PocketGamer Sits Down With N-Gage Head Honcho
PocketGamer’s Stuart Dredge recently sat down with Jaakko Kaidesoja, Nokia’s VP of Games, to chat about the N-Gage platform and how things are going. The interview was held prior to last week’s bruhaha regarding gamers’ ability to transfer a game license from one handset from the other (hint: you will be able to, but not yet). Jaakko says that Nokia is pleased with the launch thus far, and was really pleased with the First Access program and the feedback that they received through that.
One thing that I thought was interesting is that Nokia is actively tracking not only what countries are downloading the most free trials of games, but also which countries are purchasing games, and what the ratio is to trial - purchase. Kaidesoja mentions that billing mechanisms have alot to do with the conversion rate, which might hopefully prompt the Finland-based handset manufacturer to add PayPal support as a payment option.
Jaakko also states that Nokia will soon begin heavily promoting N-Gage throughout the Nseries and into other handset lines. Promotional tools could include a full license of a game being included in the box, or a certain selection of games pre-installed, depending on the target of the handset itself.
I was also pleased to see Stuart grill Kaidesoja on the recent batch of game titles, pointing out that most are simply glorified JAVA ports from the big game developers. Jaakko acknowledged this, and also recognized that Nokia is going to need to do something significant to differentiate the N-Gage version from the JAVA version of a given game. He states that such differences will be in graphics and gameplay, with N-Gage-only abilities and features on certain titles.
PocketGamer also asked Jaakko about the possibility of ad-funded N-Gage games, and the Nokian promptly dismissed ad-funded games, stating that they would only serve to lower the consumer’s expectations of N-Gage, and cheapen the experience, and I have to say I agree. I’ve yet to see a really decent ad-funded video game, despite the 800+ titles recently available on Nokia’s MOSH service.
What’s your take on N-Gage, and the things that Stuart and Jaakko chatted about? Does the future look bright?
That should be Jaakko, not Jakko (and yes it’s misspelled also in the article you quote).
Corrected, thanks Matti.