The Gamer's Quarter - Issue #6 - TextFiles.com

the obvious hardware issues prior to
launch and gotten a decent installed
user base. It’s not always a good idea to
listen to gamer opinion when releasing
a game or game console, but in this
case Nokia could have benefited from
responding to their critics. Side talkin’
and removing the battery to change
games were complained about as early
as March 2003, when developers and US
Press first got their hands on the system
at the Game Developers’ Conference. If
Nokia had listened to the criticisms that
arose here they would have saved a lot
of money and ridicule, but instead they
chose to wait until it was obvious that
these things were affecting sales to do
something about them.
On July 26, 2004, less than a year after
the original N-Gage’s introduction, Nokia
released a revised version of the N-Gage
that fixed nearly every aspect of their
ill-fated system: the N-Gage QD. With
this release, the design was modified so
that the player was no longer forced to
remove the battery in order to change
game discs, and, much to the chagrin of
side talkers everywhere, the phone could
now be held like a normal phone. They
also reduced the size, making the outer
edge and buttons rubberized and more
durable in the process. This updated
design wasn’t all pluses though, Nokia
also removed some of the less used
and more costly features, such as the
FM radio, the MP3 player/recorder, and
stereo output from the device’s speakers.
Strangely, despite removing the radio
and music player buttons, an “accept”
button was added, reducing the number
buttons on the QD to a total of twenty
instead of the original’s twenty-one.
With this cheaper-to-manufacture
device the cost of the system was also
reduced. Offering rebates for new cellphone
contracts was explicitly forbidden
by Nokia prior to the release of the QD—
perhaps as a way to make the device
more appealing for standard game stores
to stock—but with the release of the QD,
Nokia actively pushed service-contract
rebates, which would bring the device’s
cost down to $99 from the standard $199
if taken advantage of.
The QD also brought with it the N-
Gage’s most unique feature, the N-Gage
Arena. The Arena was Nokia’s network for
playing N-Gage games online. In order to
start up the service they actually bought
Sega.com, a force that had been instrumental
in bringing the Dreamcast online
just a few years prior. Nokia very clearly
took the Arena seriously, and ended up
creating a service very similar to Xbox
Live; with friends lists, online rankings
and tournaments, game demos, chat, and
message boards all accessible directly
from the phone twenty-four hours a day.
This was Nokia’s greatest achievement
yet, but few games took advantage of it
right away.
With its lower price and vast hardware
improvements Nokia’s system sales
improved. In September of 2004, they
sold their millionth device; far from the
six million they estimated, but much
better than the five thousand systems
sold at launch. Improved hardware alone
would not be enough to turn around the
system’s successes. They would need
better games. The platform continued to
receive nothing but ports of games from
other systems right up until the release of
the QD. Thankfully, around the time the
QD hit shelves, Nokia began to release
internally designed games that seemed
tailor-made for the system. It is unknown
whether the influx of new titles was by
design or by lack of developer support,
but during the N-Gage’s second year,
Nokia finally began creating games that
couldn’t be found or wouldn’t be possible
on other handheld platforms, and some
of them were surprisingly good.
Shortly after their millionth system
sold, the N-Gage had its biggest influx of
games yet. In November of 2004, eight
new N-Gage games were released: Call of
Duty; Requiem of Hell; Pocket Kingdom:
Own the World; The Elder Scrolls Travels:
Shadowkey; Asphalt: Urban GT; Fifa
Soccer 2005; Colin McRae Rally 2005;
and Pathway to Glory. This marked the
first time that Nokia showed a clear focus
on original games, and some of these
games, Pathway to Glory in particular,
were actually very good.
Finally realizing that “if you build it
they will come” only works for baseball
stadiums, Nokia began to show off their
renewed focus on quality to people
who could get the word out, sending
advance copies of the new device and its
upcoming games to a broader range of
major magazines and websites. Sites like
Penny Arcade, who seemed to have done
nothing but mock the system relentlessly
from the beginning, were given a chance
to see how the N-Gage’s faults had been
rectified. Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins
summed up the marked change in competency
in his news post for November 26,
2004: “Are they finally figuring something
out? That they have created a platform
with strengths and weaknesses, and
that development can accentuate one of
those and downplay the other? I’ll be God
damned.”
Nokia had finally weeded out all of
their mistakes and the N-Gage seemed to
be doing everything right. Unfortunately,
November 2004 also marked the US
16 The Gamer’s Quarter Issue #6
The N-Gage is Dead; Long Live the N-Gage
17