N-Gage Pre E3
Nokia’s press conference before E3 holds a few interesting bits of news
Tags: e3 2005 Categories: Features, N-Gage Features
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on May 17th, 2005
Nokia held their pre-E3 press conference the night before the show officially began, and while the previous 2 years have seen the company plagued with a myriad of technical problems, this year saw a different type of problem rear its head – that of logistics. This being their third year in the business, it is now possible to see a pattern and track record emerge, and many things are starting to improve in Nokia’s overall presentations, but there are still some things that just don’t seem to change over time.
Let’s bust out the things that went wrong, just to get them out of the way. Thankfully, the list is much shorter this year. The first Nokia E3 press event 2 years ago was held in a large venue with a stage and banks of N-Gages to either side. Last year the venue was smaller, but a round stage was surrounded by several rows of seats with N-Gage QD kiosks. This year the venue was again smaller, but arranged in a manner that was even worse. A rectangular room somewhat arranged as a movie theater – though much narrower. This wouldn’t be so bad, except for the fact that there were columns in the middle providing an obstructed view. Sure, there were video monitors to show what was happening on stage, but the venue was small enough that it should not have been this way.
So, what did go right? With technical problems running rampant the previous years, thankfully Nokia didn’t suffer any this year. This was party due to things running smoothly, but also because they kept things short. I didn’t keep track of the time, but it seemed to be over in less than 30 minutes.
Gerard Wiener, the head of Nokia’s games business conducted the presentation – and was the sole person from Nokia. This was an odd move, but one that helped to speed things up and give the information that needed to be given. He mentioned that Nokia has gone from 0 units sold to 1.6 million sold in less than 2 years. While many would not view that as a high number, when looking at the fact that the N-Gage isn’t just competing against traditional handhelds, but all mobile phones as well, that doesn’t seem too bad of an accomplishment.
Pathway to Glory: Ikusa Islands was announced. Set in the Pacific Theater of WWII, the game will feature single player as well as co-op action in addition to the online play. Naturally there will be new troops and weapons.
Wiener then presented what Nokia has done as a pioneer in the handheld gamespace. Accomplishments included viral game distribution via Bluetooth and the online play with N-Gage Arena. Then he talked about what was coming to the N-Gage Arena: Clans, invites, user created tournaments, and always being connected.
Other games that are coming include System Rush, a racing game, One, the 3D fighting game, High Sieze, a Caribbean pirate strategy game with 4 players via Bluetooth support as well as 6 players via the N-Gage arena. There is also the lifestyle racing game Glimmeratti on the way, and it was noted that it is the only game to get a “3+” rating in Germany, while garnering an “M” rating in North America. X-Men Legends 2 is also on the way.
Then the talk moved to expanding the N-Gage family. Nokia is looking at instead of taking their myriad of phones and paring the number down, will instead make N-Gage games available for Nokia Smartphones. Other advances coming include a revamping of the N-Gage arena to allow for game purchase as well as demos (keyed to a timed limit) directly via the phone.
Nokia is planning to hold an event later this year with new information on pricing for a new platform as well as games that will be available. It would appear that Nokia means to stay in the handheld market, and could be making improvements to actually make people take the N-Gage more seriously.
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: e3 2005
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on May 17th, 2005 and is filed under Features, N-Gage Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
