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Rumor: Next-gen N-Gage garners interest
Remember the N-Gage? Some of you may even have one in a dusty drawer, yearning for some love. Handheld website Pocket Gamers claims that Nokia held a two-day "top-secret workshop" in Santa Monica so that publishers and developers could have a look-see at the next-generation version of N-Gage.The list of companies present include Square Enix, Capcom, Sega and Sony Online Entertainment, among others. However, how Pocket Gamers managed to obtain "top secret" information makes this very suspect, not to mention SOE's presence, who would likely only show up as reconnaissance for Sony's own handheld, the PSP. The article further claims that another two-day workshop is being planned in Madrid to show the new N-Gage to European companies and that Nokia will publicly unveil the new handheld at this year's Game Developer's Conference.Noting that Nokia had an E3 2006 booth showing off some N-Gage titles, despite abysmal sales, it is plausible that the phone company is working on N-Gage 2.0 and is looking to garner some third-party interest; however, we don't want N-Gage fanboys (population: 3 or 4, maybe) to look at this story as definitive lore. We'll see if anything new comes our way leading up to GDC.[Via Eurogamer]
Sunconnection kicks out handheld PMP / do-it-all, smells like N-Gage
We've seen a fair amount of N-Gage-esque devices hit the international front, and shoving more and more functionality into gizmos we Americans will probably never touch is becoming quite the fad, but Sunconnection's SC-VP128SD combines the short-lived goodness of Nokia's handheld with Japan's (apparent) all-in-one mentality. The device sports an orange or black color scheme, 128MB of storage, an SD slot, USB 2.0 connectivity, AV in / out (NTSC / PAL compatible), built-in equalizer, a 2.5-inch LCD, voice recorder, and a "digital video camera" that can purportedly snap stills or record full motion video to your SD card. Additionally, it plays nice with MP3 / WMA on the audio front, while playing back ASF video files as well, and weighs in at just 90-grams. Although we've certainly seen sexier multi-tasking handhelds hit the market, there's not much to complain about here for just $84 -- except for its absence in the US, of course.[Via Akihabara News]
Nokia to re-enter games market, compete against PSP & DS
"The consumer will have to make a decision: does he want a standalone gaming device with a limited browsing capability or a phone with an MP3 player, a camera and a bloody good games platform? I think consumers will be prepared to spend £300 on a phone that offers all those different things rather than £100 to £150 for a standalone games machine."Martin O'Driscoll, the new head of Nokia's games division, is getting ready for a fight, according to Mobile Entertainment. After the colossal failure called the "N-Gage," Nokia is ready to go back into the portable games market, reinvigorated. As previously reported, it appears that Nokia will attempt to one-up Sony's strategy with the PSP, by offering even more functionality than Sony's portable. However, one should make note that more features doesn't necessarily equate to more sales, as the DS has proven in the handheld wars.Will Nokia be able to survive a battle against Sony and Nintendo? Maybe, maybe not. However, if gaming cell phones catch on, Sony's sure to have backup ready.[Via Esato]
Mobile market shows signs of stagnation
Mobile gaming research firm M:Metrics has published data showing March 2006 from a mobile gamer's perspective. The firm claims that the mobile market is stagnating; the number of mobile gamers is remaining constant month-on-month with only a tiny fraction of mobile phone users (0.5%) downloading their first game in March.The percentage of phone users who use their handset for downloadable games is low, with the UK standing at 4.7% and the US at 2.7%. Given the millions of mobile phones in the market, that still represents a large number of consumers, many of whom are repeat customers. However, a lack of compelling reasons to buy new titles -- as well as high prices -- are putting consumers off. After all, already-downloaded and preinstalled games fit the interstitial nature of mobile gaming just as well as brand new releases.
The "QD" in "N-Gage QD" doesn't stand for anything
Straight from the horse's mouth: we just rang up Nokia's PR guy and he told us that the "QD" in "N-Gage QD" doesn't stand for anything, it's just a couple of random letters that they picked because they wanted a name that didn't mean anything in any particular language. But why not just call it the N-Gage 2, since it is the follow-up to the first one? He didn't have a good answer for this, but we're guessing that it could be because they plan to keep selling the original N-Gage alongside the new one, at least for a little while, and it's easier to market an older product if there isn't something that is so obviously its replacement already out (sorta like how Nintendo has both the Game Boy Advance and the Game Boy Advance SP).
