**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.
