Nokia Cancels N-Gage Platform (Again)

Author	Gordon Kelly
Published	2nd Nov 2009

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If at first you don't succeed... sometimes take the hint and drop it.

Nokia has announced it will be closing N-Gage for the second time. In an official blog post it confirmed:

"N-Gage games can be purchased until the end of September 2010. While the N-Gage.com site together with the N-Gage Arena and other community features will remain in operation throughout 2010, the Ovi Store will be the new central place for all the mobile games that Nokia and other publishers offer from this point forward. We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform."

Instead Nokia will roll all mobile gaming development into Ovi where you can still find major titles such as The Sims 3, Guitar Hero World Tour and FIFA 2010. Community features are on the way to Ovi too with Nokia confirming it is "actively working on offering more community elements" and "we encourage developers to use community features in their applications. Stay tuned - there's more to come on this."

The N-Gage brand has had an unhappy existence for Nokia. It initially debuted as a dedicated handset (pictured top) in 2003 and it spawned a follow up, the 'N-Gage QD', but despite a cult following neither was particularly successful. Nokia surprisingly resurrected the brand in 2007 launching it as a smartphone platform, but again it has stuttered and stalled.