Dis-N-Gage

Looks like Nokia has finally recognized reality and pulled the plug on the N-Gage service (posting explaining it on their N-Gage blog here; see news report with analysis here). Of course, they're positioning it as merely a move to put their games into the Ovi Store (Nokia's answer to the App Store), though admitting that any community features for N-Gage games are going away, as are the hardware platforms. One commenter says "It's a sad day for N-Gage fans." Yeah, all three of them.

It was pretty clear to anyone with a cerebral cortex that N-Gage was a flop shortly after launch. Nokia gamely kept trying (note: always assumes puns are intentional on this blog), but they were never able to make the N-Gage anything more than an obscure gaming footnote about on par with Virtual Boy. Playing games on a postage stamp size screen never seemed to attract buyers for some reason. But Nokia continued to pour in money and marketing effort well after the corpse had been buried. The huge booth they had at this year's Game Developer's Conference was an amazing example of marketing dollars wasted. Nokia stocked the booth with a bevy of models in skintight white spandex and spike heels. Naturally there was a huge crowd of guys blocking the aisles around Nokia's booth... all staring at the Autodesk projection screens next door showing new features for 3D Studio Max.

If you can't attract game developers with hot babes in spandex, ain't nothing gonna help you.