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Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

N-Gage QD - Worth It At $99? 69

Posted by simoniker from the don't-fear-the-extended-service-contract dept.
Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing the possible pricing for Nokia's enhanced N-Gage QD mobile phone/game deck combo, which "will arrive in the Western Hemisphere on June 29, where units will sell for a list price of $199." Although "Reports from Europe and Asia--by way of CNN--indicate that foreign mobile phone networks are heavily subsidizing the QD in exchange for extended service contracts", the U.S. price is not yet known - the article points out: "When the QD was initially unveiled, Nokia publicly stated that it expected a carrier-subsidized $99 price point to be common." What price would you consider picking up an N-Gage QD for?
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N-Gage QD - Worth It At $99? More

N-Gage QD - Worth It At $99?

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  • ...in order to Sidetalk [sidetalkin.com], but then I'd probably put it back down again.

    • Re:I'd consider picking it up... (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      But you can't sidetalk on the QD. So it's worthless even for kitsch value now.

      Maybe Nokia will release a sidetalking adapter module for the QD. Couldn't hurt their business, it has nowhere to go but up.

  • Who still cares about the N-Gage? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Vaevictis666 ( 680137 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @07:53PM (#9263765)
    What price would you consider picking up an N-Gage QD for?

    I still won't consider an N-Gage. I don't have or feel a need to have a PDA or cell phone, and all my on-the-move gaming needs are quite well handled with my (non-SP) GBA.

  • No. (Score:4, Funny)

    by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @07:55PM (#9263779) Homepage
    Next question, please.

  • Good question (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rexz ( 724700 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @07:55PM (#9263783)
    What price would you consider picking up an N-Gage QD for? They'd have to offer me at least 100.

  • No (Score:1)

    by huber ( 723453 )
    No

  • Not me, but why does everyone else hate them? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Cecil ( 37810 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @08:07PM (#9263851) Homepage
    I hate cellphones, so I certainly won't be touching one of these. But the gaming side of it doesn't seem all that bad. Why does everyone have such loathing for the thing?

    I mean, I thought Sidetalking was *funny*, not a reason to murder Nokia executives in their sleep. The remove-battery-for-game-switching was a mistake, but I fail to see how it makes someone want to boycott all future products with that name. Is it really that offensive? I know that back before I decided cellphones suck, I would've *loved* to have a cellphone built into my Palmpilot, with text message support and a programming interface and all that goodness. Seemed like an obvious enough combination to me. I don't see how a cellphone and a gaming device are that bad a combination either. Cellphone games are quite popular. An attempt to replace "Scrabble" and "Football Champion" with some more top-end titles just doesn't strike me as something that should evoke such hostility and zealotry. ... yes, I know. I must be new here.
    • The remove-battery-for-game-switching was a mistake

      You are joking right? Alright lets try a different consumer article since I doubt you ever play games. Imagine that to change the video cassete you had to first remove the power suppy from your vcr. Imagine that to change channels on your tv you first had to unplug it. Imagine that to install a piece of software you had to reboot.

      Getting the picture? It is not so much a mistake as a sign that the designers just didn't have a clue.

      It is not like it is sim

      • Insulted the gamers? Give me a fucking break. Nokia had NO experience with handheld gaming, or even gaming in general. It's a failed first attempt. Get over it.

        • Re:The remove-battery-for-game-switching was a mis (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Lynxara ( 775657 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @09:03PM (#9264175)
          I'm not sure a lack of experience is an excuse for a design flaw that severe. If Nokia lacked experience, why didn't they have an R&D team study the design of competing handhelds to get a feel for what gamers would expect? It smacks of a rushed product, and most consumers will feel insulted if offered an obviously rushed product. Why shouldn't gamers feel contempt and distrust for Nokia at this point?

