Nokia Declares N-Gage A Failure

chrisbtoo writes "Nokia's VP of corporate strategy has admitted that the company's ill-fated N-Gage was not the success they'd hoped it would be, and they won't develop the platform further. The device sold 2 million units in 3 years, against projections of 6 million. They'll continue to build the gaming software into their Series 60 phones, but gaming won't be a priority for them until 2007." From the article: "The company launched the N-Gage in 2003 but sales have been disappointing and, according to the company's roadmap, mobile gaming will not be a focus until 2007. Nokia is concentrating on mobile music for the rest of this year, and next year's main push will be on driving mobile television."

Am I the first to wonder...

[Spy der Mann]

if we're experiencing a "mobile bubble" similar to the dot com?

Takes Guts

[prichardson]

I think it shows a lot that they were able to do that. In a corporate environment mistakes are simply not allowed, and so lots of failures get beat to death repeatedly, costing the company a lot of money in development and a lot of consumer credibility. To be able to admit that their product was a mistake and move on will do them a lot of good in the long term, even if they suffer in the market a little.

Nokia

[RichiP]

Nokia's problem is that they keep developing stuff in-house without seeming to gather feedback or comments from their market. They really should just host a site where users can post feature requests or comments for their next products. I've seen the N-Gage and while I think it's possible to come up with a gaming platform/cellphone, they didn't do it well.

It sucks

[4D6963]

Not surprising : cell phone games suck. I downloaded packages on P2P with hundreds of Java games for my Nokia 3200, and hardly can find any that's good, they all use tired concepts, they just plainly lack interest. A few years ago it was said that cell phone games would soon be as good GameBoy games, but that's bullshit, none of all the java games I tried is as good as some old arcade gamles from the mid 70's that i play with MAME, you'll have much more fun playing Arkanoid or Space Wars than playing Tomb Raider on your cell phone or Splinter Cell Those cell phone games are a joke

Re:Not worth the hype

[moosesocks]

as a gaming system, it was pretty poor.

if it was usable as a portable gaming system, I think they would have sold the projected 6-million.

the hype was probably responsible for the 2 million sales they DID get.

who wants tv on their phone? seriously?

[dcstimm]

Not only does the quality suck, it uses your call time and its will drain your battery like no other.

Plus I am getting so tired of the commericals for video on the phone that splice High quality video on the screen of the phone so it doesnt look like shit.

Nokia, I could have told you the N-gage would have been a flop the second you released it.

People seem to think if something has good marketing then it will be popular. Not true at all!

Frustrating

[LaughingCoder]

At the time the NGage came out I was doing mobile development (cell phone music downloads). We begged Nokia to build a decent music phone. All we wanted was 16 bit 44KHz stereo audio and room for an SD/MMC card -- nothing exotic. All of their phones, even the Symbian "open OS" phones, were handicapped with mono 16KHz audio which basically stinks for music. Actually, some had 8KHz mono.

When I first saw the NGage I couldn't contain my laughter ... and to hear high level officials of Nokia pronounce that they "would own the portable gaming space" was beyond funny. Any game machine you have to shut off and take apart to change games was not designed by people with a clue. Anyhow, I couldn't help but notice that *NOW* they are going to concentrate on music phones. Unfortunately for them, that horse has already left the barn. They had a golden opportunity, but blew it.

A complete and utter waste of time

[Y-Crate]

With every not-so-great (in my opinion, anyway) gadget, there is always that sliver lining. That one thing that makes you go "At least they tried...it's not so bad, really".

I never had that moment with the N-Gage. Every single aspect of its design seemed to be engineered to piss off the end user and make them throw it across the room in an unspeakable rage.

The screen's aspect ratio was 180 degrees off, the device had to be disassembled to change games, it tried to be the Swiss Army Knife of phones and failed miserably at it...the brutally awful sidetalking "feature" along with the painfully awkward keypad made it something that not even the overpowering hype could render a somewhat decent product in the minds of potential customers.

