The First Sign Of Trouble For N-Gage
**Update** (5-23-08) It looks like the Nokia Conversations blog was able to get in touch with those higher up and confirm that the N-Gage team has seen how big of a deal this is. An interim solution will be to allow Nokia Care to handle IMEI switches for any reason, while a better solution is in the works for a later date. I feel as though it’s ’safe’ to purchase N-Gage games now, and will actually be buying Snakes Subsonic and Creatures of the Deep today. Great job, Nokia, though a bit of a delay in the response.**
I’m such a big fan of Nokia’s N-Gage gaming platform, I’ve decided I’m going to purchase Creatures of the Deep, and will also purchase (against my gut) Snakes Subsonic when it comes out sometime this week. However, there’s a problem preventing me from making these two purchases. I currently have 2 N-Gage compatible handsets - the Nokia N95-3, and the black Nokia N82. I honestly haven’t decided which I like the best, and the Nokia N78 seems to be coming soon, and it will have US 3G support. So, which phone should I purchase my games from?
Luckily, at the Nokia Go Play event in London last year, when N-Gage was announced, I (and a few other bloggers) made it a point to ask the N-Gage representatives about this specific problem. What happens if I’ve bought a few N-Gage games, and I get a new phone? Will I be able to transfer those games somehow to my new handset? The answer, then, was a direct ‘yes’, the games licenses would be tied to your N-Gage account and all would be well. Fantastic, Nokia!
Er…except for apparently, that’s not the case. It seems that AllAboutN-Gage has done some investigating about this, and now the official stance from Nokia is that no, your N-Gage game licenses are tied to your phone’s IMEI, and that, unless your phone is replaced under Nokia’s warranty, you can’t transfer that license to a new phone. **Edit** I don’t believe that the N-Gage reps at the Go Play event were deliberately lying about the process. I like to wear rose-colored glasses, and think that, at one point, this profile setup was planned, but somewhere along the line it was scrapped, and they didn’t think it would be a big deal. We still need to make it known that we’re not ok with this as end-users, but I don’t think it was deliberate by any measure.
Wait, WHAT’S THAT? So, you’re saying that if I purchase and activate Snakes Subsonic on my Nokia N95-3, which I bought with my own money, and then later this year, I go out and spend more of my own money on the Nokia N96, with its dedicated gaming keys, Nokia is going to want me to shell out the money for Snakes Subsonic AGAIN? How does that possibly make sense?
Don’t worry, it doesn’t. AllAboutN-Gage put together a list of 10 reasons why this is a really, really, REALLY daft policy, and I agree 300%. By locking these games down to a single IMEI, they’re telling people, “Hey, don’t upgrade your high-end Nokia Nseries -handset until you absolutely have to, because you’re not going to get to keep your N-Gage games.” All this is going to do is DISCOURAGE people from getting newer handsets more often, just for Nokia to get another ~$11. How on earth does this make sense?
So, if I think it’s such a horrid idea, do I at least have a suggestion to fix it? Abso-freakin-lutely.
1. USE MY N-GAGE PROFILE - to really get the use out of N-Gage, I had to create a profile, that’s tied to my points and friends list and all. Why not tie the game licenses to this account? That way, when I get a new handset, I login, click ‘update licenses’, and wa-la! Easy peasy, I’m back in action on my slick new handset. No muss, no fuss. To prevent people from ’sharing’, just make it so that accounts can only be logged into one IMEI at a time, like the current SlingboxMobile client. If I set N-Gage up on my N95-3, and then get a new N82, and login from there, the N95-3 is automatically logged-out and de-activated. I could then switch back and forth between my handsets freely, simply reactivating on whatever phone I want to use. I’d be discouraged from passing out my username/password to my buddies, because it would then kick me off whenever they use it. Simple, and, that’s how it was supposed to be from the beginning.
As Dotsisx chimes in:
I can’t take the Mobipocket model out of my mind. Why? Because as far as I have seen, Mobipocket has the best anti-piracy strategy ever. What is it? Mobipocket is a website dedicated for ebooks, and they have put down a great DRM system.
First, you register an account on their website, and download the free ebook reader on your device. You can then check the “About” section and get your PID (Personal ID). This PID is generated by the reader for your particular device. Now you go to the website and open the “My devices” tab, where you add your device type and its PID. You only have 4 device slots functional at any given time, this involves the computer, the PDA, the phone, the laptop, because MobiReader runs on all of these. Once you add this PID, you can head to the Bookshelf and download the ebooks, which will ONLY work on the devices whose PID was registered at the time of the download. Each month, you are allowed to delete one device and add another.
The system is complicated but it’s unbelievably brilliant, because I have yet to run into any pirated Mobipocket ebook (and trust me, I have LOOKED). All free books you will find for Mobipocket were either built for free, either converted from a pirated PDF or DOC, but none was pirated from Mobipocket itself.
The way I see it, is that N-Gage can tie the game purchase to the player name, and allow 2 IMEIs (instead of 4 PIDs) to be registered at the same time because let’s face it, many users have 2 phones or more at any given time. When you launch N-Gage on your phone and log into your account, it checks what games have been bought by this player name, then checks the IMEI to see if it’s one of the two registered with this player name. Each month, you are allowed to go into your account, delete one IMEI and add another. That would be absolutely brilliant, and I believe a bit hard to pirate.