          The intensity of the gamer-culture backlash is unwarranted, of course, but gamer-culture has never really had a reputation for being rational or mature.
      • Imagine that to change the video cassete you had to first remove the power suppy from your vcr. Imagine that to change channels on your tv you first had to unplug it. Imagine that to install a piece of software you had to reboot.
        Imagine that you had to turn off your games console before you changed the cartridge. Wait...
        • Imagine that you have to turn off your phone in order to change games.

          Sorry, but my phone's primary purpose is being a phone. If it wants to double as a gaming device, that's fine. If the gaming feature involves disabling the primary feature temporarily though, then it's a useless feature. Am I supposed to carry a seperate phone in case I get paged or called from work while I'm changing games? The fact that it's not merely turning off the device, but disassembling it too is just insult on top of injury.
          • Imagine that you have to turn off your phone in order to change games.
            I do, I have an N-Gage.

            You're all missing the point. The problem isn't that you have to turn off the phone to switch cards, it's that you have to switch cards . If I want to play a commerical game from an MMC ROM card I have to take out my 128MB MMC RAM card with all my apps installed on it.

        • I know you're trying to make a joke of that, but your comparison is not entirely accurate. It would be accurate if all you had to do to change the game on the N-Gage was to turn it off, but it's not that simple.

          You have to turn it off, remove the battery, and THEN you can change the game. A comparison to a console would be similar to this:

          Imagine that you had to turn off your game console, unplug the power supply, video connection and controllers before you change the cartridge.

    • Re:Not me, but why does everyone else hate them? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Alkaiser ( 114022 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @08:30PM (#9263999) Homepage
      Here's the deal. I actually considered getting one when they were first announced. Not for gaming, but because they were making a cell phone that would go international.

      Then I found out it didn't work in Japan, or most of Asia, so it became useless to me as a cell phone.

      On the gaming end of things, when you insult the owners of 99% of the portables by saying their handheld of choice is "for 13 year olds" and "embarassing to pull out in public" you go from "upstart with potential", to "pointy haired boss with no clue" rather quickly.

      The controls on the thing suck, and the fact that they're trying to keep it a tiny cell phone, without making it a flip phone means that they don't a good game from a hole in the ground. Currently, there isn't a way to play a video game that is as uncomfortable as playing one on an NGage. The QD tried to rectify this but still failed.

      That's why people hate this thing.
      • If you want a cell phone that can go all over the world, check out the Motorola v400 [phonescoop.com] and v600 [phonescoop.com]. They're a bit pricey, but if you want the ability to use it around the world (although you will have to work something out with a provider in each region), they're the best. (Unless you want to get one of those sattelite phones.. but that's just crazy unless you're going to be climbing a mountain.) If you don't like those, just look around for Quad-Band GSM phones.

      • As someone who travels to Japan, South America, and Europe, this is my advice:

        Almost no phone will work in Japan and Europe and the Americas, at least without being very clunky, due to differences in protocols. Japan's cellular system is very different from the rest of the world's.

        Cheaper and more effective would be to get either 2 or 3 phones, and an account with T-Mobile. You could get a tri-band GSM phone for the Americas and Europe, and a Vodaphone J-Phone for Japan, and move the SIMS card between the
    • Tiny screen, shitty form factor, stupid design choices, excessive cost, and games that look like mildly warmed over feces. See also: 3DO, CD-i, Atari Jaguar, and practically every other failed system. Nokia is a phone company, not a gaming company. They tried to meld a phone and a game system and it failed. The hybrid of the two is a horrid design. A much better design would be to either add game functions to a standard phone or add phone functions to a handheld game system. Don't combine the two form facto
    • I'll ignore all the other things about the N-Gauge and look at is as a gamer for you. I'm ignoring design flaws (listed above), the fact I already have a cell phone, don't want a new one, and won't carry two, etc.

