Nokia announces the N-Gage store will be available in November with mobile games from big name publishers
Phones are the one device that most everyone tends to have on their person at all times. The ability to whip out a phone and play games while sitting on the bus or waiting on an appointment is appealing to many people.
Market intelligence firm iSuppli says that the mobile gaming market is set to reach a whopping 184 million users per month by 2010 up from 38 million users in 2005. iSuppli also says that mobile gaming revenues increased by a full 80 percent in 2005 so game developers and publishers are flocking to mobile phone game development to capture some of the lucrative market.
The original Nokia N-Gage didn’t exactly take off; however, Nokia is coming back with games and devices looking to grab a portion of the swiftly growing mobile gaming market. The new N-Gage mobile gaming service allows everyone with a compatible Nokia handset to try all N-Gage games for free.
If customers like the games they try, full versions can be downloaded on a Nokia handset or on a PC. Multiplayer gaming is also supported via the N-Gage Arena.
Nokia says the N-Gage service will be available globally in November and when the service launches users will be able to download the free N-Gage application. The N-Gage application will be embedded in future devices such as the Nokia N81 and the Nokia N95 8GB. N-Gage games sold through the N-Gage Store will retail for between EUR 6.00 and EUR 10.00, or $8 USD to about $14 USD.
A few of the game publishers that will be selling N-Gage games are EA SPORTS, Capcom and Vivendi. Nokia Publishing will also be making games for the N-Gage platform.
The Nokia N81 slider will be one of the first N-Gage devices and will support HSDPA, though Engadgetsays the N81 HSDPA won’t work in America. Other features include integrated speakers, a headphone jack and the phone has 8GB of storage that can be expanded with a microSD card. The N81 also supports video and music files as you would expect. The N81 will retail for about $585 USD.
