Nokia confirms N-Gage launch

News

Stuart O'Brien Apr 7 2008, 10:06am

System Rush, Asphalt 3: Street Rules and World Series of Poker Pro Challenge lead games line-up.

After we predicted the news last Tuesday and Nokia let slip on it's blog on Thursday, the Finnish company has now officially confirmed the launch of its next-gen N-Gage mobile games platform.

The news follows an eight week 'First Access' beta phase, during which Nokia says 'tens of thousands' of N81 owners from 100 countries downloaded a stripped-down N-Gage app.

The full version of N-Gage is initially compatible with three devices: Nokia N81 (inc N81 8GB), N82, N95 (inc N95 8GB).

Five games from three publishers are available from today (priced £6-£8), including:

Brain Challenge (Gameloft)
Asphalt 3: Street Rules (Gameloft)
World Series of Poker Pro Challenge (Glu Mobile)
Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep (Nokia Publishing)
System Rush: Evolution (Nokia Publishing)

Nokia says these will be 'followed closely' by:

FIFA 08 (EA Mobile)
Tetris (EA Mobile)
The Sims 2 Pets (EA Mobile)
Block Breaker Deluxe (Gameloft)
Dogz (Gameloft)
Snakes Subsonic (Nokia Publishing)
Space Impact: Kappa Base (Nokia Publishing)
Mile High Pinball (Nokia Publishing)

N-Gage offers a raft of community and tournament functionality, in addition to letting gamers try any game for free before for buying. Games can be downloaded either over the air or sideloaded from a PC.

Other N-Gage games announced by Nokia without a release date include:

Digital Chocolate: DChoc Café Solitaire 12-Pack, DChoc Café
Sudoku,and DChoc Café Hold' Em Poker.
EA Mobile: Tiger Woods PGA TOUR.
Gameloft: Brothers In Arms, Brain Challenge, Midnight Pool and Dogz.
Glu Mobile: The Dark Knight and Super Slam Ping Pong.
I-play: Super Mah Jong and World Rally Championship.
Nokia Publishing: Bounce Boing Voyage, Creebies, Dirk Dagger
and the Fallen Idol, Pro Series Golf, ONE and Yamake.
THQ Wireless: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Worms World Party.
Vivendi Games Mobile: Crash Bandicoot.