Most people I encountered wouldn't even use one if they got it for free. Until the PSP came out, there was nothing for gamers who found that the GBA/DS did not offer the kind of game library they were after. They blew a perfect chance, and no amount of hardware revising could correct the fatally undermined confidence that the public had in the entire platform.

Re:Not worth the hype

[Dehumanizer]

Sure I do. That's why I waited for the QD. :)

I only have about 4 N-Gage games, but I also have emulators (NES, GBC, ZX Spectrum), a browser, an ebook reader, email, and some Series 60 games. And I still enjoy it, even though I also have a 6630 (much more powerful, but doesn't fit in my steering wheel, so I can't read when I drive, and doesn't have a decent D-pad like the N-Gage).

Mobile TV

[dnaumov]

Before any of you dismiss it with a "who wants to watch TV on their phone", you should give it a try at your local mobile phone reseller, you will be surprised. I purchased a Nokia 6630 [nokia.co.uk] and you should've seen the jaws of my co-workers when I showed them the latest TV news being streamed to my phone over a 3G connection. The 6630 can play fullscreen 16:9 video and has 16 bit 44Hz stereo sound. On a related note, the was recently a poll in Finland (which is where I live), asking people if they would be interested in watching TV on their phone. Slightly [b]over 60%[/b] answered YES.

nokia 770 limux based pda

[ericcantona]

hmm, wonder if their new 770 [nokia.com] linux based [maemo.org] tablet will suffer the same fate?
It was finally released in europe & US last week and there has been a rush. New stock due in next week

The N-Gage: A gaming device loathed by gamers

[Andrew Lenahan]

A full analysis of "what went wrong" with the N-Gage could easily fill a book, and perhaps it will someday. There were certainly design issues aplenty, especially with the original device.

But more than anything, I think Nokia's major mistake was lack of understanding, perhaps not lack of understanding of gaming as a market or a business or a segment or consumer base, but of actual gamers themselves. I'm sure they must have done some sort of market research, but it apparently was focused more on cel-phone fans and mobile-gadgeteers ("What cool features would you like in a phone?") than on gamers ("what makes a good mobile gaming experience?").

They did market to gamers, or at least a merketing-executive's vision of what a gamer might be like, but it seemed woefully misdirected: one early print ad featured a 1993-style gen-x grunge rocker dude, playing his N-Gage in a totally X-treme manner while atop a skateboard.

The launch titles included some of the hottest game licenses... of the original Playstation of the mid 1990s. Tomb Raider, probably the one game most closely associated with the N-Gage, hadn't been a hot property for years before her N-Gage debut. Once again, the N-Gage seemed drastically out of touch.

The result? At launch, the N-Gage was already (among gamers at least) not much more than a punchline. A Penny Arcade strip from around the launch parodied the launch event at a local game store (nobody came except two employees) and online forums were merciless in blasting the device. It's now three years later, the design has been vastly improved and a few decent games have trickled out, but the N-Gage has never really been more than the butt of jokes. Those who do own one tend to get defencive about it, (it's not my fault, my gran bought it by mistake, etc.) as though having N-Gage is like having some horrible disease. It's been struggling since it came out, and the competition has only increased, with the DS and PSP now vying for more of the marketplace.

But the industry rarely seems to learn its own lessons, no matter how hard they come. Tapwave's Zodiac is already dead, and the Gizmondo seems near certain to follow. How many more millions need to be wasted before someone gets it: before you release a gaming device, understand gamers!

Re:tsk tsk.

[jacksonj04]

A DS, however (Touchscreen) may have an advantage here. Release one with a wireless headset and a Skype interface (WiFi, remember?) and there may be a winner.

Google?

[LWATCDR]

With all that dark fiber they own + WiFiMax I could see a Google branded mobile phone. VoIP. Streaming video, and goodness know what else.
Why? Location based ads. Google Local for you cell is already available but just imagine the ad dollars. What someplace to eat? Click and call baby.