Eclipse Interactive: N-Gage is ‘the red-headed stepchild of the mobile industry’
And Les Ellis slams Nokia for lack of community support
In a Pocket Gamer interview with Manchester-based developer Eclipse Interactive, founder Nic Garner had strong words for Nokia’s much maligned N-Gage platform. Speaking to our own Damien McFerran, Garner had this to say:
“To my mind, N-Gage always was, and will remain, the red-headed stepchild of the mobile industry: it always promised great things, consistently disappointed, and is now reduced to little more than an annoying problem that unfortunately becomes your annoying problem occasionally.”
Spicy stuff indeed. Co-founder Les Ellis expanded on the issue of where exactly the Finnish giants have gone wrong:
“If Nokia had supported N-Gage and the development community properly instead of just lurching from one nightmare to the next then it would be a great format to make money from. Right now, unless you're EA or Gameloft, it's just more pain than it's worth.”
Ellis pointed to the likes of Reset Generation as evidence that Nokia could "do good stuff," but said that "to date the N-Gage and Nokia experiences we have had have been the most painful a games developer could go through."
On a conciliatory note, Nic Garner hopes that Nokia can turn things around, as he claims to take "no joy in seeing entities with promise fail".
For more straight talking on iPhone, Android and their own origins, head over to parts one and two of the interview.