      I don't like it. Everything I've seen shows me that I don't like it. Let's see what I see wrong with it:

      • "Must Have Game" - You know what the must have game for the N-Gauge is? Neither do I! I don't know of ANY games for the N-Gauge that are supposed to be great, or even unique. Everything I've s

  • I will not buy one (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ForestGrump ( 644805 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @08:07PM (#9263852) Homepage Journal
    I want Nokia to go back to a design like this
    nokia 8290 [nokiausa.com].
    It is a no frills phone. Doesn't have a camera, doesnt have a gamepad.
    It's small and I love it.

    -Grump

  • Free? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Stigmata669 ( 517894 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @08:10PM (#9263866)
    It seems as though, especially with the bad press/experience that was the original NGage, cellphone carriers and Nokia should be "giving away" the NGage QD. By that I mean slapping the buyer with an 18+ month contract. Or even better, the special "Elite Gamer Package" where the phone is free and you get a new game cartridge "free" every X months paid for by the higher monthly rates.

    I can only assume that they are trying to make money from selling cellphone game cartridges, and in order to attract developers there has to be a large enough market. What's the easiest way to build a market? By giving out the console for free/selling at a loss. Nokia is a giant; they can probably follow the path of Microsoft and the Xbox.

    • Re:Free? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Stigmata669 ( 517894 )
      Well in typical /. style, I didn't actually visit the NGage website, so I have to take back what I said about attracting developers. They already have a huge mass of "fancy" games like Splinter Cell, but my marketing suggestion still stands; If they have all these (potentially) cool games, they should be more than able to make back the price of the phone with a special pricing plan and through game sales.
  • Honestly, you'd think with the bashing they got when they released the first one that they'd give up. It doesn't look like they've changed much except the sidetalking, and that was as much endearing as it was annoying. This new N-Gage is probably going to do as bad or worse than the original.

  • non slashdot-sexy.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @08:14PM (#9263900) Homepage Journal
    ..yet anyone can code for it, it can be used as a decent IRC or IM from anywhere device and you can even browse pr0n from it, hell, you can even post to slashdot. Nokia just can't win, huh? they could have integrated a gameboy advance into it and people still would complain somehow, if not anything else then that they already have a gameboy.

    I could have of course posted "no!!!" as well for some easy karma but hell, n-gage + 256mb mmc with 100mb of cames and 125mb of music is a pretty packed entertainer and when I get home I can tinker with some code for it(also who needs easy karma with a system that keeps you at maxed anyways after the first few months..).

    It's a shame they released so much crappy games as "n-gage" games during the launch, when there's actually quite a bunch of pretty good shareware/on-demand-OTA games for it(that are a: handier since you can put them on any mmc you wish and b: cheaper).

    nobody who I know who has a gba ever keeps it with him anywhere he goes.. the guys who have n-gages(or other s60 phones, none of the stuff aside from the n-gage exclusive games are limited to just n-gage) non-surprisingly DO keep the devices with them.

    And yeah, people do have bough n-gages and are having fun with them as well(well, one couldn't guess that from slashdot though. then again slashdot != the world). Maybe the phone network is 3rd world grade it's less useful though(yeah, USA's networks seem to be really in the dark ages, with all the stories about people who can only call if they go to the backyards ).. one other thing as well: Nokia was pumping steady profits during the past few years when some other mobile phone makers weren't, they're literally loaded with cash they have a need to put into use.

    and the final thing: gameboy advance was HORRIBLY BROKEN IN DESIGN DUE TO THE CRAPPY SCREEN and the fix took quite a while(I know quite a few gba's which are abandoned in drawers because of this, the owners just can't play with them like thought they would be able to, in a bus & etc). at least with n-gages(perfect for shooters like sky force ) screen you can actually SEE the screen.

