Nokia N-Gage goes for a major re-launch

WHILE N-GAGE WAS a bit of a dud of a cellphone, the company has decided to take a step backward, read the the market and come back in full force.

The time to return to the limelight started with this E3, since Nokia is here with a huge stand featuring "N-Gage, The Next Generation Mobile Gaming".

Odd thing was, there were no new N-Gage devices, but we saw year old mobile phones running new 3D games, including members of Nokia Series 60. The games were quite OK for mobile fun, and some had a nice replay value, like the Las Vegas Poker with semi-naked ladies or a game of golf.

We had a chat with a couple of really cool and open-minded execs and discussed the whole new approach from Nokia. First of all, we learned that N-Gage would be a whole ecosystem, consisting of software developers, publishers and hardware companies. One of most credited companies for the switch is our old acquaintance, Array Technologies Incorporated Technologies Inc, or ATI for short.

Since the new content distribution models are coming, the company decided that it is time that a new generation of devices gets more than decent software, that come with excellent hardware capabilities. We're talking about Pixel Shaders here, so imagine the graphics possibilities for games once 3D hardware really start to push pixels through the pipeline?

Members of the N-Gage ecosystem will also appreciate the fact that they will be, in the end - able to communicate with each other and who knows, even establish a partnership. For instance, if you are a small developer and want to develop mobile games, what kind of a better start would be if you could find a publisher, which would sell your project to the world? Of course, one of the largest possible software distribution centers is actually owned by Nokia. Ever heard of Club Nokia?

And speaking of the devil, Los Angeles Conference Center lost a parking lot to a big construction site. The name of the construction site: Club Nokia Theatre, opening just in time for E3 2007. Coincidence? µ