N-Gage dies. Part 2: Nokia informs the relatives, answers questions
It's a very difficult time
In the wake of the news that N-Gage has finally been put on what NHS doctors like to call a 'care of the dying pathway,' Nokia has published a blog post addressing any queries and concerns that N-Gage gamers may have.
You can go and read the message on the N-Gage blog, but to save you the trouble here it is more or less in full:
What will happen to N-Gage Arena?
N-Gage Arena will remain in operation throughout 2010 and players can e.g. keep posting their high scores until then. We understand that people value the ability to manage their games and communicate about them, and we are working on offering such community elements through Ovi. Games publishers are free to use community features of their choosing in their apps, the feature set is not defined by Nokia. Social Networking applications are some of the most downloaded on Ovi Store, emphasing the power of connecting people.
What will happen to my games?
Your games are safe - all your purchased N-Gage games will continue to work on your N-Gage compatible mobile device and they’re yours to keep. However, community features of the games will not be functional after 2010.
Do you have plans to bring community elements to the Ovi Store gaming experience?
Yes, we understand how important community is to our gamers. You can already post reviews of games and other apps in the Ovi Store. We are actively working on offering more community elements through Ovi and we encourage developers to use community features in their applications. Stay tuned – there’s more to come on this.
Why doesn’t Nokia keep N-Gage as a separate gaming platform?
As mobile gaming evolves and begins to encompass social gaming, we want to offer one store front with an even broader portfolio of games – games for everyone. It’s much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile games, and this it what Ovi Store https://store.ovi.com/games provides. Mobile gaming is one of the most popular activities in the Ovi Store, with games being the #2 most downloaded category for premium content. And besides having all mobile games in one place, people can access other services like Mail, Maps, Music and many more via www.ovi.com.
What will happen to N-Gage.com?
The N-Gage.com site will remain in operation throughout 2010, with the exception of the N-Gage Store which will remain open until the end of September 2010. However, we recommend people to visit Ovi Store to play the latest games – many familiar games and so much more.
We will continue to sell devices with N-Gage application pre-installed for some time, however we will no longer ship new devices with the application pre-installed.
Games will be available through the Ovi Store which is already supported by 100 Nokia device models and growing. Ovi Store will be pre-installed on most new compatible Nokia devices including Symbian S60 & Series 40 from Q4 2009.