    I got my issues with n-gage as well though, mainly the mmc changing. however, with the mentioned 256mb mmc that rarely is a problem.
    • "and the final thing: gameboy advance was HORRIBLY BROKEN IN DESIGN DUE TO THE CRAPPY SCREEN and the fix took quite a while"

      Could be fixed with a $10 reading lamp or playing outside. Besides, with all the kick-ass games that came out for the GBA on launch, Nintendo could be forgiven for a small (yes, small!) design flaw. That flaw was fixed with the GBA SP - let's see if the NGage's major flaws can be fixed with the QD, shall we?

      • it wasn't exactly 'small' design flaw(it made it impossible to play with it for most of the time of our mandatory military service for example), the best fix is the 'afterburner' kit but it's not really consumer friendly to install. The little lamps make it somewhat playable but not really nice for the eyes..

        -

  • My Next Cellphone (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @08:19PM (#9263929) Homepage
    Features I Want:

    • Bluetooth
    • Good Java
    • Color screen (more the better)
    • User Accessable GPS would be nice
    • Camera phone (1mp or so) would be very nice
    • Ability to make my own ringtones, etc
    • I want to be able to use my laptop with it (over BT) to access the 'net

    That's about all I care about. So what will it take to get me to buy an N-Gauge? I don't know if it fits the above specifications, so I'll give it my standard test for a new phone that doesn't fit the features I want. I will buy it if...

    1. It's free to me
    2. I'm not forced into a contract
    3. And... that's it

    If the phone is free and there is no contract (ie I pay month-to-month, not that "and my 1st born for the next two years" stuff) I'll take one. You'll make the money off me from me buying games (if you make good ones available) and cell phone fees.

    I have a GBA. I plan to buy a PSP and a DS. Nokia was NEVER on my radar as anything seroius. They have to make it VERY attractive to me to get me to own one (see requirements above), and if a cellphone I like better exists that is acceptable to me, I'll pay for it if I like it. Nokia has basically no hope when it comes to me.

    The N-Gauge is a "cute" idea that was half-baked from the beginning. If they had released the QD origonally, they would be in a bad place. But they put out the origional, so they are just a joke.

    The ONLY hope of survival for the N-Gauge at this point (IMO) is to turn it into "technology" instead of a product. Make MANY phones that play N-Gauge games. Let OTHER cellphone makers make phones that are "N-Gauge compliant". They would all play the games, and they would all play them the same (not phone X is faster than Y, which has a bigger screen). By making it a standard and charging a nominal licensing fee (on games and on phones) they can survive and make money.

    Otherwise, you're sunk Nokia (as far as the N-Gauge goes. I know the company won't go bankrupt over this). Do what I said above, or give up and try again in a few years (and with a different name). You didn't succede with the N-Gauge, and you won't with the QD. Give up, cut your losses (my strategy above), or fail. That's how I see it.

    • Re:My Next Cellphone (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      What if Nintendo made a phone cart for the DS, which had all the electronics/antennas integrated into it.

      You could use the touchscreen for dialing numbers and writing emails, especially with the dual screens you have a dedicated keyboard.

      What do you guys think?
    • The N-Gage (non-QD) has these features:
      * Bluetooth (better than t68i)
      * Good Java
      * Color screen
      * Ability to make my own ringtones, etc (use midi, mp3, a recording of someone's voice, custom per incoming phone number or in general!)
      * Able to use a laptop with it (over BT) to access the 'net

      It lacks this feature:
      * Camera phone (1mp or so) would be very nice

      I haven't been able to get it to GPRS or BT / PPP link to my Linux machine for browsing, though. I've read some of the few tutorials floating around (whi

    • The ONLY hope of survival for the N-Gauge at this point (IMO) is to turn it into "technology" instead of a product.

      This is totally what they should've done. That way the actual case/button design could've constantly be improved upon. They could even easily introduce upgraded, backwards compatible HW this way.

      They could get massive market penetration with their NGage 'Platform'. It would just be about getting as many people as possible to switch to a Ngage phone when they needed a new one. Some folks wou

  • With any plan it's not worth the price.

    I have a cell phone already and it's with Nextel. I don't need a game device/PDA/cell phone. That's just annoying.

