N-gage games next generation

Besides spankingly-attractive 3D games, connectivity will be one of the key selling points of the new platform. You'll be able to post high scores, write your own reviews of games, and do a host of other community-related stuff. And now if you look at Web 2. So why not games? The community features of the next-gen N-Gage platform sound similar to Xbox Live, which Kaidesoja admits, although he points out that Nokia and Microsoft reached the same conclusions about what makes a good gaming community separately, rather than one cribbing from the other.

The key difference, he says, is that full online multiplayer will take longer to grow on mobile than it has on console, particularly when players are on mobile tariffs with pricey data charges. That said, Nokia's recently-conducted survey into mobile gaming found that multiplayer is growing faster in countries like India, where mobile phones may actually be a console substitute for people who can't afford a PS2, let alone a PS3.

As he says this, he swizzles his N93 round to show the TV-out port, pointing out that you can plug it into your TV and play games on a big screen — a feature that may come into its own once the new platform launches with its whizzy 3D games.

So what else is happening chez Nokia in the realm of games? Kaidesoja says that the company is focusing on building a decent catalog of games for the new platform, and particularly ensuring there's lots that will appeal to casual gamers, as well as the hardcore types. So far, Nokia has signed up EA and Gameloft and a bunch of developers, but Kaidesoja says more publishers are on the way, while Nokia will continue to publish its own games too.

We've kept this article here for archive purposes, but if you want to find out all the latest information about the Next Generation of N-Gage, please visit our dedicated N-Gage site All About N-Gage, which has all the latest news and information about Next Gen N-Gage games and the phones that are compatible with the platform. With official announcements about Nokia's Next Generation gaming platform expected soon, this article will take a look at what we might hear based on what has already been revealed to the public.

Because of this uncertainty, this article will refer to the next generation replacement for the current N-Gage as "the Next Gen platform". The original "classic" N-Gage launched in and was discontinued in when the redesigned but same generation N-Gage QD model replaced it.

The QD has itself just been discontinued in , and there are no first generation N-Gage games in development any more. The last release for the first generation was Payload, which was released this month as a download in the N-Gage Game Shop along with other First Party games.

The first generation of N-Gage is being wound up in preparation for the Next Gen platform appearing some time in the first half of You will still be able to buy first generation N-Gage games made by Nokia as downloads from the Game Shop however.

The hardware used by the original N-Gage is evolving, not disappearing. There was no specialist gaming hardware whatsoever used in the N-Gage or QD, and their games were technically speaking Symbian S60 smartphone games that's why pirated N-Gage games could run on other S60 smartphones from the same period such as the Nokia The Next Gen platform will consist of a range of Nokia S60 3rd Edition smartphones, using the latest software and hardware.

The processors will be three or four times faster than the N-Gage, they will have far more RAM, and some or all of them may have 3D graphics chips. For more details see the section below on Next Gen hardware.

Current generation games will probably not work on the Next Gen. New smartphones no longer have MMC-sized memory card slots, they use much smaller miniSD and microSD cards so current gen N-Gage gamecards simply won't fit in the new phones' slots. For various technical reasons S60 3rd Edition isn't backwards compatible with 1st Edition, so the games written for N-Gage and QD won't work on 3rd Edition smartphones.

The Next Gen gaming platform is a software application that will come pre-installed on an as-yet-unknown number of the latest Nokia Symbian S60 3rd Edition smartphones, and there will also be some kind of PC Suite application to complement it. The software will allow people to buy Next Gen games as downloads directly onto their smartphone through 3G or wi-fi, or they can buy the games as downloads onto their PC and then transfer them to the phone, similar to the way that people buy music on their PC and transfer it to their iPods.

The application will also allow downloads of free demos, and probably rentals of games as cheap time-limited downloads. The games can be paid for using phone credit, through the user's phone bill, or with a credit or debit card.

There are also indications that download vouchers similar to those used for buying phone credit will be available at game and phone shops, so people could also buy Next Gen games with cash. Moving away from the downloads, the Next Gen application also has extensive community facilities, allowing users to send messages to friends, view message boards, leave and read reviews of games, challenge people to online game matches, and see which games other people have so they know who to challenge.

