Game over for Nokia's N-Gage…again

Nokia announced it will shut down its N-Gage mobile gaming effort, and will instead market and sell games through its Ovi Store content marketplace. According to Nokia, consumers can continue purchasing N-Gage titles until the end of Sept. 2010, with the handset giant terminating all associated community features at year's end--all N-Gage games will continue to work on compatible mobile devices past late-2010, with Nokia adding it is working to offer more community-themed elements through Ovi Store. Nokia adds it will continue selling devices pre-installed with N-Gage, but will no longer ship new devices embedded with the application. Ovi Store will be pre-installed on most new compatible Nokia devices including Symbian S60 and Series 40 from Q4 2009.

"We want to offer one storefront with an even broader portfolio of games--games for everyone," explains the N-Gage blog. "It's much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile games, and this it what Ovi Store provides. Mobile gaming is one of the most popular activities in the Ovi Store, with games being the #2 most downloaded category for premium content."

Nokia first introduced the N-Gage brand with the 2003 release of a mobile phone/handheld gaming system--two years later, the firm announced it would transition all N-Gage gaming capabilities to smartphones, officially relaunching the platform in late 2007.

For more on N-Gage's demise:
- read this N-Gage blog entry

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