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."

my thoughts

[funkmastermike]

"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 used to play with my gameboy a lot back in '89 and played it to death until I got my gameboy color. Back when I was young, it was fine for me to be playing it until it did indeed seem to be a bad idea to draw my gameboy out when I was in high school or with friends as it seemed like kiddie stuff.
I fit the 20-25 age group but now it is cool again to play. People don't give a fuck. Many times they're more interested in what video game you're playing so they can check it out also. Video games have become so commonplace that seeing the new professional, shiny, and slick gbasp in silver makes me look godly. I would think that buying a $300 phone just to play some games seems like a bad idea imho.
I could just imagine my friends say "WTF? you have a gameboy for portable games and its cheaper. You idiot.. you got fucking ripped off".

On a certain Friday night

[L-Train8]

I went to see the Matrix opening weekend, and I counted 5 GBA's in the audience while we waited for the show to start. Since this was a rated R movie, it was mainly comprised of the demographic that Mr. Raiskinen says would be too embarassed to use a GameBoy. So, based on my experience, he's pretty wrong. But I'm not the guy who's trying to sell crappy cell phone/video game thingies.