Nokia N-Gage Summit: EA points out the problems

Posted by Adam Bunker on Wed 29 Oct 2008

EA is none too happy with Nokia's N-Gage gaming platform

Peter Parmenter, Director Worldwide OEM, and Chris Gibbs, Executive Producer from EA, took to the stage today at Nokia's N-Gage Summit in a keynote speech designed to point out some of the system's flaws, and they didn't pull any punches.

Whilst Permenter began positively - suggesting that gaming as a whole overtook music revenue in 2007 - he was quick to correct himself; adding that he believes "games are not the new music". Things seemed to go steadily downhill from then on for the Finnish phone maker, as the two EA bigwigs barraged the N-Gage platform.

According to Parmenter, the Apple iPhone delivers a "great eco-system for the distribution of great quality games", whereas N-Gage can produce a somewhat jarred experience by comparison.

He later added that following a muted 'soft launch' in April, N-Gage is trying hard to fix its "stifled retail experience". Furthermore, the games have been selling at the wrong prices for the market, and that from a publisher's point of view, it is "easier to get an audience with the pope than it is to get a game through certification with Nokia".

Gibbs was equally forlorn, suggesting that the platform still had "quite a few challenges to solve". He cited compatibility problems between constantly improving handsets and lack of a supportive handset strategy from Nokia as main obstacles.

The presentation was so negative that Pocketgamer's Stuart Dredge claimed it was as if "they'd come to the party and pooped on the sofa". Quite.

Link: Nokia N-Gage