    I'd rather buy a Gameboy that has games I know and enjoy and that my friends and co-workers own so I can bum the games off them with no intention of returning them.

  • Let's see. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Inoshiro ( 71693 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2004 @08:27PM (#9263984) Homepage
    We take the poorly designed N-Gage device, remove all the features that made it a cool cell phone (tri-band, movie player, radio tuner, mp3 player), but keep the crappy game play features and make it easier to swap carts (only really done if you play games, but since there are 0 good games anyways...).

    No. When you redesign a unit, you should keep what's good and ditch the rest. As Nokia has no good software, it should've made the N-Gage QD something more like the P900. I mean, at least they could licence iTap from Motorola so their happles users wouldn't have to deal with the ShittiestTextEntryEver!

    • I mean, at least they could licence iTap from Motorola so their happles users wouldn't have to deal with the ShittiestTextEntryEver!

      Are you retarded? Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung are in cut-throat competition in the cell-phone market. Motorola's revenue is primarily from cell phones. Why the hell would Motorola license any technology that would help a Nokia cell phone product?

      (Disclaimer: I work for Motorola, but this post mostly reflects common sense and absolutely doesn't reflect any official com

      • I just know that Motorola has a wicked text entry system, but that they don't have any phones available that meet my price point/feature desires. They don't compete with Nokia it that pricepoint at all, so I don't see why it wouldn't be unreasonable for Nokia to be able to use iTap there with the aid of a licence of some kind (more money for Motorola since they have no phone there, more money for Nokia since more people buy that model of phone).

        It's happened before in oligopolies. Personally, I just wish
  • honestly I would get one if it was 20 dollers. I dont believe NGAGE would be worth paying more than that and even then it would just be to add it to my collection right next to my Virtual Boy and Atari Lynx.
  • I'd pick up the old side-talkin' version for cheap, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. They really needed to put the same features in the new form-factor!
  • I figure with the $99 bucks Nokia would have to give me to go pick up a N-Gage, I can take that and buy a GameCube. So yea, I'ld probably pick one up for $99... ... ... That's what you meant right?
  • I'd pay about $0.02

    Just my $0.02

  • Adapt and Survive (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is hardly surprising; Nokia have said all along that they don't intend to go with the "put out a new product every couple of years" cycle that has characterised the handheld market in the past.

    It's going to be very interesting. In the past, there's been an almost complete Nintendo monopoly on the handheld market. The competitors have sufferered either from hideous design flaws (Sega Game Gear) or a complete lack of worthwhile games (Atari Lynx). Now, however, we have two major competitors moving into
  • Do you have to get the N-Gage with a service plan, or can you just buy it and match it to whatever service you already have?

    On a similar note, why isn't this possible? Or is it? I want to be able to go to Best Buy or something and pick out my dream phone, then go call up a service provider and get them to give me service on it.

    Kind of like modems & dial-up services.
  • I might be interested if I could get an N-gage for $50 with no contract. Otherwise, my plain-old-phone and GBA SP are doing just fine. I'd love to have an all-in-one, but it better be ALL-in-one, not "crappy substitutes for everything in one."

    There's too many big phone + crappy camera + lousy PIM + poorly-designed controls + bad screen orientation devices already.

  • You are not the customers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by garyok ( 218493 ) on Thursday May 27, 2004 @11:12AM (#9266787)
    Yeah, it's a gadget, and a portable console, and a phone, and stuff. But 25-35 year old folks won't be the main customer, it will be mums and dads. They'll buy one for junior because that means they don't have to spring twice for a Gameboy and a phone to keep tabs on their tyke. The QD is a perfectly good piece of kit, and at the 99USD,EUR,GBP price point it's going to get quite a few sales if they advertise it heavily during kids TV. There are plenty of J2ME games that can be downloaded for it too, so mum and dad don't have to keep springing for new carts all the time and junior doesn't look like he'd be having more fun playing with the box.

