Nokia talks up plans, pricing and November arrival of new games service
Nokia says its revamped N-Gage service will become "the largest mobile gaming platform in the market by far" and create "a new industry" for developers and publishers at a press event in London this morning.
The service - which uses has a single focus on digital distribution, offers try before you buy options and is backed by a raft of industry partners (including EA, Capcom, I-Play and others) - is due for roll-out in November.
The N-Gage application will be available to all Nokia's N-series devices - which have already sold 40 million units in total.
Such "instant backwards compatibility" will provide a "huge market attractive to publishers" said Anssi Janjoki, executive vice president and general manager of multimedia at Nokia who has headed up the company's new web-centric service strategies.
Nokia also said that the games software would cost €10 a piece, with gamers allowed access to daily and monthly rental options for games.
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The games push is just one part of the company's new 'Ovi' strategy, which adds a number of service-driven elements to its phones, covering games, music and maps. Nokia is aiming to drastically change its business strategy from one focused on devices to one that addresses how mobile and social internet applications can work together.
"We are transforming Nokia into an internet-driven experiences company," explained Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. "The internet is immediately becoming a space of immediate personal experiences.
"We are thinking beyond the devices," he added. "Devices alone are not enough anymore - people want a complete experience."
The Finnish firm is also introducing a new N-Series phone, the N81, that will be a corner-stone of Ovi's web-based commerce functions and provides a new iPod-like scrolling user interface.
I'm not convinced by this new strategy. I understand the reasoning behind it, and why they've essentially mimicked Xbox Live - a little silly, but mostly a good move - but I don't think anyone will, for one second, take Nokia and the N-Gage name seriously given all the bad things from before that are associated with it.
Their movement toward massive online service and offerings was inevitable I think. Only a matter of time before that became a main focus and revenue generator. As it should be of course, other companies are also moving in that direction. If They may be moving faster or more aggressively than other companies are at this time, but I think it takes a company like Nokia to do that. When companies (that are known for pushing technology) start taking baby steps or move slowly, people lose interest and they lose money. Whether or not OVI is a huge hit in the near future remains to be seen, but you'd better believe that such things ARE the future, and other companies will soon be following.
