Nokia to Shut Down N-Gage

10.30.09

 

by Mark Hachman

Nokia said Friday that it plans to shutter its N-Gage gaming platform, shutting the N-Gage store down in Sept. 2010 and no longer including N-Gage services on new phones.

Instead, the world's largest mobile phone company will try and shift its customers to its Ovi Store, which also houses games like Pac-Man and The Sims 3. The Ovi Store is already supported by 100 Nokia device models, and will be pre-installed on most new compatible Nokia devices, including the Symbian S60 and Series 40 phones, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Nokia positioned the Ovi store as serving a broader segment of users, no just gamers. "As mobile gaming evolves and begins to encompass social gaming, we want to offer one store front with an even broader portfolio of games – games for everyone," Nokia said on its N-Gage blog. "It's much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile games, and this it what Ovi Store (https://store.ovi.com/games) provides. Mobile gaming is one of the most popular activities in the Ovi Store, with games being the #2 most downloaded category for premium content. And besides having all mobile games in one place, people can access other services like Mail, Maps, Music and many more via www.ovi.com."

Nokia thanked the community of N-Gage gaming community. "Thank you for being part of the N-Gage community and your participation over the years," the company said. "It is important we share this information with you first as we know how much the N-Gage Community means to you, and that being up to date on the latest gaming information is of importance."

N-Gage games can be purchased until the end of September 2010, the company said, and high scorews can be posted to the N-Gage Arena community site throughout 2010, when the community features will be disabled. After that, all N-Gage games will continue to work, although the community features will be disabled.

The original N-Gage launched in 2003 to mixed reviews, followed almost immediately by price cuts. Following the launch of the N-Gage QD, Nokia launched the N-Gage 2.0 in 2007. It launched the N-Gage gaming service in 2008.