as well.

@Kobun: The N-Gage 2 is not a phone. It is just software which runs on most N-series phones and some of the E-series phones. So the N95, N97, N78, N82, etc. are all capable of running the new N-Gage gaming software. No, I understand perfectly well my the original N-Gage phone failed. I'm surprised why the new N-Gage service hasn't done very well.

@KnightsofRound:

Have you forgotten about the "Gizmondo" my friend? I bet you a cookie that that device failed on much more epic proportions that the "N-Gage".

Plus, the name, "Gizmondo", was just stupid.

@(seemingly) quality games out for it, but it'll never compete against Apple's juggernaut.

@J.K.Jerome: Nokia already lied about sales at launch, so I wouldn't trust those numbers if the company actually released those figures. I think it failed primarily due to price and just being a hideous phone. The design of the product is terrible. You do not release a crippled phone to a product whose primary function is to be a phone. Nokia forced the game playing aspect too hard. No matter what Nokia would do in the aftermath, the dismal launch and hilarity of "side talkin'" had already doomed the brand to fail.

@KnightsofRound: It didn't fail at side talkin'. The N-Gage does have some good games on it, but no one will ever know since it never caught on. The iPhone is pretty much doing what Nokia tried so hard to do with its unit.

Obviously many of you are completely oblivious to the N-gage 2 platform which has been around since the start of 2008. I'm quite saddened by this news actually. Nokia sold 5 million N-series devices last quarter and I assume similar results are true for previous quarters as well. So I'm guessing that since N-Gage 2 was launched about 30 million N-Gage compatible phones have been sold. That's quite a few really and it should have meant the new N-Gage could have been a significant gaming platform.
I'm not quite sure why it has performed so poorly. The games are no worse than windows mobile games or iphone games. (not particularly exciting either though!) The application itself is easy to use and you can browse the available games and download them directly on your phone. I guess it hasn't been marketed very well.

J.K.Jerome

@Pretty Sneaky Sis:

I'd pretty much forgotten about it after the Sidetalkin/Taco-talkin fad had ended. To be honest, I've only seen 1 N-Gage in public in the hands of someone who'd purchased one, so I figured that Nokia had shut the project down in 2004 at the latest. I can't believe they'd continued to back it as long as they did considering the failure the project had become.

galm666

Crazy, I almost had a job at that studio beginning of this year.

The_Lake_Troll

N-Gage was probably one of the biggest failed attempts at pretty much anything in recent memory. I mean, it pretty much failed at every single thing it was supposed to do. Ouch.

I thought that format was already dead anyway?

@MellowJade: they weren't, that's why it was shut down =P

Oh, okay.

Well at least no more children will suffer from the horror that is the N-gage. But on a serious note I didn't even know the studio was running. Who were buying the games up till now?

Woah, the N-gage studio has been open for this long?! I wonder if we will here anything from the Sega Saturn studios....

Stealth_chill

Only now they are closing their N-gage studio? Really? I mean, the thing was declared a failure a long time ago, and furthermore Nokia has been accused of being behind the game for years. But I guess this is just more proof that Nokia needs to up its game (figuratively) and get with the times.

Alternate

@Karlott: Me neither - I think that says something. How was this place making any money at all?

SpiraUnited

There was still an N-Gage development team o.O? So what did these guys do, drink coffee, eat donuts and read Dilbert comics all day?

And a collective sigh of relief is breathed by gamers everywhere.

Man the N-Gage sucked... but still, feel sorry for all those people who had to lose their jobs.

Really unfortunate.

Superlocke

I have no idea why my N95 was never compatible with their NGage service...

Am I the only one who 100% forgot about the N-Gage?

The N-gage never really engaged the audience. I mean Nokia's not really a bad phone manufacturer, in fact it's one of the few phone manufacturers that actually gives you a good range for your sim even when others don't.

But the gaming aspect, first as hardware platform and now as a software still needs a lot of work. It's nice to see that they're not abandoning it entirely but it's got a curse on it, just like the 3DO. Just rebrand the whole thing already so people will forget N-gage and maybe they can work on something better.

However it is unfortunate that the studio was closed down and that people lost their jobs.

In a way, this is good news. Until I read this I had no idea the N-Gage still existed. So there's that at least.

I'm sure someone is shedding a tear besides those who lost a job on this, but that person insn't me XD