Nokia re-launches N-Gage in N-series handsets and introduces photo sharing site

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Nokia’s gaming service, N-Gage, was finally resurrected on Tuesday. A test version of the game site was opened, the Internet pages of which provide customers at first hand with the possibility of downloading the gaming software to their N81 handsets. Only a few games are thus far on offer.
      Nokia promises that the service will be broadened in the coming weeks to cover several N-series phones.
      More games developed by Electronic Arts and Gameloft will also be included in the supply.
     
Nokia’s N-Gage gaming handset bellyflopped when it was introduced five years ago, and its manufacturing was terminated a year and a half ago. The crescent-moon-shaped clumsy device never took off, despite a massive advertising campaign.
      This time around no special handset is needed for Nokia gaming. Instead, the N-Gage software and games are meant to work on all of the N-series phones already on the market. Some of the future phones, however, will be designed specifically with gaming in mind.
      The new N-Gage experience has suffered from certain initial-phase complications. Last August Nokia announced that the new gaming platform would be launched in November. Continuous problems with the software, however, have repeatedly delayed the introduction.
     
On Tuesday, Nokia also introduced a new photo sharing community called Share with Ovi, which can be found from Nokia’s ovi.com pages.
      The community is a revamped version of the Twango community taken over by Nokia last year. Share with Ovi provides the users with the possibility to upload photographs to be shared with friends or the entire community.
      The Ovi site is also still in its early stages, and more features have been promised for later on in the spring.
      At the Mobile World Congress 2008 starting in Barcelona next Monday, Nokia is likely to shed more light on the development of its Internet services. Presumably some new devices will be spotlighted as well.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Analysts: Nokia rethinking game phone strategy (4.5.2006)

Links:
  Nokia Press Release
  Nokia Ovi
  Nokia N-Gage
  Mobile World Congress 2008, Barcelona

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