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The WDN Symbian DevZone... The Nokia N-Gage, new opportunities for Games Developers
by Richard Bloor, December 16, 2002
The Nokia N-Gage was previewed at the recent Nokia Mobile Internet Conference; a new class of
mobile devices targeted squarely at the mobile gamer it is apparently the first of many such
devices from Nokia. Games software will be delivered on MMC cards allowing far richer games
to be delivered than would be possible with current OTA technology. We spoke to Loren Shuster,
Director, Entertainment & Media Business Unit, Nokia Mobile Phones Asia Pacific to find out a
bit more about development opportunities offered by this device.
- Printer Friendly Version
 At this years Nokia Mobile Internet Conference in Munich, Germany, Anssi Vanjoki Executive Vice President,
Nokia Mobile Phones, previewed the Nokia N-Gage, a new games deck device. Based on Series 60 this device
is squarely aimed at the mobile gamer. While Nokia have not made too many details about the device public,
we will have to wait until next year for that, I spoke to Loren Shuster, Director, Entertainment & Media
Business Unit, Nokia Mobile Phones Asia Pacific to see what I could find out, specifically about the
opportunities for games developers.
WDN: Loren perhaps I can start by asking about Nokia’s motivation for building a games centric mobile device?
Loren: Nokia sees a huge opportunity in terms of the mobility aspect of gaming. Obviously Nokia’s heritage is in the mobile space and with mobile technology. We strongly believe that bring mobility through mobile technology to the gaming experiences will create a compelling proposition for gamers.
WDN: But users can already play games on the existing and planned Series 60 phones from Nokia, so what is the advantage of the N-Gage?
Loren: Well, firstly the game deck devices category and this first one, the Nokia N-Gage, is ergonomically optimized for gaming. Secondly is that the games that we plan on developing, both ourselves and with third party games developers and publishers, will be distributing to consumers on physical media using MMC ROM cards. This allows us to deliver larger games, ones that provide a much richer gaming experience to consumers.
WDN: You called the N-Gage the first game deck device, so there will be more devices in the future?
Loren: Yes, the Nokia N-Gage is what has been announced, but clearly the game deck category is important to Nokia, we do plan to be in this business for some time to come and there will be other devices in the future.
WDN: Are there other reasons behind selling the games on MMC ROM other than the ability to deliver well featured products?
Loren: The driving reason is to provide a much richer gaming experience, the device is designed for that purpose so it is congruent with providing that richness in the games. However games developers make a big investment in games titles and copying is therefore an issue; the MMC cards will be using our copy protection platform technology to ensure that the developer’s property is protected.
WDN: Presumably however it will still be possible to deliver smaller games over the air to the N-Gage?
Loren: Of course, Nokia N-Gage is using the open Symbian based Series 60, so games developed by any third party, in Symbian C++ or Java will be loadable via an Operator, over the air or through other channels. So these, perhaps I can call them lighter games, will certainly also be available for Nokia N-Gage.
WDN: If someone wants to develop a heavier game, how do they go about getting it onto the MMC cards?
Loren: Our focus and strategy with the Nokia N-Gage and the game we will deliver on MMC is to work with the top gaming publishers so that we secure top quality gaming content. So this means that the MMC cards are not an open platform where we are soliciting a wide range of developers. We have established a publishing team who is responsible for securing the games for the MMC cards. As you already know we have announced an agreement with Sega and you can expect other high profile developers to be involved as well. In addition we will also publish games directly under the Nokia brand.
WDN: So if you are a smaller games developer who has not yet got the profile of a company like Sega is there anyway you can get involved?
Loren: The games publishing team will be soliciting and filtering games, in conjunction with Forum Nokia. Certainly if a developer is able to fulfill our criteria then we would welcome the opportunity, either working with Nokia under our brand or possibly their own, to deliver their games as part of the N-Gage program.
WDN: When the N-Gage was previewed at NMIC the date of February was mentioned, is this when we should expect to see the N-Gage launched?
Loren: Yes in February we will be launching the Nokia N-Gage officially, providing the full details on specification and announcing the initial games line up. From there we are expecting to be shipping the Nokia N-Gage to retail channels over the following months.
It is interesting that Nokia have decided to keep tight control on the content that is delivered through the MMC cards given the openness of Symbian OS and Series 60. However while Nokia obviously believe there is scope for expanding the games market it is already quite mature and has a demanding customer base. Only by bring games from well know names in the games software industry to the N-Gage can Nokia guarantee a high level of interest and take-up. Obviously a number of smaller developers already working on Series 60 will find this move frustrating, even though they can still deliver games by conventional means. The opportunity does exist to be involved if they can prove to Nokia that they have both the ideas for games and the technical capability to undertake quality development.
I understand that Nokia are looking for developers who can develop rich, high value games for a target audience aged between 15 and 30 years old. Obviously these games need to be based on Symbian OS. Given the association with Nokia’s brand they will evaluate the suitability of these games, it is unlikely that games with questionable themes or content will be considered. The other main factor in evaluating the games will be their fit in to Nokia’s current and future games catalog.
You can contact the Games Publishing team via the Forum Nokia website by submitting your details on the Business Opportunities page (http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/1,35452,00,00.html).
About the WDN Symbian Editor, Richard Bloor:
Richard Bloor has 16 years experience in the IT industry. His earlier
work was largely in design and development of commercial and
manufacturing systems but more recently has focused on
development and test management of government systems.
Richard Bloor is the Mobile Applications champion at System
Architecture consultancy Equinox of Wellington, New Zealand.
Richard can be reached at rbloor@wirelessdevnet.com.
See Also:
Symbian DevZone Home
Nokia DevZone Home
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