    Seriously, I think the majority of nay-sayers are totally full of shit on this one. Yes, the original N-Gage was a donkey - ugly, awkward, expensive and therefore by necessity marketed wrongly at the 25-35 demographic. The slinky, reasonably-priced N-Gage QD is going to have a much broader appeal. And so what if it can't render 13 billion multi-shadered dynamically-lit triangles per clock-cycle? That's only really necessary for one type of game. There are plenty of other games that 2D will be just fine for, and they're fun too. Seriously, crack yourself away from the spec sheet for the latest transistor-pr0n from NVidia and ATI and look at all the puzzles, dance games, RPGs, adventures, and other stuff that just don't need stellar specs to be fun.

    In summary, the N-Gage QD will sell like hot-cakes. Everyone programming games for it will be richer than astronauts. I am right and you are all wrong.

    And I'm going to be wearing this post round my neck until I die if I'm wrong :P

    • See people? This sort of thinking is why kids hate their parents. If my parents had bought me an N-gage, I'd stop cutting the lawn. Ok, so I stopped cutting it when they bought me my GBC, but that was because I was playing Tetris 24/7.

      Anyway, it's not going to have more appeal. You think we're all full of shit, but you're striking at the usual straw men. We don't say it sucks because it can't render 13 billion blah blah's per frame. It sucks for many reasons - poor game support, choppy control response, lo

      • You think we're all full of shit, but you're striking at the usual straw men. We don't say it sucks because it can't render 13 billion blah blah's per frame. It sucks for many reasons - poor game support, choppy control response, lousy control layout, the crappy view range afforded by the vertical screen, etc etc etc etc etc.

        You are full of shit, but as a learning experience, I'll be reasonable and tell you exactly why you are full of shit. Let's have a look at those little winnits you flicked at the wo

        • 1. API's don't mean FUCK. Half the gaming hardware out there is a nightmare to program for, but it still gets developers. The N-Gage isn't a nightmare to program for, it's just that NOBODY DOES.

          2. Have you used it? I have. It's not the programmers. The keys feel like they're set in JELLO. I'm not even talking about games. I'm talking about DIALING the goddamn thing. You have to squeeze down on the buttons to get them to do anything, then you let go, they stay pressed for as much as a second.

          3. It isn't li
          • Woohoo! Talk about coming back swinging. You are very right on a lot of your points but you are forgetting something essential: you are a rational consumer - there is no reason to believe this is generally true. People have a short attention span and they don't want last year's stuff. If you can get a game on that machine (no matter what its capabilities or limitations) that captures the imagination of the nippers they'll nag their parents to fuck until they deliver the goodies.

            Then it's rich as astronaut

  • Nokia is trying no one can denny that. First they "fixed" the unit in less than a year and now they are trying to sell it at a much lower price. I have to confess at that price a lot of not tech savy people will pick it up rather quickly, I mean, is a color xga cell phone AND a videogame handheld at less than $100 check around thats not pretty common.

    Unfortunately as a tech savy person I know 2 things:

    1.-If I get any other cell phone I can download free (or very cheap) java based games and applications
  • I would get one for about $-150.00. And thats if I didnt have to subscribe to their wireless service...
  • The screen is still not right and I don't plan on switching away from nextel anytime soon.
  • ...the Tapwave Zodiac [tapwave.com] . Not only it's a decent game machine, it's a nice PDA too!

    PSP, you ask? No way in hell I'd buy anything by Sony!
  • "What price would you consider picking up an N-Gage QD for? "
    At $99, I'd have to be crazy to get one. You could buy a GBA and some games for that amount (even if it's second hand, but that doesnt matter. a game's a game, eh?) I don't have a phone at the moment anyway, so i don't feel the need to have a phone and a games console in one. I don't even feel the need for any mobile phone. Give me my GameBoy any day.
    ---

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