N-Gage 2 Pictures Show Evolution Of Handheld?

Roger Ramjet writes "Fan site NGageGaming has reposted a couple of leaked images of what appears to be Nokia's N-Gage 2 phone/gaming handheld hybrid. While the device is similar to the original N-Gage, the keyboard and look has been redesigned, and on the flip side of the phone/gaming device may possibly be space for a camera." Apparently, Nokia "...is expected to have a major press event on April 14 to showcase the upgraded version", and the same fansite is also reporting on the woes of current N-Gage software support, mentioning that "Taito Memories and Marcel Desailly Pro Soccer have both been 'delayed' for N-Gage release."

I don't think it matters anymore...

[Gothic_Walrus]

The N-Gage has been saddled with such a negative reputation that, at this point, I don't think Nokia can do anything to save themselves.

The N-Gage is, for the most part, a joke. People who have them or have used them have a laundry list of complaints about the system. News articles have been anything but positive. Even those gamers who've yet to see or touch an N-Gage still mock it, simply because everyone else does.

Even though it looks like most of the design issues have been fixed, people aren't going to buy it simply because it's an N-Gage.

I'd love to be proven wrong - I'd like to see a competitor for my GBA - but I think that this is doomed to failure because of its predecessor.

Confusion, and contradiction

[Gleapsite]

Whilst the hardware is no different that the original N-Gage,

and

so we're gonna take a stab in the dark here and guess that Nokia have upped the specs on N-Gage 2!

So.. uhhh... they didn't change the hardware, yet they upped the specs... so either they overclocked an original NGage, or there is bad reporting going on and they really did upgrade the hardware. can someone make sense of this?

Re:Yearly Models v. Bidecade Models

[stickb0y]

Nokia, who's a phone maker, is pretty much used to releasing new models almost every year for their cell phone line. Why change this strategy for a video game console?

... because of compatibility and support issues.

For a basic cellphone (I'm excluding smartphones), users really don't install new software. A typical user just uses the phone out of the box. In this scenario, more models means more choices for the consumer, and the support costs should scale about linearly to the number of models available.

The N-Gage is not targeted for this kind of market. The N-Gage requires games--third-party software titles--that users are responsible for purchasing and installing. Now you have to worry about compatibility:

• Backward compatibility. Are future models of the N-Gage compatible with games made for older models?
• Forward compatibility. Do games made for future models work on older models? Are they totally incompatible or is there a well-designed, easy-to-use infrastructure to degrade gracefully?
• User confusion. If games are not fully compatible in both directions, is it easy for consumers to determine what's compatible with what? Can they easily decide which model to buy? If the consumer is too confused, they might pass on the product entirely.
• Developer confusion. If games are not fully compatible in both directions, is it easy for developers to determine what's compatible with what? Can they easily decide which models to target? If the developers are too confused, they won't write software for the product.
• Support. What kind of commitment is there to providing patches and support to old hardware?

If decide that you do want backwards and forwards compatibility, the testing and support costs can increase geometrically as the number of models increases.

There are some good reasons for consoles to have somewhat long lives: they provide a stable market for consumers and a stable target for developers. Unless they plan things out very carefully (and given some of the design flaws of the first N-Gage, I wouldn't count on Nokia to do that), saturating the market with too many hardware variations could have too many potential pitfalls.

Re:I don't think it matters anymore...

[Cody Hatch]

Yeah. At this point, of Nokia really truly wants to be in the game hardware market, they need to drop the name, and ideally shunt the whole idea to some third party - it could even be a subsidiary, but right now, all it takes is the words "Nokia" and "games", and people start snickering.

What they need is a fresh start. Oh, and some decent hardware, of course. :-)

Re:Confusion, and contradiction

[neverkevin]

I think they are talking about the hardware of the phone not the gaming hardware:

"you look in the bottom left of the display you will see "CAMERA", so we're gonna take a stab in the dark here and guess that Nokia have upped the specs on N-Gage 2"

Meaning they added a camera so the ngage 2 will have more features.

I'm a happy N-Gage user..

[jlehtira]

..even though it has its flaws. Or, flaw. Which is the game slot thing. Sidetalking isn't, the device comes with a good hands-free set I find myself using all the time.

Yes, NG is worse for gaming than the gaming-only devices. But, it's a good phone, good mp3 player, good radio, wap&www and even an irc platform. My guess is Nokia never tried to beat gameboy, they intended to make a phone that's good for gaming, not the other way round.

Certainly, if your main concern about electronics is that you might look silly using it (for some weird reason without the hands-free), grow up.