Nokia Prepares for Next Phase of Mobile Gaming

Nokia recently held two workshops to prepare developers for its next-gen mobile platform. The Finnish mobile company is aiming to get "N-Gage quality" games or better on a variety of Nokia mobile handsets and devices. The aim is to offer much enhanced 3D graphics and a global mobile gaming community.

While Nokia's N-Gage phone/console hybrid isn't dead by any means, the Finnish mobile phone giant did recently admit that it hasn't been the success they'd hoped it would be.

Nokia's vice president for corporate strategy, Antti Vasara, indicated that going forward N-Gage will continue to be produced primarily for the Indian and Asian markets and that new versions of the N-Gage will not be made. As a company, Nokia intends to put more emphasis on mobile music and TV, but on the gaming front traditional cell phone games on Nokia handsets will be the focus instead of N-Gage.

Enhanced 3D gaming and connecting people

Nokia took some of its first steps towards that goal this month, as the company's next generation mobile games development platform was unveiled for the first time to sixteen of Nokia's first party games developers (from North America, Europe and Australia), during the inaugural next generation mobile gaming workshops in Helsinki, on December 1 - 2 and Vancouver on Dec. 7 - 8. Developers were able to learn about and experience the development platform that will enable them to create "N-Gage quality" games on various Nokia smartphones. Developers also discussed how N-Gage Arena could be leveraged on handsets (not just N-Gage) to connect people globally.


["We believe this new platform has the potential to set a new reference in our industry to bring 3D high quality [mobile] games to the mass market," Xavier Carrillo Costa CEO, Digital Legends Entertainment]


According to Nokia, the company's new strategy is "to expand the N-Gage platform's rich connected multiplayer experience across a wide range of Nokia multimedia devices. This next generation mobile gaming platform includes enhanced 3D game graphics capability and offers user-friendly search, purchase and installation of high-quality rich games as well as connected gaming with instant access to a global mobile gaming community."

"Working with first party developers at each workshop is a crucial initial step to introduce the new end-to-end gaming platform," explained Kamar Shah, Head of Industry Marketing, Games at Nokia. "Our first party developers have already worked on the N-Gage platform and know how to push the boundaries of mobile gaming to ensure that our next generation mobile gaming platform offers a plethora of rich, immersive mobile gaming experiences from launch. Our collaborative workshop format provides our developers with the tools and information to push the envelope on Nokia's new next generation mobile gaming platform."

Developer feedback

The early feedback from developers appears to be positive, and they seem pleased about Nokia's new direction in the mobile games space. Here are a few of their quotes regarding Nokia's next-gen games platform:

"The workshop left us with a feeling of excitement about Nokia's commitment to making mobile gaming a more accessible and widespread experience across millions of mobile phones. Backbone is working closely with Nokia to create distinctive and entertaining games that harness a phone's technical abilities to create unique and compelling mobile games experiences. The recently announced Shadow-Born is a testament to that collaboration." — Joe Bonar, Executive Producer of Backbone Entertainment, which developed RIFTS: Promise of Power and Atari Masterpieces Volume 1 on N-Gage

"Nokia's new next generation games platform is a forward looking end-to-end gaming strategy, and we're excited about the new opportunities it will bring. Nokia is in the position, and is the right company, to make this platform work." — Tadd Jensen, Senior Developer at Barking Lizards, which developed X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse on N-Gage

"Nokia's next generation mobile games platform will allow developers to reduce their development costs by bringing a unique development platform for a wide range of mobiles devices. We believe this new platform has the potential to set a new reference in our industry to bring 3D high quality games to the mass market." — Xavier Carrillo Costa CEO, Digital Legends Entertainment, which developed ONE on N-Gage

"By organizing this workshop, Nokia went through great lengths to actually listen to game developers. By doing so, I'm confident Nokia is taking to right step towards bringing the next generation initiative to gamers." — Martijn Reuvers, B.V. Business Development, Two Tribes, which developed Worms World Party for N-Gage

Nokia expects to hold its next developer workshop at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California on March 20 - 21, 2006.

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