The original generation of N-Gage back in launched the first ever mobile online gaming community, N-Gage Arena , which is very similar to the Xbox Live service and offers a similar range of options such as online gameplay, message boards, chat rooms, demo downloads, playing tips etc. This network allows many different kinds of devices to play games together, and has in the past been used to power PS2 online games as well as N-Gage ones. The similar names have caused some confusion, and Nokia should have probably used a different name for their Java range, but there you go The Next Gen platform will be spread over a number of different S60 3rd Edition smartphones, although we don't know which ones yet.

The Next Gen software will be very much a feature of the devices rather than a main brand, most people buying these smartphones will be buying them for the phone first and the games second. That may sound strange, but smartphones outsell consoles worldwide by a considerable margin, and the userbase for games on smartphones is potentially bigger than that for any console. It's also similar to the way the computer games industry started in the first place on the desktop. The exact details of the devices that will support the Next Gen platform are unclear.

No announcement has ever been made by Nokia about exactly which devices will support the Next Gen platform, except that they will be Symbian S60 smartphones.

The original N-Gage and N-Gage QD were completely standard Symbian S60 1st Edition smartphones, and despite their marketing image they possessed no gaming-specific hardware except for their horizontal casing, so it was assumed that the Next Gen platform would follow a similar formula but have advanced graphics purely due to the much faster processors and larger amounts of RAM that the latest S60 phones possess.

However, it now appears that at least some of the phones that will support the Next Gen platform might possess gaming hardware, as some of Nokia's latest smartphones are equipped with 3D graphics acceleration chips, which allow faster and smoother 3D than the phone's main processor alone.

If these 3D chips are intended for use with the Next Gen platform, then we can make an intelligent guess about two of the phone models that might support the Next Gen: the Nokia N93 and the Nokia N Supporting this theory is the fact that the N93 comes pre-loaded with a demo of one of the next generation games, a sci-fi racer called System Rush Evolution which clearly makes good use of the 3D chip the demo can be installed on other S60 3rd Edition phones without 3D chips but it runs unplayably slowly on them.

Interestingly, the N93 and N95 also contain TV Out sockets which can be used to play games or surf the web, or any other function of the phone on television sets, with the phone itself acting as the joypad and games system rolled into one. Perhaps this might become another standard feature of the Next Gen platform?

In the past this wasn't really an option because phones had such low screen resolutions, but the latest models are good enough to display on a TV and getting better all the time.

As a prelude to going open source, the Symbian OS is now available free of charge to any manufacturer who wants to use it in their phones, with no need to pay any royalty payments. The latest version of S60 is S60 5th Edition, and is used by the Nokia and N97 touchscreen smartphones. The N97 is due to be N-Gage compatible at launch, but it's unclear whether the will ever be N-Gage compatible.

Ovi, N-Gage, related name and Nokia based marks and logos are trade marks of Nokia. This website is not in any way endorsed by Nokia, N-Gage or Ovi. What IS the new N-Gage? Is it a new games console? What is the Next Gen N-Gage? What is N-Gage 2. They're the same thing as the new N-Gage platform. When did the new N-Gage platform launch? Which phones are compatible with the new N-Gage platform? What about the N73, N93 and N93i?

Will Nokia's upcoming touchscreen phones work with N-Gage? Yes, at least some of them will be N-Gage-compatible. N-Gage has already launched? How do I get it on my phone? What about Ovi Store? How is that related to N-Gage? What's the latest version of the N-Gage application? Are they the same things as the N-Gage application? Where do I buy new N-Gage games? How much do the games cost? How do I pay for them?

What if I change phones? What if my phone is destroyed or lost? Can I still keep my next gen N-Gage games? What is N-Gage Arena? How powerful is the new N-Gage hardware? Does it use 3D accelerator chips? Which N-Gage-compatible phones have 3D graphics chips?

What screen resolution is Next Gen N-Gage? Is it a vertical or horizontal screen? Which companies are publishing games on the platform? How do I make suggestions for improvements and changes to the N-Gage platform? Alternatively you might try publishing your games yourself through Ovi Store. What happened to the original generation classic N-Gage? Will my old N-Gage game cards work on the next gen N-Gage compatible phones? As well as the new N-Gage games, can I install other games and applications on an N-Gage-compatible phone?

Yes, lots.