The N-Gage at E3 2006 - Machiavellia Would Be Proud

Published by Ewan Spence at 14:15 BST, May 15th 2006

I spoke recently about Nokia and the slow emergence of the next generation of mobile gaming. At that point, the Nseries devices had one or two custom N-Gage games in the ROM. Nokia have put on a strong showing at this week’s E3 gadget-porn exhibition conference. Still proudly showing off the N-Gage brand, Nokia have brought a number of impressive titles to Lon Angeles.

No longer seen as being in competition with the likes of the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS, the experience gained in marketing the 'N-Gage classic' pair of devices is clearly showing. Confident programmers, a thorough understanding of multiplayer and connected gaming over a mobile connection, and knowledge that only being in the gaming market for a number of years can bring. The games are split along two lines. The first are the ‘full’ games, in C++, and the second are the Java based games that take advantage of the online experience Nokia now has. The full C++ games first of all. As many of you know, or can read comments and see the problem, the latest Nokia S60 devices are all using S60 3rd edition. This means there is no binary compatibility with the original N-Gage. In short, you can’t take the code of the original N-Gage games and put them on an N93. And anyway, with a number of the first games (e.g. Puzzle Bobble), you’d really want to bury them so far underground that people forget about them.

The move to S60 3rd Edition has been telegraphed for a long time though, and the developers behind these flagship titles aren’t bedroom coders. You can be sure that each game has been programmed in the modular way that Symbian has always recommended. Keep the game engine separate to the drawing routines, to the processor calls, and so on. So while the code-base may be measured in Megabytes, it’s highly doubtful that an entire re-write would be needed. And given that they knew this would be coming, later titles such as Snakes and System Rush would be ready for the change.And you should all note that the aforementioned titles are shipping in the firmware of the N70 and N93. So it’s fair to say that Nokia have a massive number of titles, ostensibly from the N-Gage, that are ready to rock and roll over the entire Nseries range (and potentially further). Titles like Warhammer. Like Civilisation. Like Atari Legends. Like “One” (which gets a deserved sequel). Now, the other titles are probably less flashy, but are actually more important in the short to medium term – and are also much more attractive to the carriers. These games (Creatures of the Deep, Pocket Aces, Pro Series Golf and Space Impact) are Java titles, but come with online support through the SNAP mobile gaming system.

Just before the N-Gage was first launched, Nokia picked up a number of technologies from the Sega Dreamcast home console, and one of them was the Internet/multiplayer technology SNAP. Work on the N-Gage Arena was already progressing and, while a lot of the experience (and hardware) went to the N-Gage, the system was targeted to provide multiplayer support to Java games, and as a toolkit for Java developers (SNAP is one of the first third party pieces of code that make it into Sun’s Java Toolkit, not counting the JSR’s). It also offers a white label solution to networks and allowed them to get a piece of the action in mobile gaming.

Where most networks' only continuing income from an N-Gage owner is the GPRS charges, the SNAP system allows users to be charged a subscription fee. Or a per turn fee. It really is up to the networks – and it’ll be through the networks (initially) that these games will be available. The backend of the system will still run on Nokia’s server bank (most probably in San Francisco) where the Arena is also physically located. Nokia made a lot of noise about mobile gaming in the past few years, and while people poo-poo the N-Gage, the benefits of the programme are being reaped. A stable, scalable multiplayer gaming platform. Games that can be played in depth for hours, or in a few minutes when hanging around. In fact, as a gaming platform for people on the move (as opposed to a handheld platform that assumes you’re at home on the sofa) Nokia are starting to show their true colours. And all of those colours have been proven, in the field, with a massive test using every N-Gage owner.

 

Putting them up against the heavyweights gives a raw number of roughly 4 million N-Gages shipped, against 17 million PSP’s and a comparable number of Nintendo DS. But now ask yourself another question. How many S60 phones are going to ship in the next 12 months? Maybe 50 million? How many of them are going to be able to play these next generation of mobile games? Maybe 30 or 40 million?  Those numbers are standing up pretty well against Sony and Nintendo now, aren’t they?

And of couse Nokia aren’t selling the phones as loss-leaders. That role has been passed onto the networks – and with SNAP, Nokia have provided them another revenue stream to recoup that subsidy.

So yes, please carry on and have a giggle at the N-Gage. I can see a lot of people treating Nokia as a bumbling magician, but never forget that magician can always turn round and suddenly produce five tanks, on stage, apparently from nothing.

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Platforms: Series 60, N-Gage, N-Gage

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