Nokia Slams GameBoy, Discusses N-Gage

Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for writing up an article discussing Nokia's most recent comments about their N-Gage portable phone/game deck, which launches later this year, and will be at least partly competing against Nintendo's all-conquering GameBoy Advance. Most notably, Nokia boss Ilkka Raiskinen is quoted as saying "GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place."

He might have a point

[nicksthings]

But by the same token, if you're out on a Friday night and you "draw" anything out of your pocket to play a game you either:

a) Need to find new friends and/or friends. Period.
b) Need to find a new place to hang out on Friday nights.
c) Should get punched in the face.
d) Are a huge doofus.
e) All of the above.

Cell phone games sure are a neat waste of time, but if I'm going to blow $300 on a portable gaming system it has to blow me, too.

Target demographic

[oskillator]

Nokia seems to have learned the wrong lessons from Microsoft's X-Box marketing strategy. They need to remember that the "insult your apparent target demographic" gimmick only works if you're using it as part of a billion dollar campaign to convince regular people that it's socially acceptable to buy your product.

Noika Slams GameBoy!

[ArmorFiend]

• Noika Slams GameBoy!

in other news:

• AT&T badmouths Atari 2600!
  
• IBM hammers Colecovision!
  
• Sprint exec calls Vic20 "a toy"!
  

Shouldn't they pick on someone their own size?

Friday night

[dirtyhank]

Honey, is that a GameBoy in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

hrmm...

[Artemis P. Fonswick]

If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place.
They obviously haven't hung out with anyone at Slashdot on a Friday night.

And if their target market is 20-25, I doubt their ad-campaign [nokia.com] is going to be very productive.

"Dude! I need to get an NGage so I can be bitchin!!"

Is that a threat?

[jpr1nd]

"If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place." ... because a crack team of nokia ninjas will emerge from the shadows and beat you down (??!)

BEWARE THE NOKIA NINJAS

Buisness Plan

[Rudy Rodarte]

1. Come out with a new portable video game system.
2. Insult potential customers
3. ????
4. Profit!!!
Actually, after that comment, I will never buy this poor waste of landfill space!

Dear Nokia:

[lightspawn]

I visited n-gage.com, but couldn't find the pages with the game screenshots.

Could you help me find them? Thank you.

I am very excited about the names of the forthcoming titles. As many as two or three of them I could not recognize from my gamestop GBA section. I am sure they will be excellent, and even the games that do exist for the gameboy will be much better for the n-gage.

P.S. Last week I saw a really hot chick and I think I might have had a chance with her, but she saw my gameboy SP and ran away. If possible, can you send me an early copy of the n-gage or even a mockup so that I can score the next time I see her?

Wow...

[Guppy06]

"GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place."

I must say, Scandanavia is the last place I'd expect Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf to pop back up...