New N-Gage Confirmed for this Fall

njkid1 passed on a link to GameDaily's coverage of the new, confirmed, N-Gage. Nokia's ill-fated device is returning, and this time they're already touting some big names attached to the project. EA Mobile and Gameloft, along with other (unnamed) studios are slated to bring new games to the beleaguered handheld gaming appliance. What do you think about this? Will a new N-Gage be able to pull you away from your DS?

Re:I'm so excited!

[Tainek]

If people gave up the first time somthing didnt work, nobody would be having sex....

i applaud nokia for trying again, nokia always seems to be leading in pushing the mobile market further

If they learn, they might make somthing worth having..

Hopeless.

[MaWeiTao]

It's not that someone couldn't develop a portable console that could compete with the Nintendo DS. It's that nobody seems to have the sense to do it right. Nokia doesn't have a history in game development, which is a huge deficiency if they intend on entering the console market. If they could establish a tight-knit relationship with some developer that may help, but that's very unlikely.

The fact that Nokia has mentioned they're looking to EA Mobile and Gameloft to develop games indicates that the N-Gage is already doomed. Let's ignore for a minute the fact that EA generally develops crap. Gameloft makes some good-looking games, but they don't always play well and too much of their line-up consists of licenses. The biggest issue here is that these companies both have experience with mobile phone game development. I doubt they have the skill set necessary to develop games on the level of what's seen for the DS or PSP. No one is likely to see the N-Gage as anything other than an overgrown mobile phone.

So Nokia will likely cram the N-Gage full of features. They'll give it the usual overdone Nokia design treatment that looks outdated within a weak. It won't appeal to their target and will likely confuse everyone else.

The problem ultimately is that the N-Gage is driven by a desire to cash in on what looks like a burgeoning market. It's driven by money. If their motivation was to do something that was truly compelling, if they had a goal of outdoing the competition I'd say they might have a chance. But instead, they're just doing what anyone else might have done, offering nothing new, and hoping buy on to this thing.