So, what can you do? Other than blog about it (if you have a blog), there’s a thread on the official N-Gage forums, which you can find here. Voice your opinion there. It’s important to centralize your voice and let them know that this is a completely silly implementation.
The linked-to-profile solution is so obviously the best one, I just don’t understand why Nokia abandoned it after Go Play (we did suggest such a solution too in our article, and many people have previously asked for it on the official N-Gage forums as well).
Linking games to profiles would also eliminate the need for individual game activation codes, because the Nokia server could simply keep a record of which games you’ve purchased and activate them automatically when you log in. It would actually make it much easier to purchase and reinstall games, improving the overall N-Gage experience.
As long as the games only work on one phone at a time, such a system can’t possibly help piracy, so it’s difficult to see why Nokia and/or third party publishers would be worried about it.
Maybe Nokia ran into a technical hitch over it? Who knows… the point is they shouldn’t have started selling games until they’d solved this issue. You cannot let people buy phone games and then expect them to re-buy them when they upgrade to a newer model, especially when it’s one of your models that you’ve made a big fat profit from.
This makes perfect sense because Nokia is run by chimps.
The Mobipocket model was the first thing that came to mind for me as well. Hell, even the iTunes model works similaarly (the whole 5 computers thing). I’ve used mobipocket on a ton of phones (have it on all blackberry and symbian phones I’ve owned), and it’s a dead simple process to delete one and add another.
Stupid stupid stupid Nokia, and F you for lying to us in the first place.
-olly
This finishes everything. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?
N-gage already does NOT run on my N82, giving the kern-exec 3 error. I am patiently waiting for a fix, having not received a reply from N-gage support. And now this.
You know what? I think just like Gameloft did with Asphalt, other makers will also come out with non-N-gage version of their games to be able to run on Nokia as well as S-E Symbian handsets.
That would be Divine justice.
olly, I also thought of the iTunes model, but being that I haven’t actually used it, i couldn’t take it as an example, but it’s as relevant as mobipocket. It’s actually so obvious I am startled as to why they haven’t done it :s
So, if i get that right, Nokia limits the licenses to the imei, no matter what account? Let´s say, i purchase one of the games, delete everything, create another account, the game will still be full version because of the imei? If so, they would be quite stupid. In times where it is way easier changing your imei than signing a freeware application, Nokia should search for another plan to avoid piracy. ^_^
“think that, at one point, this profile setup was planned, but somewhere along the line it was scrapped,”
It was definitely planned, AAS/AAN heard reps saying exactly the same thing. The official N-Gage forums’ moderators are STILL saying some kind of game transfer system is planned, if you read between the lines.
Who knows what the actual decision makers think though. Hopefully the totally negative reaction to this news will convince them to reconsider.
I agree with the posts before me.
However I can also see their concern as I myself own several N-gage compatible phones.
On my little brothers N95 I have been using the same activation code as the games on my N82
(games I bought during First Access, in that time I owned the N95).
I thought it was quite nice that games I bought for my one phone could be used with another one that I own.
The systems mentioned such as those used in iTunes and Mobipocket would of course be the best.
Currently however the cost of one game here in Norway is 60 to 80 NOK which is about the same amount for a pack of cigarettes.
That is not the biggest sum, but taken the fact that you buy a new handset for 6 to 7000 NOK (without subscription) and the cost of the games it comes to solid total amount.
Bounding it to the IMEI number is not a too farfetched idea implementing the options to manually input an IMEI number of your devices. The solution of only using one device at a time is also ok with me. (Games I think are worth the money, I will buy).
The transferal of license on N-gage er currently not available either for “normal” people or more advanced power users.
Copying files from restricted folders (available after hacking) and copy those files to another device won’t make the games on the other phone full.
This also would lead as mentioned to lower sales of new devices. (Planned to buy the N96 when it comes).
All in all not the best market strategy.
Offtopic:
talhamid - you mentioned that it doesn’t work on your N82.
Remember that “registry files” and other files are resident in N82 even after you uninstall things.
I for instance had problems at first and uninstall and install didn’t work.
The only solution for me was to reset with *#7370#.
Note that you’ll lose everything on your phone. So take a decent backup first.
If you are more advanced and have hacked your phone you could enter the “sys” and “resource” directories on c: (phone memory) and browse through the folders there, deleting ngage related files.
However this could prove to be hard as I myself didn’t manage that, but definetely worth a try if you don’t want to reinstall all your programs and manage settings on your phone.
(I managed to fix a problem with opera mini 4 by doing that. However java midlets are not so hard as they are all gathered in one folder.).
It doesn’t help matters any if you buy a few games for a phone you expected them to work on only to find out later that your phone isn’t compatible yet. Nokia has definitely gone about this the wrong way.
this sucks. I have a n95 nd want 2 purchase system rush nd creatures of the deep. Wich will cost me just of R100-00 here in south africa. Plan on getting the n96 when we get it here. now i dont quite wana waste my money if i cant transfere the purchased games to the new handset. I am disgustd with the monkeys making the decision @ nokia. They shud respect there clients enuf 2 make sure all is in order b4 selling the games. Nokia monkeys u suck. Whats more important selling new handsets or making a few xtra dollars on the wasted game licenses?
nickyb68,
As Ricky cleared it out, after the buzz about this issue, Nokia Conversations as well as the N-Gage Blog both replied saying that licenses WILL be transferable between devices. They are working on it.
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