As part of the launch of Games On Deck we investigate what may be the biggest story in the mobile games industry this year: the return of the N-Gage platform. In the first of a series of interviews with Nokia executives (with two more to come later this month) we talked to Nokia's director of games publishing, Gregg Sauter.
GamesOnDeck: What does the new N-Gage platform mean for mobile gamers and the industry?
Gregg Sauter: The N-Gage platform will provide a premium gaming experience to consumers and will help this industry evolve and mature - which it needs to. So now you may be asking what "premium" means. The platform is established on the Nokia S60 platform and will therefore be available across a large proportion of Nokia S60 devices in the coming years starting mid 2007. These devices are essentially multimedia computers which means they combine a range of functions (e.g. games, music, photos, video email, Internet browsing) in a single connected device and are natively programmable. The games will be coded in C++, so these will be native games, providing the richest gaming experience possible on mobile handsets. This is a plus for consumers, publishers and operators because it finally brings the industry a broad platform for native, connected games. This will be a global platform with multiple digital distribution channels. The other benefit for publishers is that we expect this platform to solve many of the fragmentation issues (device & user experience) that we are all facing.
At the core of the N-Gage experience is an on-device application that delivers the most robust, easy to use and consistent user experience seen thus far in the industry. It allows the user to discover great games and connect with their friends in an easy, consistent, reliable way, regardless of where they live or what operator they use. This experience will increase the value that consumers put on mobile games and therefore increase purchases and industry revenue.
GOD: What lessons would you say Nokia has learned from the previous incarnation of the N-Gage for the new platform?
GS: The original N-Gage delivered some of the best mobile games to date and offered up the first global mobile games community and multiplayer offering. We had over 500,000 users on five continents. Despite this success, this industry needs big volumes to drive significant revenue and a phone with a form factor that is meant specifically for gaming has a harder time reaching big volumes. Therefore, it was a natural move for us to evolve and leverage all the good things from the original N-Gage and roll out a new platform across a large portfolio of devices and reach a global audience very quickly. The other thing we saw was the emerging opportunities in digital distribution, especially with mobile networks becoming faster, home broadband becoming very common, WiFi in devices etc.
GOD: Why have you decided to keep the N-Gage branding?
GS: We spent a lot of time looking at this issue and at the end of the day we let users decide. What they told us was this:
The N-Gage received some of the highest consumer satisfaction ratings we have seen with Nokia devices. Gamers that bought it loved it and the majority was comfortable with the concept of N-Gage evolving, in terms of user experience and overall offering. Those that did not buy it were for the most part neutral. We do a lot of consumer research here, including brand research - the Nokia brand is the # 6 brand in the world - and all of our research tells us that we would be much better off leveraging the positives of N-Gage instead of re-inventing a whole new brand.
